LOGANSPORT — Since October, Main Street Community Church Pastor Doug Thomas and pastoral assistant Michelle Remley have been visiting Fairview Elementary School. Each week, they not only spend time with students, but also lend an ear to listen to whatever may be on their mind.
According to Remley, they spend time and talk with kids from kindergarten to fourth grade during their lunch hour.
Thomas said the idea for this came a few months ago, when Remley came up to him and said God was calling her into ministry. One of the things God laid on her heart was to be with the city’s youth, he said.
In addition, Remley said they have had multiple conversations about kids in the community and mental health concerns. She said kids are needing good role models and trusting people who they can talk to about anything.
“And so, we worked it out with Fairview that we can go over and we can just sit and talk with kids at lunch and just see that positive role model that they need in their lives,” Remley said. “Suicide rate in the community is so high that we’ve got to start, the younger the better really, getting these kids to understand that they’re loved and there are people out there that they can reach out to for help.”
According to Remley, the kids love when they visit. She said kids come running up to them for hugs, to tell them something or to play games like rock paper scissors. They talk with the students about how their week is going or how their team is doing if they participate in sports. However, she said there are also lots of serious conversations they have with the students.
“It’s kind of sad because kids worry about a lot of stuff too that they shouldn’t have to worry about,” Remley said. “And kids talk to me about their parents’ relationships and they’ve talked to me about being worried because they don’t know when the next time is they’re going to get to see their siblings because they don’t live with their siblings, their extended family that live in other countries that they don’t get to see.”
One conversation Remley remembers having was when she asked a little girl about her Thanksgiving, to which the girl said it was good, but they did not have any food. She said this was an eye-opener for her, and led to her starting a Fairview outreach program which helps kids with their lunch accounts. Within two weeks, she said members of the church had paid off more than $300 in lunch accounts. This action is something anyone in the community can do as well to help out schools and kids, Remley said.
“We can’t obviously go into their homes and check out everything, but we can at least get them food while they’re at school,” Remley said. “So, we’ve collected some more money and plan on going over there and donating that with the donations we have and continuing that.”
In addition to their lunch visits, Remley said they have also started a weekly afterschool program at Main Street Community Church for kids from kindergarten through fourth grade. CLUB FM, which stands for “follow me,” offers homework help, snacks and a Bible lesson.
From their visits, Remley hopes the kids feel like they can trust and talk to them. She also hopes that they understand there are adults in the community who love and care for them. While they are not allowed to discuss religion at school, she said one can show God through actions and not discussion.
“We watch the news and it seems like our world’s broken, but when you walk into Fairview with several different cultures and seeing them laughing together, it gives us an example of what God wants us to be,” Thomas said. “No matter who we are, where we’re from, what we look like, that they genuinely love each other. So, we’ve been blessed to see what that’s supposed to look like and gives us all hope.”
