February 26 | The First Sunday of Lent

Hunger is really our primary enemy. Hungry people are often the poorest people. It is astonishing to know that 828,000,000 people in the world are hungry. In a world with the capability to grow all the food that is needed so that everyone alive will have enough to eat. 

14,000,000 children suffer acute malnutrition. 45% of child deaths worldwide are directly attributed to hunger. 700 children will die from drinking contaminated water each day. 

The Gospel of Matthew describes the very beginning of Jesus' public life with a story about hunger. Jesus is hungry. Satan knows it. Hunger will drive a person to do anything. If you want good things for your life, make sure you keep them for yourself and to yourself. We remember that message, The message of isolation. 

Famine, inequality, war, discrimination and poor health care - all conspire to alienate and drive billions to seek refuge. 

The feeding station (that's what it is called) in Cite Soleil, Port au Prince, Haiti offers a cooked meal to thousands each day. Half of Haiti is hungry - over 1,800,000 people. 65% of the population. That number is catastrophic. In a land bathed in sunshine and surrounded by ocean! The Pearl of the Antilles - the gateway to the Caribbean!

The tempter crawled over to Jesus and whispered: “If you are God’s son, just speak the word and these stones will become loaves of bread.” 

But that is not the way Life is lived nor Problems solved. God has given us the tools to make a difference. The tools are awareness, understanding, connection and sacrifice. 

HORIZONS ATLANTA 

We believe in the Promise of Opportunity for all Children

“Summertime, and the livin is easy… Fish are jumpin’ and the cotton is high… Oh, your daddy’s rich and your ma is good lookin’, So hush, little baby, don’t you cry.” 

Porgy and Bess George Gershwin 1934

Holy Innocents Parish has always known that is not true. Summertime has not always been an easy time, especially in the under-served areas of our counties. For as long as we can remember, a weathered gray bus would pull out of our parking lots at 7:00 am and travel north to bring rural children to our campus for educational refreshers and needed recreational experiences. We named it: The Holy Innocents Summer Program. As commercial and residential development inched northward, affluent communities soon replaced rural communities. The Summer Program of Holy Innocents’ was no longer needed.

Horizons Atlanta now fulfills the hopes that our community made years ago, providing supportive opportunities for children; young students who might benefit from academic refreshers during the prolonged summer recess.  Established in 1999, Horizons Atlanta hosts 135 children on our campus for a six week term in Language Arts, Math and Literacy. These children matriculate in three neighboring schools during the academic year: High Point Elementary, Lake Forest Elementary and Ridgeview Middle School. 

Why? 21% of American children experience a standard of living characterized as “the poverty line.” 

47% of children in Fulton County qualify for the Free and Reduced Lunch Program. 

Too many children are not reading at grade level by the end of the 3rd grade.
1 in 4 will not finish high school if this disparity is not addressed.

These efforts address the dreaded Summer Slide - an accumulated lack of academic exposure during the summer weeks. Children in underserved communities can experience an idleness and boredom that hinders academic and social maturity. An opportunity for children to study in the morning and learn to swim in the afternoon. Swimming is a critical priority for our students. Learning to swim generates self confidence, increases academic motivation, demonstrates increased nutritional gains and guarantees higher school attendance. Learning to swim is an investment in children. 

“My daughter married a young man from Taiwan. He works for one of the major banks here in Atlanta and he is quite successful. He has an inquisitive mind and is able to calculate vast sums in his head. He loves to buy cars and enjoys vying with the financial people at the dealership. He is a wiz at math. I once asked him: why are Asians so much better at math? That is not true, he responded. The difference is in the school systems. In Taiwan, we go to school all year, with seven two week breaks for recess and vacation. We do not have an 8 week summer slide like we do here. Math is an acquired habit and skills are reinforced through consistent application. It is a better system. We are not better at math. We just don’t forget as much.”

 - Robert 

“When we would interview families for enrollment in our summer program - the antecedent of Horizons - the area now known as Roswell, Alpharetta, Milton and Johns Creek was quite a bit different. State Road 400 had two lanes in each direction. Nothing north of Northridge until Windward Parkway. No Marta. It was rural. We would enter the house and there were the children watching cartoons on black and white tvs with rabbit ears. The kids were in pjs and were eating potato chips and cheesy things and drinking colas and pop drinks. This was summertime. This is what kids did. Summertime was not easy. This was the notorious summer slide. And it was unhelpful. After seven or eight weeks of such doldrums, no wonder kids were unmotivated.”

 - Robin.