By: Rebecca Miller
A few months ago, prior to the quarantine due to the Coronavirus crisis, the Montpelier Ministerial Association which is made up of a number of Montpelier Area churches, decided to bring Youth for Christ to their town’s teens. It has been a process, which of course is on hold for now, but took off especially with the town’s Junior High Students.
Meeting at the Hope Community Center, an outreach of House of Prayer, the pre-teens and teens have had fun together since they launched on Thursday evenings last October. Pastor Ben Harris is the site director and there is a team of ministry leaders.
Mandi Sisco, from Kommon Kravings Cafe, is one of the leaders and every Thursday there are four team leaders present. Food, Fun and Fellowship keep the kids busy and happy. The group has bought pizza over the past months but are hoping to incorporate the churches to bring snacks.
The process began when the Ministerial Association had Archbold YFC staff Luke Nagy, come and share with them about the organization and how it works. Harris said in an interview, “It seemed to be a good landing point for a joint effort. It is not a denominational thing, just all about introducing kids to Jesus.”
Over a period of time they kept meeting with the Defiance Area Director for YFC, Brad Sisson, working out the details and going through the vetting that is required.
Each person who works with kids through YFC has to fill out a simple application and get a background check, so that was accomplished and the ball was rolling.
Youth for Christ offers clubs for kids who are between the ages of eleven and nineteen but soon after starting their group, the Montpelier leaders realized that at this point in time the greatest interest was from the Junior High students, ages 11-15. So that is what has become their focus until in the future a greater interest is shown from the older teens, or these teens reach that age level and want to keep meeting.
Pastor Harris explained that YFC offers different styles of ministry, depending on the area and the group ministering. The MMA decided to go with the City Life model, which is designed for a rural neighborhood of fifteen to twenty blocks of students.
“The goal is to work together as the Local Church, with other like minded people, to develop life long followers of Jesus, through authentic Christ sharing relationships,” Harris said. “It includes widespread prayer, loving relationships, faithful Bible teaching, collaborative community strategy and adults who empower the teens.”
The group chose the City Life Model because it is holistic; meaning empowering them to become lifelong followers of Jesus through spiritual and moral guidance, education, social and civic, health and safety and economic training.
This is a natural fit for the vision and goal of The Hope Center. Not forced partnerships, but a ministry where people are learning job skills, shop class, tools for success in life for community members.
Job and Family Services and NWO Community Action, as well as Juvenile courts are all using The Hope Center and YFC is an addition to all that’s already being done there.
Two phrases that Harris especially likes from YFC that coincide with his ministry philosophy are, “touching the needs of people in practical physical ways” and “an intentional effort to work alongside other organizations to serve young people, their families and their community.”
The churches involved so far are St. John Lutheran, St. Paul United Methodist, First United Methodist, Church of Christ, First Presbyterian, House of Prayer, West Bethesda/Eagle Creek Presbyterian having helped with training and some costs, such as for the pizza. House of Prayer provides the internet and a place to meet.
There is a real need for ladies to get involved as the group is 3/4 girls. During the time when they break into small groups, they would prefer to have ladies leading the girls and men leading the boys.
For anyone in the community who would like to get involved, contact Pastor Ben at House of Prayer at 419-212-4310 and he will put you on the track to help.
When things get rolling again, after the shut down, anyone who would like to provide snacks for around 30, can call ahead and get scheduled, or Email – bharris@defyfc.org.
If you find yourself interested, be sure to write that number down on your calendar in May or June, so you can touch base when things are up and running again.
Mrs. Sisco shared that every time they meet, it is an exciting time. The kids get to play pool, ping pong, board games and even have fun with some gaming systems, but they also hear a teaching and break into small groups to discuss it.
“We are making great connections,” Mandi said. She and is surprised how much she loves it, as it was out of her comfort zone at first. “When we see them outside the group meeting, they get excited.
They come into Kommon Kravings just to see me and say hi and they call me Mom.” It blesses her that the students are the ones initiating the conversations and sometimes she gets to meet their parents and other family members.
Harris stated that they are still discovering YFC policies so they are in the learning curve. They hope to start the Senior group sometime in the future but this set up is giving them time to learn and adjust to get ready to that as well. Of course they will need more volunteers.
He is looking forward to meeting again, but during this time, with YFC’s Risk Management Strategy, they are spending time on FaceTime with the students and talking on the phone. “We are finding out their needs and praying with them, making sure their families are ok. We are communicating with each other as leaders, to get equipped to do this better,” Harris said in a phone interview.
Montpelier Youth for Christ will not be meeting until Defiance Area YFC gives the all clear. The staff wants the students to know if they have a need or just want to talk to reach out to them on FaceBook or call them, as they would love to hear from them.
Rebecca can be reached at publisher@thevillagereporter.com
