Eagle Scout Benefits CFNA

Ready to Play!

Caleb Hutchison and Pastor Stanish Stanley

Growing up with Christian Friends of New Americans has made a great impact on my life. Through the Family-to-Family ministry, I had the privilege of connecting with an amazing family from Nepal at an early age, gaining experiences that would change my life and the way I viewed the world forever. Much more recently, however, I had a unique opportunity to give something back to this incredible community through my Eagle Scout Project. While this construction project certainly taught me much about leadership and responsibility, it also led me to be a part of something much larger than myself. Ultimately, it allowed my troop and I to equip CFNA with one more platform from which they can impact lives in St. Louis.

My Eagle project journey began one year ago during Spring Break from 8th grade when I met with Pastor Stanish Stanley to discuss a possible Eagle Scout Project at the Peace Center. After reviewing many possibilities, we finally settled on doing something to improve the lower-level art space. Pastor Stanley requested two new chess tables for the room so he could begin a chess club for refugee children. He also asked me to build a small drawer to store the chess pieces… which turned out to be much more challenging than I had originally thought! After hours of planning and design, my Scout Troop joined me for a workday this spring to build the tables from scratch. Many additional hours were spent meticulously painting the chess boards before I had the privilege of delivering the final product to the Peace Center. The chess tables turned out beautifully and will be a great addition for the future CFNA Chess Club!

The process of organizing and leading my Troop to construct the tables was a fantastic experience and taught me much about planning and problem-solving. Teamwork also played an extremely important role in the completion of the tables, as I could not have done any of this on my own! My prayer is for God to use these new chess tables as an instrument through which people can connect over a game of chess, bringing the entire community together. I hope that relationships are formed and strengthened around these two handmade tables and that God will continue to be glorified through the awesome ministry of CFNA.

By Caleb Hutchison