God Sighting: Cindy Bartholomew

In the first week of November, we celebrated the retirement of Cindy Bartholomew. Cindy has dedicated the past 20 years to our preschoolers at Sheridan Child Development Center. She embodied the heart of this ministry to families and we celebrated that as well.

Before her career at SCDC began, Cindy was a kindergarten teacher and then a stay-at-home mom. As long as I can remember, Cindy was active in Sheridan’s Children’s Ministry as a volunteer in Sunday school, VBS, Share 5 and whatever program for children was going on at the time. Then in 2001, when her own children were all in school, she thought about looking for a job and as God would have it, responded to the need for teachers at SCDC. She has made that her life’s work ever since. Cindy has a passion for teaching children about the love of Jesus and loved to make lesson plans, get project materials ready, find the right books and resources and then apply what she had planned into her day. The children were excited to participate in these active learning experiences and she helped them see where God was at work in their lives.

Most recently Cindy was the Christian curriculum teacher and traveled to each classroom in that role to teach the Bible stories and related lessons. She was also responsible for weekly Chapel gatherings. She was much loved by the children, and many fondly named her “the teacher of God.” She personified the love of Jesus to them! Her kind heart, loving demeanor and loyalty to this ministry makes her retirement very bittersweet. Thank you, Cindy, for answering God’s call in this way! You are missed.

Sheridan Child Development Center (SCDC), as a ministry arm of our congregation, is a licensed daycare offering a safe, loving and Christian environment for children from the age of six weeks to 12 years, Monday through Friday. We believe each child is God’s special gift. The goal is to provide a nurturing, caring environment where each child can grow socially, emotionally, cognitively and spiritually as they learn self confidence, grace, forgiveness, accountability and responsibility.

by Kathy Paisley, Deacon and SCDC Board Member since its beginning