The Christian Education Fund of our church pays Mount Vernon Christian School tuition for any of our members that want to participate. The fund has been active for the past three years, and I’ve been on the CEF committee from the beginning. Before that, I was directly involved in the investigation process and the proposal to the congregation. It’s a very interesting fund, and reflects the commitment we have to our “covenant children,” as well as to the value of Christian education.

The cost of the fund totals more per year than the rest of the church budget, so we use a pledge system to ensure that donations will be sufficient for the following year. The continuation of the fund hinges each year on June 1, at which point all of the donations for the ending school year must be paid and pledges for the soon-to-start school year must meet or exceed the projected tuition.

Unfortunately, that didn’t happen this year, and the fund was automatically terminated. All was not lost, however – our pastor led an effort to resurrect the fund. The congregation managed to raise the money that was short on donations, make additional pledges to exceed tuition, and pass a two-thirds vote to start the fund up again.

So, it looks like my time on the CEF committee will continue. The resurrected fund has rules that might make my role as donation-watcher a bit more challenging; we shall see. But it’s a great benefit to our families, myself included, so I am happy to see it return.