In November 2020, our church family in Arlington organized a Youth Council. It is comprised of several teenage youth (Jacob Skelley, Maddie Hoffer and Madeline Skelley) and a young adult mentor (Kylee Anderson) who volunteered to bring their incredible energy and voices forward. These youth voices will be assisting the church board as it shapes its outreach programs and makes plans for youth centered evangelism.
During December they worked in partnership with the Salvation Army to ring bells at the local grocery store, and organized a church outing at “Feed My Starving Children” in Chanhassen (where several adults joined them). Later in December they made cards which were mailed out to community friends who are interested in the church and members who are unable to attend church each Sabbath. In addition, this council prepared and coordinated the delivery of baskets filled with gift cards, food and other items to families in Arlington who they have come to know from various outreach programs conducted over the last few years, such as VBS and a bi-weekly kid’s night program.
Their energy and excitement to reach others for Jesus by showing His love in a tangible way is infectious. This has resulted in a tremendous outpouring of support for them both verbally and financially, and has brought our church family even closer together. Some plans currently in the pipeline for our Youth Council include a youth worship service, another night at “Feed My Starving Children,” a youth-to-youth evangelistic series this summer and brief video clip messages from The Chosen and Tell the World during the break between Sabbath school and the worship service.
We are also blessed to have a very young member, Ruthie Hoffer, who has a heart for the homeless. She has saved her allowance and birthday/baptismal money to buy supplies and prepare outreach packets for the homeless youth in the Twin Cities. To accomplish her dream of making a difference in the lives of homeless youth she has reached out to YouthLink in Minneapolis, who will be able to deliver her packets directly to the most vulnerable.
Since her passion has become public, she has been contacted by a growing number of volunteers who would like to assist her in preparing packets, and others who would like to help finance the continuation of her mission of love. Plans are underway to name her ministry and order T-shirts for volunteers to wear while working with her on the packets. She hopes this will raise awareness of Jesus by lifting Him up in communities around our state.
