Hello! My name is Hayden. Me and my wife, Rachael, have had the privilege of serving with Big Creek at the main campus for the past year. My ministry has focused on the teenagers in Leslie County in a youth group-like ministry I’ve called “The Hangout”. In Leslie County, there are a bit over 450 High School students and a few hundred of Middle School students attending the four different Elementary School so there are plenty of students in this county that we can reach and we are only scratching the surface. In our ministry, we have focused on teaching the teens practically how to follow Christ, starting with those who come to our Summer day camps. On average, 40 to 60 teenagers came everyday this summer to our Pool day camp. This year we completely restructured the day camp to include weekly speakers and trips to give our students a one of a kind experience that would give the teens a summer to remember. Since we have to close the pool and school begins in the fall, we have been trying to keep the teens engaged for the whole year, not just the summer.

We try to do so by thinking outside the box on what youth ministry could be. We wanted each event that we do to accomplish several different things. First, we wanted to share the Gospel as often as we could to anyone who would come to these events in order that anyone who comes knows more about Jesus and His good news. Furthermore, we wanted our events to teach our students in what it means to be a disciple of Christ. Many teenagers have heard about Jesus in this area but many have no direction on what it means to live a life following Jesus. Lastly, we wanted our events to be fun and enjoyable experiences. We want our teens to see the joy in serving Christ and fellowshipping with other believers. There are many dark things happening in our student’s lives and we were hoping that the Hangout could be an escape from that.

One of the ways we attempt to accomplish our goals is by getting connected with as many other Godly leaders as we could. The main way we do this is through an event we call the Sunday Hangout. In this weekly event, we pick up 3 to 9 teens each week that wouldn’t normally find themselves in a church (or their guardians wouldn’t take them) and bring them to the various Churches in the area. Our goal is to introduce them to the pastors and people of the church in order to build connections so even if they don’t end up finding a Church home, the teen will have heard the Gospel and know that the Church down the road from their house would be there if they are in need. Afterwards, we take them out to lunch and talk to them about the message they have heard in service. While it is often difficult to keep them focused, we have had many good conversations about Christ and the mission of the Church as well as teaching them how Churches work in general.

We also have the Handymen. This is a group of guys (and one girl) who work on construction projects with our construction leaders. By a miracle of the Lord, we have been able to take many teens who would much rather go home and sleep after school and bring them out to homes in need and do the things many of the volunteers at Big Creek Missions do. Our goal is to not only give them practical skills in building and repairing houses but also give them motivation to do things they never thought they could do. In the process we have created a team of teenagers who are excited and eager to build a ramp or go fix underpinning on a trailer. I’m super excited to see how this group can grow and help the mission of Big Creek by eventually coming on as staff to help with construction.

We also have a Bible Study every Tuesday. We have partnered with Big Creek Baptist to have a study for many of the High School teenagers. Not only are we able to dive deeper into the Word of God but we also are having connections be made between the teens and the Church as the pastor and his wife have worked very hard to make this study as Christ focused and practically based as possible so that the teens (some of which have never experienced a focused Bible study before) to ask deeper questions and apply the scriptures to their lives as opposed to just seeing the Bible as another text book for them to ignore.

Lastly, on the weekends we often have larger events focused on giving teens fun experiences in order to bring their friends and hear the Gospel. These events are the closest we come to a “youth group meeting”. We have movie nights, bonfires, hikes, game nights, and many other things and bring it all back to the Gospel each time. We focus on looking for Christ in everything from his creation to how we are to look at mundane things such as watching movies as ways to focus on Christ. These events are often the most well attended and have shown great promise in bringing more people in to share Christ with so many teens on a more focused level. We have also had volunteers from over the summer come in and host some of these events. I’ve been able to see first hand how a volunteer who came over the summer can make a drastic change because when they come back and see the teens in the off season, teens come in just to catch up. If you have interacted with the teens in this community in any way, please consider coming back in the spring or fall; the impact you have on these teens is so powerful. I encourage you to come and help out on a weekend during the Spring in order that we can work together to share the saving love of Christ to the teens that are open and ready for it.

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- Hayden Heavrin, Teen Ministry Coordinator