Q&A with Cathy Jobson, Volunteer at DTCS

March 19, 2025

I first heard about Dawn Treader School several years ago and was introduced to Pastor Charles Salinas at a local fundraising event. I began receiving the school’s newsletter and learning more about Dawn Treader. At the time, I was volunteering at another school in Paterson and that opportunity ended when the Covid-19 pandemic started.


A couple years ago, I approached Pastor Charles about volunteering after school or during the school hours to help the students with Math. I provide one-on-one assistance to those children who might need extra time or help to understand the Math facts being taught.

It is so rewarding to see how that little extra time helps them understand the concepts better. I love seeing the “light-bulb” go on.

I always want to be a light for Christ, an encouragement to the students and teachers, and to make a difference one student at a time. The more love a child feels each day the more likely they are to like themselves and be kind and loving to others.


I love the family feel that permeates in everything at Dawn Treader and that all the teachers and staff are caring Christians.


If you’d like to volunteer and make a difference at Dawn Treader too, please contact Dr. Ken Welch (the school’s principal) or Pastor Charles Salinas (executive director) via the link BELOW.


You will be a blessing to others and so blessed in return.


I want to Volunteer >

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Meet Dana Roberts

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Meet Dana Roberts, Alumnus and President of our First-ever Alumni As sociation

7 Things to know About Pastor Charles

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1. He served as a corrections officer in Passaic County before joining Dawn Treader. 2. He is the father of four children, all girls. 3. He has been married for 25 years, and last month celebrated that milestone anniversary. 4. He is the founder of King of Kings Worship Ministries and City Impact in Paterson. 5. He is a traveling missionary, often serving people in the Dominican Republic. 6. He has served in ministry in Paterson for 30 years and has a heart for children, young adults and Christian education. 7. He names his dogs after characters from the Little Rascals. Bonus Fact: He will never shave his beard.

Meet Maria Rivera Jones

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My prayer has always been "Blessed are those who fear the Lord, who find great delight in His commands. Their children will be mighty in the land; the generation of the upright will be blessed." Psalm 112:1-2

Saved to Serve A Lesson from Narnia

April 29, 2025
In the early 1970s there was a group of Christians who gathered as a missional prayer group to help provide Christian Education for students of Paterson and Passaic who could not afford it. They purchased the current building, which had been abandoned for nearly 40 years in July 1977 with the school opening in September. The decision had been made to name the school Dawn Treader, borrowed from the CS Lewis book The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, one of seven of the Chronicles of Narnia. Pastor Stan VanderKlay, of Northside Chapel CRC and ECUMP Board member, preached at the Sunrise service the day before the school opened and explained in his sermon the reason for this name. I quote from Stan’s message as recorded in his book Chains of Grace: “The Son of God was incarnated in Narnia as a large golden lion named Aslan, who had once offered himself to be slaughtered, but then came alive again to save the Narnians from the corruption of sin which had entered that world. Dawn Treader was a sailing ship on a royal mission to the East, toward Aslans’s country. Three children of our world were looking at a picture of that Viking-type, single sail ship with its dragon head and tail splashing through the waves when suddenly they began to get wet and then found themselves drawn into the real Narnian seas. Rescued by the Dawn Treader they spent more than a year on that mission having many adventures and learning much about life and faith. “Near the end they were directed to go to the side shore of the sea. Aslan met them there, opened a door in the sky which ushed them back into their real world and told them that there they would come to know him by a different name. Their voyage on the DT would help them learn how to live Christianly back at home. “Dawn Treaders are people of the Son” was our motto. In this living history lesson, in a mill where children once worked long, hard days weaving sild, brightness would now be woven into their lives, so that with Christ as the center of everything, their voyage in our Dawn Treader would, we prayed, empower them to live relevantly for Christ in the real world .” Jesus saves us to live in a relationship with God not just so we can go to heaven after we die, but so we can live out Christ’s mission while we live. We are “saved to serve.” Just like Aslan sent the children back to their world Jesus sends us out into His world to carry out his mission of “making disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you.” Matthew 28:19 Our goal is to disciple each child at Dawn Treader to follow Jesus so they can then also make disciples. Thank you for all you do to help our students on their academic and Jesus- following journey.