Youth See Dreams Become Reality

Story by Liz Bailey

Shortly after Jeremy Garlock accepted the call to serve as Mountain View Conference’s (MVC) new youth director and pastor of the Boulevard church in Charleston, W.Va., he attended a meeting at the Columbia Union Conference. It was at this meeting that he discovered information about special funding opportunities allocated for youth-led outreach initiatives.

Upon his return home, Garlock called upon the youth and young adults at camp meeting. Excitedly, the young people talked about what they could do for their communities, like feeding those experiencing homelessness and helping new moms who were underprivileged.

On September 6, the conference saw its dream become a reality. Twenty-three youth and young adults gathered from across the MVC ready to serve God and others. They set out into the surrounding neighborhoods, where they delivered food, hygiene products and clothing to more than 62 individuals.

Excited from the joy of blessing others, they returned to the church that evening and opened the doors of the fellowship hall for a community baby shower. Eighteen mothers, and even a few fathers, were seated at tables in a beautifully decorated room surrounded by gifts, such as diapers, wipes, bottles, formula, clothing, highchairs, car seats, bathtubs, and even cribs, playpens and bassinets. As the young people watched the parents open the gifts, they say they felt more blessed than the recipients.

“This ministry has been meaningful to so many,” states Garlock, “and has given us the ability to connect with people in our community that we otherwise would not have connected with. As a result of this ministry with the young people, I have had the opportunity to visit moms and their babies in the hospital and pray with them, new families are coming to church, and the church family has united under mission.”