10/29/2025
Through Our Eyes: Volume I (Fall 2025)
The Darby Mission started a new program for students in middle school. It’s called Through Our Eyes because we want people to see the world through the eyes of our young people. We are going to accomplish this by allowing our young people to help us create and form the program. They are then going to document what they are doing and share their feelings about it in an online newsletter/magazine called, Through Our Eyes. Through this program and in their writing, our young participants will be in a safe environment during the most risky time of the day (after school).They will learn critical thinking, writing, interview techniques, cooking, and arts- all while having fun. We started creating the program around this time last year, and it was quite the process! I would like to give you a little background before we move forward.
The Darby Mission grew out of the closure of a traditional Episcopal Church in Darby. Although the church closed, we knew Darby still needed the love a Christian community could offer, so we were given permission to stay and be a new kind of “church without walls.” My bishop at that time, Clifton Daniel, Dave Griffith, and I brought lunch to share with community leaders. We asked if we may work with them. They said yes! We asked what the community needs. The resounding response was “Anything to make the lives of our children better.” We continue to work at this and serve Darby, thanks to the continued support of our bishop, Bishop Daniel Gutierrez.
Our first step was to create the Darby Dinners as a way to gather Darby residents and others from around the diocese- to create a new type of community- bound by affection and care, not space. Later that year we offered a small summer camp. That Fall, we started an after school program for children in elementary school. I, as the vicar of the mission, chose to start with young children because having grown up in a poor, urban neighborhood, I knew it was easier to keep a child on the right path than to try to fix problems years later. At this time I met a Darby resident, Jess Geffen. She wanted to help the community in any way possible, so I hired her to work with me in our new after school program. We started with 12 children, construction paper and crayons and our programs have grown ever since!
The Darby Dinners still continue 10 or 11 years later. However, during Covid lockdown Jess and I started collecting food and gift cards, and delivering them to residents who had no other way to feed themselves and their children. As Covid restrictions were lifted, we started offering bags of food from the recreation center. The prepacked bags allowed us to give people food with very limited and safe contact. As we were free to interact, we allowed the people to come in to shop and choose their own food. The food giveaways still continue monthly, and have been supplemented by food giveaways organized by some council members (Janice Davis and Lucille Pratt).
I have been serving as a priest in Darby for almost 15 years (I have lost count). I love the community and feel part of this community. As Covid changed the entire world, Jess and I realized it has impacted our children and young people even more profoundly. The elementary school students still have access to an after school program, so we decided to give extra attention and care to middle school students, to help them become their best selves. We created Through Our Eyes.
Last October Jess and I reached out to families we had known with children entering middle school. Our first enrollees were all boys. The boys were not thrilled with a small program in a small house. They wanted to run, jump, and play basketball. We tried to find space for them, but we were not successful. As all the boys lost interest, we had almost given up. We wondered if this age group was out of reach for us? But before we threw in the towel, enrolled one girl. After the new year, a second girl enrolled- we had known her from church. She brought a friend- a girl we have known since kindergarten. She then brought a friend… Word has spread and we now Through Our Eyes is an after school program for girls in middle school. We meet three days per week after school. We cook and eat- alot! We do Social-Emotional Learning activities. We planted a garden. We play games. We have speakers talk to the girls about their work. We hope to inspire the girls to believe they can achieve anything they work hard for, and to show them how to get there and offer a mentor for that journey.
We ask for your prayers. We are also looking for people who are willing to share a hobby or activity with the girls. We are also looking for people to speak about their work, and to possibly serve as a mentor (speakers are welcome without mentorship commitment). Future newsletters will contain work by our students. Thank you for reading this and for your prayers and support.
