BY JOHN RIGGIO

It’s a late summer evening and the cicadas’ shrill calls resonate. The sun sets like a father’s hand upon the tassled tops of the trees as parents are filing into Northview Church, children in tow, hand-in-hand for the GraceWorks Friday Fun Night. This is a free night once a month that parents and children look forward to.

“This event is a totally free, no-cost fun evening for the kids where they get individual attention and love. We want them to feel God’s love and know that they are perfectly made by God in His image,” says Amanda Arroyo, Northview’s First Impressions Coordinator and GraceWorks Coordinator.

Arroyo continues, “Kids arrive, meet the volunteer assigned to them, sit down together and have a pizza dinner. They get about one hour to do activities and then they lay down with pillows and blankets, watch a movie and eat snacks.”

The dining room has the warm, rolling smell of pizza and a hubbub of voices that rise and fall like a playground jungle gym. Cliff is an adult volunteer sharing a table and eating with 3-4 boys. He sits across from Andrew, who is there with his brother Michael. Andrew stands and beats his chest like Tarzan. “I love it here, and it’s only my first time,” he announces.

Michael nods and agrees. “I like the movies,” he says thoughtfully, as he pulls at his slice of pizza.

“GraceWorks is a ministry at Northview Church that serves families and children with special needs. A GraceGiver is just the name we give volunteers who are paired with a child to give that child extra attention and grace,” explains Arroyo.

“Having a child with special needs is a special blessing but it can also be very time consuming and exhausting at times. This event was developed to show the love of Christ to these parents by giving them a regular night out away from their children to go on a date, do errands or just rest,” confirms Arroyo.

Having fun at Friday Fun Night! (photo by Ben Yoder)

Little Mackenzie is sitting with adult volunteer, Diana, and with teenage volunteer, Sarah. Mackenzie’s eyes dance warm as toasted almonds. “This is where my friends are,” she smiles. “I know Sarah, Julia, Allison…” she trails off, looking around the room. She sees adults and teens with the younger children—some eating, some standing, some in wheelchairs and everyone engaged and enlightened.

Arroyo notes that at this program, “We work with children of varied abilities and disabilities. We have children who are medically fragile, children with ADHD, Autism, Cerebral Palsy, and other developmental delays.”  She wishes every family could take part in this program. However, “At this point we have a large number of families within our church who take advantage of this opportunity, so we are only offering it to families that attend Northview.”

Sarah is a tall teenage volunteer who keeps her hands lightly on Sean’s shoulders, as her young charge finishes his juice drink. “We are all blessed with this chance to be together. And I love seeing the parents come in dressed up for a date when they drop off their kids, then coming back after a nice long night out,” she sighs.

A volunteer helps a child put his train together at Friday Fun Night (photo by Ben Yoder)

The activities after dinner include make believe, arts and crafts, indoor playground activities and laughter.  

“We are in need of volunteers who would be willing to join this team to serve once a month at this event. We need 30-40 volunteers to run this event. Experience with special needs children is not mandatory but is helpful. The only requirement is to be able to show the love of Christ to kids,” concludes Arroyo.

If interested in serving, go to northviewchurch.us and fill out a volunteer application under Northview Kids and indicate GraceWorks on the application. To find out more about becoming a volunteer contact Amanda Arroyo at 846-2884 or amanda.arroyo@northviewchurch.us.