January 27, 2003

Waxahachie ministry finds common ground with kids
___By George Henson
___Staff Writer
___WAXAHACHIE--Felicia Snell has so much faith, hope and love that she transplants it in her kids, which sometimes number as many as 35.
___Snell directs Common Ground Ministries, a Waxahachie outreach to impoverished children, many of whom see little faith, hope and love in their homes.
___Snell takes on an almost parental role for the children. She visits their schools for teacher conferences, helps with their homework and supervises their after-school play time.
___Snell has become the heart of the ministry that was birthed in the living room of Leroy and Jan Fenton's home, said Linda

FELICIA Snell (left) and Linda McCrady at First Baptist Church of Waxahachie.

McCrady, ministry coordinator at First Baptist Church in Waxahachie, where Fenton is pastor.
___About 12 years ago, a small group of church members gathered to brainstorm ideas for transforming a long-impoverished area of East Waxahachie. After two years of planning and investigation, Common Ground was unveiled.
___"We didn't just jump into it," McCrady said. "We really studied it before we began."
___To get the know the children in the community, volunteers from First Baptist worked with New Mount Zion Baptist Church, which is located in the neighborhood.
___Common Ground began as a Saturday morning program at a middle school cafeteria.
___The program quickly grew, however, and eight years ago a piece of property in the neighborhood was donated to the ministry. The Waxahachie Independent School District donated a temporary building, which was placed on the Parks Avenue site and has been the focal point of the ministry ever since.
___After school lets out, Snell and her husband, Kenneth, meet the children and start on homework. If a child finishes early or doesn't have homework, students are drilled on scholastic areas in which they are weak.
___The ministry typically begins with about 15 children in the fall and then swells to 25 in the spring and 35 in the summer.
___The one thing that keeps some children away is a requirement that parents must register their children for the program. "Many of their parents just aren't that involved," Snell explained.
___Some children begin attending Common Ground with older siblings before they start school.
___"Some of these kids start so young, they don't have a memory of their lives without Common Ground in it," McCrady said. "And because of that, when they look back on their childhood, they will see something wholesome, safe and loving."
___That, Snell said, is one thing that keeps her dedicated to the ministry, even though her mother constantly reminds her the Fort Worth school district where she lives is hiring.
___"Honestly, I could not do what I do in the context of the school system," Snell explained. "I am able to remind these kids daily that there is a place available to them at any time where they will be safe and loved."
___The Snells work with the children nearly every day, year-round.
___"For awhile, I would be at the office during the holidays or the spring break trying to get some administrative things done, and I couldn't because the kids were there," Snell explained. "They didn't have anywhere else to be. Finally, we just started having holiday camps as well to give it structure, since they were there anyway."
___"These two are like surrogate parents," McCrady explained. "These kids look to them for all the parenting attributes other kids find at home."
___And they do so with great personal sacrifice, McCrady said. "They live with her husband's parents while they save for a house."
___Snell has a bachelor's degree in business administration and a master's degree in counseling.
___"She could be in the secular world making a decent salary," McCrady said. "But instead, she involves herself in this ministry with a very low salary, and sometimes even that is paid sporadically when funds are short."
___That Snell has stayed for 10 years gives testimony to her devotion and reveals a key to the success of the ministry, McCrady continued.
___"Every other ministry in this city, they flow in and out of directors. Most don't stay for more than a year. But Felicia has been here 10 years, and that is what is making a difference in the lives of these children."
___Besides giving Waxahachie children a guiding hand through childhood, Common Ground also seeks to send youth on to higher education. The ministry provides a $1,000 scholarship to a first-year college student annually.
___"That's really all they need," Snell explained. "They all work, and after the first year they have learned to save and manage their money so that they don't need it after the first year."
___This year the ministry will see its first student graduate from the University of Houston. Another young woman is enrolled at Sam Houston State University.
___Neither of these women would have attended college without Common Ground, Snell insisted. "They both had the ability, but not the avenue."
___The prevailing mindset in the neighborhood makes a college education something not even considered, she said. "We try to change that. Expectations are set that they are going to do well in school and live a Christian lifestyle."
___Another evidence of that success, Snell believes, is the number of junior high and high school students who come to Common Ground to help the younger students learn.
___They come back to pass on what has been given to them, Snell said: Faith, hope and love.
___

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