28 March, 2024

Interview with Cynthia Rodda

by | 21 November, 2010 | 0 comments

By Brad Dupray

Mountain Mission School was founded in 1921 by Sam and Jane Hurley. After welcoming to their home nine children in addition to their own seven children, Sam felt convicted to fund a home where children could be cared for. He was a successful entrepreneur in Appalachian Virginia who became wealthy but used his wealth to reach out to children who reminded him of his own impoverished childhood. Now, nearly 90 years later, Sam”s great-granddaughter, Cynthia Rodda, serves as president of Mountain Mission School in Grundy, Virginia, where the objective remains the same, to care for “the least of these.”

What makes Mountain Mission School a unique ministry?

I think it”s the 24/7 thing that makes us unique. We encompass the whole child”s needs””church, school, and home. We encompass the entirety of a child”s life from the time they wake up in the morning until they go to bed at night, and then we”re still watching over them during the night to make sure they”re OK.

How do you find kids who are in need””or how do they find you?

Typically it”s by word of mouth. I heard Christianity characterized as one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread: “You”re hurting and I know the source of all comfort, his name is Jesus.” I think that”s what happens with the parents of children we have”””My husband died and I was working a minimum wage job. I had three kids to care for and I just couldn”t handle it. So, I called Mountain Mission School so they can care for them until I can get back on my feet.”

It”s still the same kind of situations as when my great-grandfather took in kids whose fathers were killed in mining accidents or whose mothers committed suicide””how is a father going to work 12 hours in the mine and take care of these kids? It”s still the same kind of situation.

We”ve had children we kept for a few weeks, a few months, a few years. We”ve had babies who come in and have graduated from high school. We”re able to care for that child for as long as the need exists.

Are these kids completely abandoned?

All of our kids have legal guardians; it could be a mother and father or it could be a grandmother of kids whose parents have died. We have had kids referred to us by church members and ministers. We are a resource for families in distress. Think of that mother whose husband was killed in Iraq and she has no family or support structure and she has to have some time to “get it together.” Mountain Mission School could be the place where her kids are cared for while she establishes a stable home for her family.

How many students do you have?

The numbers fluctuate because we take in kids throughout the year, it”s between 180 and 240. Typically we have 30 to 50 day students who attend our school but live elsewhere.

How do you help kids make the adjustment to living full-time on campus?

We”re very structured and we have our routines, but mostly the kids just sort of fall in. The younger the kid is, the easier it is for him or her to adjust.

Of course, kids are going to be homesick. We have a lot of staff that were also students at Mountain Mission School. Randy Marrs was a student. When he gets a new little boy on his floor and that boy is homesick, Randy can go to him and say, “I”ll bet you”re feeling lonesome and left out. I know exactly how you feel and this is what I did.”

He offers options to that little boy who can say, “If you did it, I can do it.”

How do the local kids who don”t live on campus get on board?

Typically, it”s first-come, first-served, and kindergarten to first grade is where we bring them in. A lot of times we have people who come into the community and they see Mountain Mission School and say, “This is what I want for my child.” Sometimes we”ll take them in. We do it as a community service if we have room for them.

What would you consider the mission”s baseline values? How do you instill them?

Our baseline values are those of the cross, “Love one another as I have loved you.” My basic principle is the Golden Rule: treat other people the way you want to be treated. This goes right along with “love one another.”

Does that come naturally to your staff?

I don”t think Christianity comes naturally to anybody. You”re giving up yourself. When I hire people to come here and work, they come with the understanding that they”re giving up their lives in order to help children who need help. They do that because of their love for the Lord and he has called them to do this. Working at Mountain Mission School is a calling into ministry, and if you don”t have that servant”s heart, you can”t really do it.

Would you call your staff missionaries?

