San Antonio church reaches out to community with wellness training

By Rachel L. Toalson
Staff Writer
Leaders of St. Paul UMC, San Antonio, point to a deep desire to reach out to their community.
That’s why they created an education and wellness ministry Feb. 20 and have continued growing it since then, said the Rev. J. Brendonly Cunningham, interim program director.
“We have tried to do this a number of times,” she said. “We just don’t want to be without a health emphasis. And we’ve always wanted to do something for the children.”
The church began offering a reading enrichment program earlier this year for kindergarteners through sixth graders, Cunningham said. The program was run two Saturdays a month until May under teachers Otey Ellis, Patricia Bruce, Jewel Hill and Carolyn Moore.
The effort grew into a summer enrichment initiative. It included reading and writing comprehension, language arts and spelling, math, health education, culture and crafts, and physical education.
Made possible through a grant from the Southwest Texas Conference Ethnic Local Church Committee, the summer enrichment program reached children in pre-kindergarten through sixth grade, Cunningham said. It ran three days a week June 11 through July 18 from 1 to 5 p.m. Many of the activities were in the Lowe-Woods Educational Community Complex.
The Lowe-Woods Task Force, headed by Barbara Ford Young, is the parent organization for the education and wellness ministry.
Cunningham said St. Paul offered adult education that included health and Spanish classes. All classes were in the Lowe-Woods building.
Beginners Spanish was added to the children’s program Sept. 15 and is taught by Lucilla Inglehart, Cun-ningham said.
Leaders have set aside Tuesdays as Health Awareness Days, Cunning-ham said. Seminars in health education are provided three Tuesdays every month.
A walking program is offered in the church gym, she added. Leaders have set up markers for laps equal to half a mile. Stretching and cool-down exercises are available, as are nutritional snacks.
Wellness seminars have attracted six to 13 people, Cunningham said. The walking program usually has four to five participants.
“This is still in the early stages,” Cunningham said. “We are reaching people in the community. The children come from the community, not just our church. Their parents bring them, and we get to be in conversation with them. Some of the walkers are not members of our church.
“This provides community awareness about the health ministries in the community.”