Emily with a few of the RISE kids
-Emily Yutzy
“I really like people,” Emily says. “It’s
interesting to me how you can learn
something new from everyone you meet.”
Emily works as a receptionist at a health
and wellness center in Hutchinson,
Kansas, where she has many opportunities
to meet people. She also enjoys running
outdoors, Pinterest, trying new recipes,
and sampling new and ethnic foods. “I
love my family,” she says. “I have eight
nieces and nephews.”
How she got involved: “I guess I
was one of the people that helped start
RISE. There was a group of us friends, all
teenagers, and one of my friends brought
up the idea of starting a kids’ church.
“Somehow I used to have this weird idea
that the only people who needed Jesus
were overseas in poor countries. But
through some friends I had made in town,
I started to realize there were people right
in my very own town who needed to be
shown the love of Jesus.”
Emily and her five friends talked and
prayed and held meetings, and one
Tuesday evening they held their first kids’
church in a rental building in Hutchinson
that one of their dads owned.
“We didn’t know how it was gonna go. We
had a couple kids that said they wanted to
come, and that’s how we started. We were
in a super tiny little building, basically two
rooms. We had worship in one room, and
then we played kickball and had snack in
there. It will be four years this fall since
we started, and I’m pretty sure none of us
imagined it would ever get this big.”
in prayer and discussing
the evening. Hash time
ends at ten, the close of an
action-packed and energyexpending four hours.
A favorite story:
“One
of the things I really like
about RISE, other than
working with the children,
is interacting with their
parents. I’ve become pretty
good friends with some
parents on my pick-up route.
There was one family where I
hardly ever saw the parents.
I know they were drinking
a lot. The mom might come
to the door occasionally,
and once I could tell she was
crying. It seemed really
dark.
WOMEN IN
“One day the kids
came to church all
excited saying, ‘Hey, our
parents got saved the
other day.’
“I have to admit I was
skeptical, but I’m like, ‘Oh,
that’s cool. I wanna talk to
them.’
“So I went in and talked to
the parents, and they were
different. They had definitely
had a conversion experience.
I don’t know all the details,
but I know the dad had a
dream he feels was straight from God.
CHILDREN’S MINISTRY
“There was a huge difference in the home
after that. I would pick up the kids, and
the parents would be having Bible study.
They would ask, ‘How are our kids doing,
and what can we do to help?’ They became
the friendliest parents on my route.
Angela and Yazmin
THE BEGINNINGS
Nowadays, RISE is held Tuesday evenings
in the spacious Word of Life church, with
45 staff and an average attendance of 110
kids.
“That experience was a major faith
strengthener. God has to exist because
there is no way they could have changed
that drastically otherwise.”
Staff meet at six o’clock for prep time,
then begin their planned pick-up routes
at six thirty. Worship time starts at seven
and is led by two worship teams, one for
the teens and one for the other children.
After worship, the children split into age
groups, or tracks, for a Bible message and
Bible memory, then come together again
for games and snack. Teen activities are
kept completely separate.
How she sees God at work: “One
way I see God working in RISE is in the
small things you don’t think about. The
things you look back on and see, Yeah,
this is how God was preparing us, and
this is how he provided. He was faithful
then, so we know we can trust in the
future.
MENTORING TO
MATURITY
“When we first started, we were so
dependent on God. We spent a lot of time
crying out to Him, praying for direction.
We told Him, ‘If this is gonna work,
You’re gonna have to show up.’”
Angela is a massage therapist and owner
of Oasis Massage for Women. “I’ve been
doing massage for four years,” she says,
“and I recently took on another massage
When kids’ church ends, staff drop off
children and meet back at headquarters
for hash time, where they spend time
56
- Angela Yoder
TH