Yes, I would. They leave what is comfortable for them””their homes, their communities, their churches””and they come into this place where the culture is completely different from everything they”ve ever known. They come to help children, to teach them about the Lord God””that”s our primary goal. We do that through ministering to their needs for a safe home, a warm clean bed to sleep in at night, three meals a day, hot and cold running water, and classrooms where their individual needs are attended to.

How do you develop such a committed staff?

I tell them they have to be half-crazy to work here. Does that count? <laughs> Primarily it”s on-the-job training. There”s not much you can do to prepare for this. You have to have a servant”s heart””the ability to let go of everything with your focus on the Lord and the knowledge that you”re giving up your life to help others. It”s all attitude. You can”t have “my time” when you”re taking care of kids all the time. There is time off, so they do have time to get away, but they have to be flexible.

What is the primary purpose of their service to these children?

Ultimately, our purpose is to teach them about the Lord and to facilitate the child”s relationship with God as much as possible. We do that by ministering to all that child”s needs, so they have every opportunity to see Jesus Christ in the people around them.

Your staff becomes a living picture of Christ to these children.

Kids who have been in totally dysfunctional family situations get to see up close and personal what a normal family is like. Dad doesn”t beat up Mom every other day. Nobody drives by and shoots at you on the playground here. It”s a living sermon for every child who comes here.

Do you have an educational objective?

When they leave our school we want them to be an actual high school graduate and to have the tools they need to excel. Most of our kids have that aspiration, so we try to give them that opportunity. We have kids who are not interested in college, so we try to get them where they need to be. If college is not their thing, we want them to be able to create successful lives for themselves, which may include vocational training.

What are the basic responsibilities of the students who live on campus?

They”ve got to keep their room clean, make their beds, learn to pick up toys and put them away, and practice basic hygiene. We teach how to bathe properly (we have had kids who have never seen an indoor toilet). They have to learn to get to meals on time, eat their veggies, and drink their milk. As they get older they have chores””they have to take turns cleaning the bathrooms, running the dishwasher, wiping the tables, taking out the trash, sweeping, vacuuming. It fluctuates over the decades what the particular needs might be.

How do you handle kids who are troublesome? Do you ever have to ask any to leave?

If a child is violent or aggressively damaging other children, we have to invite them to leave. We hate to do that, but the Lord says, “Whosoever will may come.” Primarily we work on a perk system, which is, you earn your privileges and if you behave badly you lose your privileges.

What kinds of privileges?

Internet access, e-mail (that”s a privilege, not a right)””you have to demonstrate by your behavior and your attitude that you”re capable of handling those. A late night is another hot item. We have set bedtimes for age groups, so if you earn your perks you get to stay up late and read or watch TV, so instead of a 9:00 o”clock bedtime you might have an 11:00 o”clock bedtime. You might get to go to the movies. Dating is an earned privilege, too, not a right.

What has defined your success as a ministry?

I think what makes us successful is we wholly and unabashedly belong to and profess Christ as Lord all the time. The natural extension of that is the holistic approach, the consistency of care, or as Isaiah said, “line upon line and precept upon precept.” It”s what makes us successful, but that”s what makes us tired all the time, too. When you have kids in your home you know that they”ll move on eventually. When our kids move on we have a new batch to follow them.

How do you keep from exhaustion?

We try to bear one another”s burdens. When someone is hurting or in trouble, we try to step in and relieve them. We”re such a close-knit community; we all sort of live in each other”s laps, so we”re able to do that. It”s hard to explain, but we”re a Christian community. We party when we can party and we play as much as we can, and I think that”s scriptural. We rejoice with those who rejoice and we mourn with those who mourn. When someone among us allows focus to turn away from him, that”s when we have serious struggles and we have to reach out to our brother and say, “Let me help you with this.” Those little things that we all do are almost second nature. We bear one another”s burdens.

How do you establish the rules to live by?

The things that govern us are the Scriptures. We find that when we”re obedient to those instructions, he says that our strength renews. The Golden Rule is the absolute easiest way to live!

Brad Dupray is interim president of Church Development Fund, Irvine, California.

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