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Gradmothers Who Care

Prayers for schoolkids send ‘ripple effects’ throughout communities

Not too many parents would send their kids to school without a jacket on a wintry day. And most kids are fed before they head off for their daily studies. But how many students can say that someone is praying for them, giving them an extra bit of spiritual protection and guidance as they face the academic and extra curricular challenges that come with the territory?

Ground zero in the community

If there’s one place where most cultural and social elements of a city are represented, it’s in its schools. With such a diverse mingling of groups – from recent immigrants learning the culture to single moms who teach physics – schools are ‘ground zero’ in the spiritual health of a community. And prayers extend to subjects well beyond classroom walls. "In our prayers we are always seeking God’s heart for the school. It’s not surprising to us that he leads us often to pray for families and homes of students and staff," says Gretchen Gillis who is among the ranks of Grandmothers Who Care (a ‘mature’ arm of the prayer movement Mothers Who Care) in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Gillis is one of a legion of North American grandmothers who has been able to play an active role in the public school system, encouraging the children and teachers in her community through meeting with other like-minded grandmas and voicing concerns and praises to God. Like the others in her ranks, she has seen, first hand, how lives are changed when people simply start praying for grandchildren – their own and others. She points out that retirees don’t have to have grandchildren who attend school locally to make a positive impression on the young lives who do attend school in their neighborhood.

Unified focus

Carol Chattel is part of a group of grandmothers who first met to pray for local school kids and now play an integral role in several school programs in Caroline, Alberta. She says prayers that start in the schools reach into the entire town. "Our main prayer is unity,"  says Chatel. "Unity in the family, the churches, the different boards around town, the school, the village office, the business people and the community. This is all related to our school and our children."

Although the public system is known to prefer an arms-length approach in their interaction with faith-based groups, it’s hard to resist the help of a group of concerned grandmothers who simply want to make the community better. Chatel says lots of good will is flowing between her group and the schools in Caroline now that they have gotten to know one another.

At the beginning the group was denied a request for a list of staff members. However, once they became a fixture at school, the powers that be decided that they could have access to the names. Now the grandmas - mostly widows who range in age from 56 to 82 - make a habit of praying for each staff member by name. Chatel also notes that Christian students have found it easier to stand up for their beliefs now that they have the prayer support of the grandmothers, who have taken on a higher profile in the school in recent years.

Beyond the sidelines

The relationships that have developed through the group’s involvement with the school has meant they have taken on some added duties. Once they group became a fixture, they were asked if they would like to run the school’s ‘safety phone’ program. And they’ve also adopted a supporting role with the school’s new health worker as she attempts to promote healthy lifestyles there. Through this they’ve helped with school breakfasts and a ‘butt-out’ anti-smoking campaign.

The group in Caroline has also embarked on prayer walks around school (where they do double-duty by cleaning up garbage while they make the rounds). Around each window and exterior door, the grannies pray for the "protection and safety" of all who enter the building each school day.

Kids grow up fast now and there’s no shortage of subjects for pray for. (Grand)Mothers Who Care are seizing a chance to make a difference in society’s ‘training ground,’ encouraging and standing up for the next generation of leaders and those who are charged with teaching them.

For information on how you can become a "Grandmother Who Cares" click here. 

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