I woke up Friday morning to a powder-puff donut filled with cream and a giant birthday candle sticking inside it, along with a beautiful card with money inside from Mama and Pastor to their adopted granddaughter. If that wasn't enough they took me out for lunch at this great Italian restaurant in the neighborhood. I keep telling them I am going to be like Pastor's sister who is so large she got stuck in the MRI machine by the time I leave. They laugh and say "At least we will get to keep you." It was a perfect day for a birthday. The weather was fantastic; I did some shopping (loving the fact that there is no tax on clothes here), had some great food, and received some wonderful notes.
I topped my day off by going to a dessert event at a country club to hear an organization called the Jubilee Fund speak about the projects they have started with Philadelphia students in the inner-city. I was shocked to find out that in most of the inner-city public schools approximately 11% of the grade 11 students will be proficient in reading, and on average 7.3% of students will be proficient in math by 11th grade. Among Philadelphia’s 114,000 low-income students only 6% will graduate with a proficient working knowledge of reading or math. I have seen the affects of a broken school system when teaching VBS and now running this kid’s program. We have many students who cannot read, write or follow basic written instructions in our classes. I just never realized that it was this bad. The Jubilee Fund provides scholarships for low-income students so they can attend Christian schools, which provide amazing opportunities to these students. Last year the church was able to get scholarships for some of our families, and the results have been astounding in those students.
All in all I’d say it was a pretty perfect way to spend another 19th birthday.
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