Watch the Interview

My name is Mary Boone, and my husband’s name is Richard Ingraham, and we have been part of HTC for 8 years.

For the past 2 years we have been blessed to be part of the CS Lewis Institute Fellows Program. It has been amazing, and I can recommend it to everyone!

This past February, Richard and I bought a home in Saint Joseph, Michigan, because we're planning to retire there.

Then, one night at our new home, I couldn't sleep.

I was thinking about the Fellows theme of the month: "Pursuing God's Call on Your Life" and suddenly I felt God nudging me to ask a specific question:

How could Richard and I actually serve the community we're moving into — not someday, but now?

So I started researching about our new community and the communities around us, and what I found broke my heart!

Only six miles away from our little house is a town called Benton Harbor.

Benton Harbor has a median income of only $31,000, with a poverty rate near 42 percent.

Their high school graduation rate is only 64%, and at Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School, only 3 percent of students are reading at grade level.

Three percent!

Here's why that number matters so much:

• A child's third-grade reading level is one of the single strongest predictors we have of whether they'll graduate high school, whether they'll go to college, even whether they'll end up in the criminal justice system instead of the workforce.

• Some states literally project future prison capacity based on third-grade literacy scores.

• As Pastor Kevin always says, from K-3 grade you learn how to read; afterward that, you read in order to learn!

Two weeks after that experience, right here at HTC on Local Mission Sunday, I connected with Kevin Turpin, founder of the Life Enrichment Center.

With Kevin’s God-led support, Richard and I brought LEC's materials to Pastor Elijah Shamenda, who leads our new church family at Overflow Church in Benton Harbor.

Pastor Elijah told us that fighting the "preschool-to-prison pipeline" was part of his calling into ministry there, years before we ever showed up. A resounding affirmation that God goes before us!

So this is the partnership taking shape: Holy Trinity Church, Overflow Church, the Life Enrichment Center, and Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary, working together to change the lives of at least 12 second-grade children through one-on-one literacy tutoring!

We have already recruited over 20 caring volunteers from Overflow Church, law enforcement, and businesses in and around Benton Harbor, who are ready to invest one hour a week for a full academic school year to tutor those children! This is amazing!

To get this off the ground, we need about $15,000 for that first year:

• Enough for each child to own a personal library of ten to twelve books

• Weekly reading packets

• Workbooks

• etc.

Just to give you an idea: 15-20 children are over 25% of the entire second grade.

In the next thirty days, Richard and I are moving to Saint Joseph for good. I'll be one of the tutors, sitting across the table from a child every week, and I'll be working alongside LEC and Overflow Church to help train the other volunteers who join us.

Church: This is Loving Your Neighbor! This is community transformation for the glory of God, AND I invite you to be part of this!

Thank you.