The people of Ashton United Methodist Church really stepped up. For quite a while, many of them have been supporting the high school students by attending many of their events; true, some of these people are parents or grandparents of these students, but as we all know, life gets busy, and there are times when even parents or grandparents can’t find the time to attend school events, but these people did; including their pastor, Pastor Jan Shaulis.

Ashton UMC volunteers ready to feed the student athletes.

At one of the basketball games, Pastor Jan said to the coach, Mike Messer, “We need to find a way to honor these kids; maybe a breakfast or a pizza night.” Coach Messer replied that they would be having a Saturday game in a couple of weeks, so breakfast would be nice before the game.

By the end of the game, word had been spread, and people had volunteered to bring the pancake mix, orange juice, and milk. A local farm store had even volunteered to supply all the sausages. “Wow!” was all Pastor Jan could say. That Sunday, she passed around a sign-up sheet and prayed she would be able to get 7 or 8 people to volunteer to help; she got 18.

They made invitations to give to each youth of the Jr. Varsity and Varsity teams of both boys and girls, their coaches, and the cheerleaders, as well as a few guests; a total of around 75 people.

Student athletes enjoying the fellowship at Ashton UMC.

Again, Pastor Jan prayed, this time for 25 youth to show up; 65 came. The following Saturday, the youth were invited back for a movie and pizza night, 18 people showed up and had a really great time. They also spent time talking about what they would enjoy doing. Yes, some of the usual things were discussed, like bowling; but Pastor Jan was surprised when many of the youth brought up simple things like chess and monopoly.

This congregation has been working on the idea of redesigning a Sunday school room into a youth room. The parents of a young man, 15 years old, who died this past summer, have been helping with ideas for this room; they are using much of the memorial money to make this a special place where the youth of the community may come and be together. Pastor Jan has many dreams of making a second room for them where it will be a little quieter, and they can play chess or monopoly, have study groups, or simply talk.

By showing up at games, providing food, and openly listening, this is really a congregation that has accepted the challenge of being the hands of Christ to the community.

We enjoy sharing church outreach ministry stories that are making a difference and transforming lives. We hope sharing these success stories will inspire and become learning tools for other churches. If you have a story to share, email communications@umcnic.org.