Eastiew Community Church
Eastview Community Church

One to One, One on One

Philip Wiebe - 2007-06-05

Six months ago, Greg Armstrong was meeting with a group of community liaisons when he was introduced to the dream of a Breakfast Club for Hampstead School. Being the enterprising Outreach Chaplain that he is, Greg began investigating the phenomenon of Breakfast Clubs and child nutrition in general. What he discovered surprised even him.

"It's not that these children are in danger of starving," says Greg. "Rather, providing a nutritious breakfast is about helping them learn better." Although many children arrive at school without having eaten, research has shown that children who have breakfast have significant advantages over those who don't.

As a result, Greg starting planning a new breakfast club initiative, based on a number of models he observed in other school's similar programs, and now he's looking for two or three committed individuals who are willing to spend an hour, three days a week, spending time with a group of 10-15 kids and helping provide for their nutritional and relational needs.

"The nutritional need may be more obvious, but I'd say that's only about 40% of the equation here - the rest is the relational need these kids have," says Greg, implying that these kids often require the caring relationships and mentorship as much, if not moreso, than the physical food.

The breakfast club program falls under a new outreach initiative Greg has developed under the banner Operation Starfish. The breakfast club is the first program within this new initiative, and comes without a pre-programmed evangelical element - they won't be serving sermons or altar calls with the bagels and orange juice - but that's not to say God won't be at work within the program. The Operation Starfish name hints at the fundamental inspiration behind it all: derived from Loren Eisley's story (reprinted below), it shows how relationship ministry, while resource-intensive and superficially inefficient, is invaluable and profoundly worthwhile to those who matter most to God.

If you are interested in participating in this program starting this fall at Hampstead School, contact Greg Armstrong at or phone him at the church at 334-4675 ext. 33.

The Star Thrower

Loren Eisley, while writing his book The Unexpected Universe, was walking along the ocean in Costabel early one morning. It was shortly after a storm had subsided and as he continued walking, he noticed that thousands of starfish had been washed up on the beach. Ahead of him was a gigantic rainbow of incredible perfection shimmering into existence. At the base of the rainbow stooped a little boy, gazing fixedly at an object in the sand. Eventually, he flung the object beyond the breaking surf.

Eisley went up to him and asked, "Son, what are you doing?" The little boy answered. "I'm throwing starfish back into the sea because if I don't, they're going to die." "But there are thousands of starfish. In the larger scheme of things, you're not going to make much of a difference to all these starfish." The little boy looked up at him, stooped down again to pick up another starfish and, gently but quickly, flung it back into the ocean. "It's going to make a big difference to that one!" he replied.

Eisley was embarrassed, uncomfortable with the contrast of the little boy's youthful, innocent love for the living with his own hardened, mature indifference to death. He had nothing to say and left, continuing to walk down the beach but unable to get pictures of the little boy out of his mind. It was the moment of truth for Eisley, of deep soul searching and self confrontation. In time, he returned to the star thrower, silently picked up a starfish and spun it far into the waves. "I understand," he said. "Call me another thrower." Together, still under the hues of the rainbow, they spent hours throwing starfish back into the ocean. It was a task not assumed lightly, for it was man as well as starfish they sought to save, sensing intuitively that man cannot exist spiritually without life. You make a difference!

~as quoted from nhny.org