A Plan for Peace

by Lori Forbis, Kirksville, Missouri

If you want to get Amy Burbee riled up, call her a nice Christian. “I don’t do this because I’m “nice”; I do it because I love those kids!” The kids she’s referring to all live in the Devlin Place public housing complex in Kirksville, MO.  Devlin Place comes complete with what is stereotypically found in “the projects” including many broken families.  It is a wonderful place to bring hope to the hopeless.

P.C. Mills Park is across the street from Devlin. Last summer as D’Markus was handing out lunches there during a Life Church evangelistic outreach, he noticed a young girl who had a deformed arm. “I remember…wishing I had the faith to touch this child’s arm and see it restored. I was so sorrowful for not only her condition, but the condition of that whole community. There was such a pull to petition the Lord for that area.”

In talking with Jermaine Talton, a Life Church member who also wanted to reach out to Devlin Place, D’Markus learned that the academic scores of the children there were very low and no academic after-school program was in place to help them. During the same time frame Jerry Burbee approached D’Markus with the idea of starting an after-school homework project in that area. It became obvious that the Lord had a plan for what is now known as the Peace Project.

After talking with Tom Bedford & getting the go-ahead, D’Markus & Jermaine needed a place for the children of Devlin to study. Another Life Church member, Patty Preston, worked for the Kirksville Housing Authority. When told about the program, she was able to get authorization for the use of the community center attached to Devlin Place. Not only has the Peace Program had no opposition from the Kirksville Housing Authority, the director said that whatever they needed, the Housing Authority would try to get for them. D’Markus talks excitedly about the way God opened all the right doors at the right time. “They’ve become our biggest cheerleader!” D’Markus says with a laugh. As a result of this Peace opened up shop at Devlin Place in January of this year.

The mission statement of Peace reads: We want to stimulate a love for learning and excellence in academics and life skills, provide Christian-based education in a safe environment that will promote self-worth, self-esteem, respect, and responsibility. Our goal is to help young people develop the skills necessary to become caring, respectful citizens who are able to better the community they are a part of.”

I asked Amy and D’Markus what the hardest thing they’ve encountered working with the children. I was stunned at Amy’s answer: when asked what they want to be when they grow up, the kids simply shrug their shoulders and say they don’t know. “Well,” D’Markus interjects, “one little girl wants to be a princess.” Responses like this are what has kept D’Markus, Jermaine & Maria, Amy and several others determined to provide a sense of hope and destiny for not only the children, but their families also.

There has been a marked improvement over the last several months in not only the children’s reading skills but also in their confidence. Those involved with this project have seen children who had no attention span become eager to sit and read. Kids who were withdrawn and shy are now becoming, slowly but surely, more outgoing. Relationships are developing between the Peace Program workers and some of the families in Devlin Place, giving the workers a chance to talk about our wonderful Father who has a destiny for all His children.

When asked what his dream is for this program, D’Markus replies “That the Church would duplicate this across the U.S. and the world and that God would get all the glory for it.” While planning out the Peace program, one of the goals was to make it “portable” as D’Markus calls it. “You could do this program in any city, whether it was Raleigh or Waverly. Those are two pretty different cities but the program could be just as effective in either place. In fact, if anyone wants us to help them or needs info on what we’re doing all they have to do is ask, man, and we’ll be right there for them!”

Read more from Lori at The Road Not Chosen