On education, the bad news grabs most of the headlines. Schools are failing. Students don’t know elementary civics questions. They can’t write a grammatical sentence. Some can’t even read.

Some bright spots shine even more in contrast to the bad news. In Indianapolis, Ind., Oaks Academy is a bright spot, using an old public school for classical Christian education, illustrating the power of prayer and faith in hard circumstances. Its origins illustrate the sovereignty of God’s plans and how He keeps working things together for His kingdom purposes, even when we may feel discouraged by what we see.

The neighborhood used to be called Dodge City because of the violent crime. Abandoned homes gave way to vacant lots, and the neighborhood public school was closed because of declining enrollment.

One neighborhood resident never gave up. Percy Scruggs ran the nearby Community Outreach Center, providing single-parent families with tutoring for children, summer camp, Bible clubs and an informal food pantry.

With a background as a U.S. Army drill sergeant, Scruggs never dreamed about starting a school. He was kind of a one-man rescue mission in the 1970s and 1980s. He prayed for some helpers in line with Matthew 9:27-28: “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.”

Several members of Second Reformed Presbyterian Church became answers to those prayers, volunteering to help him. We taught Bible classes and tutored, took children to summer camps through Young Life or Children Evangelism Fellowship, helped him find homes for single-parent families when they could no longer afford the rent. Yet it was a discouragement to many of us when Percy had to step aside from the ministry. In the early 1990s he got dementia and gradually had to fade from the center of ministry.

Our efforts seemed to go down the drain. We had seen some young people come to Christ and grow through the basic disciplines of Bible study and prayer. Sadly we saw others wind up in jail or in another generation of poverty and broken families. We saw breakthroughs spiritually and educationally, but it was not a story in which people lived happily ever after.

Yet Percy Scruggs’ example of practical, persevering love inspired some people to think of an alternative kind of education. Some of his admirers started brainstorming in the 1990s and came up with the idea for what became the Oaks Academy. Lilly executive Greg Enas had been one of our volunteers in the 1980s. He enlisted a fellow Lilly worker named Mitch Daniels as an early supporter of the school idea–long before Daniels became famous as governor of Indiana.

Oaks seemed too good to be true in the beginning: a classical curriculum, with an emphasis on academic excellence. Latin in the elementary years.

In terms of race, the black-white balance has been around 50-50 since the school started in 1998, and now there are more than 300 students in grades K-8.

About half the students come from nearby neighborhoods.

Coincidentally, or providentially, the Indianapolis city government started Fall Creek Place, a home ownership renewal program for the area. That effort worked, when so many others had failed, in part because a mayor named Bart Peterson was a real estate developer in his professional background, and he put an intense focus on the project.

The result has been an unusual teamwork between new educational options at Oaks and neighborhood renewal, with a big drop in the crime rate. A charter high school also has been launched in the area, with an emphasis on the arts, providing an option for some students finishing the Oaks.

Another ministry sprang up for the area–Jireh Sports, which offers non-traditional sports such as gymnastics. The leader was Tim Streett, who had seen his father killed by robbers in his yard when he was a teen. Years later he forgave the killers, helping some come to Christ and get out of prison. He has a special credibility when he talks about forgiveness and racial reconciliation.

At the Oaks Academy, academic results are impressive. Students score well ahead of grade level on Iowa tests. The eighth graders do better on math than those from any other school in the state.

Recently the renovated gym was dedicated in honor of Percy Scruggs. One of his friends, Rev. Robert Meadows, recalled for the students how Scruggs cared for the neighborhood and saw his prayers answered even after he could not longer be active because of the Alzheimer’s disease.

“We called it Dodge City,” said Meadows, a public school teacher and lay pastor at a nearby church. “There was dope, crime, all over the streets, violence. But he had a great vision.” Scruggs offered an alternative–a community center filled with activity. At the heart of it was his Saturday morning Bible study for area pastors and friends. He liked to talk about putting shoe leather on the Bible, referring to personal or practical applications.

He soaked up Christian books like a sponge. Sometimes it seemed like he almost memorized one book, Be The Leader You Were Meant To Be, by the late Leroy Eims of the Navigators. Eims had been good friends with RP pastors Roy Blackwood and Ken Smith, helping them with the practical application of 2 Timothy 2:2 in Pittsburgh after World War II. A Marine in the war, Eims wrote with echoes of his military training, with bluntness and clarity about the need for discipline and grace in the Christian life.

Percy Scruggs dreamed of and prayed for a better neighborhood. Those dreams and prayers have come true at Oaks Academy, far more abundantly than even what he requested. A couple of lessons: a) Persevere in prayer and serving others, with the gospel and discipleship. The Lord is listening and will accomplish His kingdom work, even when we get discouraged and think we are failing; b) Dreams and prayers can come true, sometimes after we are disabled from active ministry or go to be with the Lord.

“Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.” (Eph. 3:20-21).

—Russ Pulliam