ERIE (BRN) – An annual staple at Cross Creek Community Church’s Vacation Bible School (VBS) is to challenge the young attendees to give to a missional cause.
“One of the things that we do every year as part of our VBS is we raise money for missionaries [and] missions projects,” explained Cross Creek Senior Pastor and BRN Church Health Consultant Josh Coldren.
This year, Coldren was hoping to find a cause that hit a little closer to home for the VBS kiddos, specifically searching for a way the children could give towards something that would benefit others their age.
As he started to look over the projects being offered for Serve Erie, the BRN’s inaugural Serve PA/SJ mission effort taking place at the end of September, Coldren quickly saw that many of the projects would benefit kids in Erie.
“This (Serve Erie) is right here within our home state and is a great opportunity to not only give towards projects that are specifically for kids in the community there in Erie, but also I felt like there was going to be a good connection to take people from our church to Serve Erie,” said Coldren.
July 22-26, Cross Creek Community Church in Shavertown, Pennsylvania, hosted over 400 kids for their week-long VBS.
Each night, kids could contribute to the Serve Erie offering. Some nights this was through friendly competition between the age ranges, such as elementary versus preschool or students against leaders, but most nights the donations came just from the kids wanting to contribute.
“There were kids walking in with their piggy banks. Literally, a kid had his piggy bank and walked in and dumped it out into the collection bin,” recalled Coldren.
At the end of their VBS week, Cross Creek Community raised $3,691 for Serve Erie.
“I think it teaches children the obedience that we see in Scripture of giving back to God. Yes, you’re giving towards these projects, but, ultimately, you’re giving to the Lord, and that’s the most important thing,” said Coldren.
Inspired by the funds raised by the young hearts at Cross Creek, Noelson Chery, senior pastor at First Haitian Metanoia Baptist Church in Lansdowne, Pennsylvania, and BRN ethnic church health consultant, encouraged his youth students to take up a special offering for Serve Erie.
The youth of First Haitian Metanoia, ages ranging from 7-21, took this challenge and exceeded Chery’s expectations, setting a goal of $1,000.
“The idea was to challenge ourselves,” said Chery, noting that the students were giving in addition to their usual weekly tithe.
“It was not the regular offerings of the church, it [was] above our regular offerings, and the kids came together and said they would contribute even more,” said Chery.
Many of the students supplemented their giving with earnings made through part time summer jobs and funds they already had saved.
“Being a part of this was a really good thing, and I thought it was very beautiful to see people giving money,” said student and Secretary of Youth Affairs Naomi Previlus.
She continued: “I don’t have a job and can’t really give too much, but it was very nice to see people contribute, and I just believe that God will help us bless more people.”
One student, Maria Keyes, found a creative way to increase her portion.
“To contribute some more money than what we were putting in before, I made and sold buffalo chicken dip to people in my neighborhood. I just advertised it on my social medias, and I sold eight trays of it,” said Keyes.
The First Haitian Metanoia youth met their goal quickly and, through the whole experience, learned what the Lord will do with a faithful “yes.”
“It was a good lesson for us. There are people who can’t, and don’t have the opportunity to, bless someone every single week, let alone doing it all together with us being teenagers,” said Keyes.
She continued: “I think that’s big, because there are kids our age who don’t do things like this; there are people who are older than us who don’t do things like this. So, being able to see a group of teenagers come together every week to put $20, $10 or what we can to bless someone else, I think that’s beautiful.”
First Haitian Metanoia Baptist Church was planted with the next generation in mind, after Noelson and his wife, Edna, discovered that most Haitian churches in their community worship in Haitian Creole, whether the younger members of the congregation can speak Creole or not.
Noelson and Edna now get to walk alongside these young people and encourage them to trust in the Lord and what He can do with their faithfulness.
“One thing we’re trying to see is to get out of our comfort zone…so I am overjoyed to see that they (the students) are catching up, that they are understanding the vision,” said Chery.
The students shared a collective hope that the Lord would expand the money they gave and bless many people in Erie, a city located over 400 miles from them.
“I hope what God does is not only expands on it, but also inspires others,” said Jeshua Chery, student musician at First Haitian Metanoia and son of Chery.
“This can be a huge inspiration knowing that kids contributed to something big in the Kingdom. It will bring glory to God, because we do this for God’s glory.”
