Youth outreach reaches out

Some of the kids come from broken homes, from families that are too busy to care, from households where drugs and alcohol are sometimes more important than food.

Three times a week, they flock to Salem Lutheran Church in the West Central Neighborhood, where they eat a meal, play games and talk to young adults who know their names and have learned their stories.

Youth for Christ – an international nonprofit group committed to youth evangelism and “biblical Christianity” – revamped its efforts in Spokane two years ago in order to reach out specifically to low-income children as young as 12 in West Central. This summer, Youth for Christ started a program for sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders at Salem Lutheran that has drawn more than 40 kids from the neighborhood.

On Tuesday, the organization launched a capital campaign to raise $350,000 for the Youth for Christ City Life Youth Center at 1309 N. Ash. The center, which will require the renovation of an old warehouse, will house a drop-in center, a skate ministry, mentoring and tutoring programs, parenting workshops and other offerings for area families. The warehouse was donated to Youth for Christ by Bill Bates, owner of Bates Pharmacy.

“This will help children in need, as well as their parents,” said Harvey Bolton, a board member of Youth for Christ and a trustee of Whitworth College. “This will change lives and help transform the neighborhood.”

For the most part, the kids who take part in Youth for Christ’s offerings have never gone to church. Some don’t have a clue about Jesus. Many came out of the woodwork only after they learned that free food was available.

But instead of shoving religion down their throats, the young adults who run the program focus on providing kids with an alternative to crime and idleness, teaching them life skills and letting them know they have somewhere to go if they need help.

The kids may be vaguely aware of the organization’s religious affiliation, but the reason they come lies in the free activities and the relationships they’ve established with Josh Roe and Mary Scheuerman, who spearheaded the West Central efforts.

“They call what we do, ‘church,’ ” said Scheuerman, a Whitworth graduate with a degree in secondary education. The word isn’t part of the vocabulary they use with the kids, but slowly, through example, they learn more about Christianity, she said.

“We’re very nonthreatening and take a more evangelistic approach,” said Roe, who graduated from Western Washington University with a degree in recreation management.

Scheuerman, who’s almost 26, and Roe, 28, have made a commitment to the West Central neighborhood and the children they serve every day. The two – whose salaries are paid by local churches and religious organizations – not only wanted to work in West Central, they also chose to live in the neighborhood. Scheuerman, lives with three other women in Ministry House, which is part of the West Central Co-Op. Roe, who recently got married, bought a house just a few blocks from Salem Lutheran.

All the kids know where they live. They consider them their friends, said Katrina Hartzog, 11.

“They understand us,” said Hartzog, who will be a sixth-grader at Holmes Elementary in the fall. “They help us with all our problems.”

Until the new 7,000-square-foot youth center is available, the children of the neighborhood will continue meeting this summer at Salem Lutheran, where they spend Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays doing a variety of activities such as skateboarding, learning karate or how to play the guitar, and going on field trips.

Many of the kids who come have never left West Central, let alone Spokane, said Scheuerman. Later this summer, Youth for Christ hopes to rent some buses and bring the kids to Coeur d’Alene.

Since they started their ministry in West Central, Roe and Scheuerman already have seen changes, both in the kids they serve and also in the neighborhood, which has been the target of numerous Christian ministries.

Tara Jaime, 11, used to be the kind of kid who threw fits if she didn’t get what she wanted. When she first started taking part in Youth for Christ events earlier this year, she kicked some of the volunteers and bullied the other kids.

“I thought it was weird, I didn’t know nobody,” said Jaime, who will be a Holmes sixth-grader. “I kept coming because it gave me something to do.”

Although there’s still a sense of defiance about her, Jaime has become less willful and more respectful toward the adults and other kids. “I like to hang out with everybody,” she said.

Youth for Christ eventually hopes to use its West Central model to start other ministries in Spokane, possibly in East Central and Hillyard.

“I felt called to work with kids in a Christian environment,” said Roe. “We came to this with a heart for lost and broken kids. We see ourselves as a part of greater Christian body.”