Martha Eichelberger, 83, and Fran McPherson, 84, have long passed their joking goal of becoming the oldest volunteers in their Church of Christ denomination’s Chattanooga Inner City Outreach.
But they’re just two of more than 200 volunteers who work with 200 to 220 economically disaffected children in five churches three nights a week for nine months of the year.
“You can’t wonder what the outcome is going to be,” said Eichelberger, a former high school teacher and curriculum supervisor for the Chattanooga City Schools. “But this is something we can do. We can let them know the Lord loves them, and we love them too. It’s great to see their smiles.”
The children are transported to the churches from their homes in buses, and the two octogenarians rode the Joy Buses with them to Brainerd Church of Christ for the first 17 years of the 18-year-old ministry’s existence.
“We’d sing all the songs [the children learned] over and over again,” said Eichelberger. “Some people might not think it was the greatest musical sound. It was more like a joyful noise.”
Today, having given up the rickety bus rides, the two women are in charge of buying for and filling treat bags the children – ages 3 through fifth grade – receive when they leave the bus after having Bible lessons and other activities at the church.
McPherson, a retired nurse, said the repetition never gets old.
“It’s the children – seeing their little, happy faces,” she said. “We feel like we’re teaching them something.”
Both women have helped teach parenting classes, visited the children’s homes, attended funerals for family members and say it’s difficult not to get involved in the lives of those they serve.
“It’s hard to know how to help them, the things they really need,” McPherson said.
Probably their greatest need, the pair said, is a steady environment.
“A stable home life, outside of needing the Lord, [is vital],” McPherson said. “For so many of them, men are not around. They need that very much.”
“Their greatest need is good role models, especially men,” said Eichelberger. “Most of them live in homes [headed by] single mothers. They need men and women role models. When there are men, they hang on to them, they want their attention, they talk to them, they ask them questions.”
The two women said they have received as much as they have given in the ministry.
Eichelberger said she felt blessed to have good health to continue the work into her 80s.
“It makes me feel young,” she said.
McPherson said the joy they feel at seeing the spiritual growth of the children is shared by the approximately 200 other volunteers in the ministry.
“They learn very quickly,” she said. “Seeing them learn and retain what they learn brings them joy.”
The women say they don’t always hear the long-range results of their work, but they’re not in it for praise. They know, though, that some of the children in their sphere of influence over the years made faith decisions.
Women such as Eichelberger and McPherson do make a difference, said Robert Darby, minister of Inner City Church of Christ.
“They have gone on to have more confidence in school,” he said of the thousands of children who have come through Inner City Outreach. “Their behavior in school was better. And several students are in college as a result of the tutoring and [of] spending time with them.”