As the students of Grove City College head into spring break this weekend, the Center for Rural Ministry asks for prayer for the teams of students who will be hitting the road as members of student-led service groups to surrounding rural communities.
Grove City College has been sending out Inter-Community Outreach (ICO) teams of servant-minded students to communities across the country (and even internationally) since 1988. For these students, the nine days of spring break are filled with forging connections in a specific community, usually by volunteering their services to local churches and ministries, communicating with their leaders, and finding creative and meaningful ways to support those organizations through hands-on service and joining in worship. These trips often require substantial travel - students must buckle up for a road trip to Kentucky or pack their passport and catch a flight to Guatemala. But when CRM began sponsoring ICO teams in 2021, the goal was always to get students into local rural communities in a two-hour radius.
Growing Interest, Expanding Reach
The program of events for these CRM ICO teams has never been so exciting and far-reaching as this year, when—for the first time—three teams will be hitting the road on Saturday, February 28. The need for three teams arose from the increase in student interest this year—34 students are using their spring breaks to encourage and learn from local rural pastors and ministry leaders. Thirteen will target communities south of Grove City, centering around New Castle and Somerset, Pennsylvania, thirteen will head north to the Pennsylvania towns of Kane and Meadville as well as Fillmore, NY, and eight will be forging completely new connections with ministries in Cadiz, Ohio.
The team leads for each of these groups have all seen the growth and enthusiasm around the program grow over the past few years, and they are excited to see what the Lord has in store for this year. This is the fourth year that Nevada Pacifico and Jack Johnston, who are leading the new trip to Cadiz, have been involved in CRM trips. “We’re practically veterans,” Pacifico laughed. “It’s really fun going to different places and having different team dynamics each year. It can be so different that I try not to have expectations going in each year.”
When asked what has brought her and her team members back each year, she said, “We love it so much, and we want other people to experience what rural ministry is. You go in, and you learn so much from the pastors, stepping into their world a little bit. It is super inspiring and can sometimes be super convicting.”
John Garrett, who is serving with the Southern PA team, expanded on that sentiment: “I think it is really helpful for a lot of the smaller churches that don’t have a lot of younger people to see us loving the Lord and working with them, so we love to go in and encourage them. And then they’re also encouraging us, helping us see the unity we have.”
He remembers a specific conversation he had with a pastor his team will visit in Somerset, PA. “Scott Steltzer, who’s the pastor at St. Paul’s Presbyterian, has really emphasized that we have to see the beauty and the richness of walking into these places. These are not forgotten places, they are God’s places, and God has not moved on from them.”
Service and Mutual Encouragement
All three teams shared a commitment to fostering these types of mutually encouraging conversations with the pastors and leaders of the places where they will be serving this break. Lila Stonehouse, who is serving on the Northern PA team, said that her team is intentionally blocking off an hour or two with each pastor to “talk with them, hear their stories, pray for them, and learn about rural ministry and what their struggles look like.”
Churches have been the centers for contact and communication with each of the communities, but the types of ministries and organizations that these churches have initiated or partnered with in their local communities are incredibly diverse. The student leaders headed to Cadiz, OH, shared glowing descriptions of a youth ministry that connects several small churches in the area, with the hopes of providing youth in the community with a robust youth group experience led by members of various churches. The Southern PA team is excited to join with members of Living Faith Church in Fombell, PA, and observe the church's Garage ministry at work in the community as it provides affordable or free automobile repair services to those in need while also sharing the Gospel. These diverse types of ministry highlight the creativity and intentionality of those at work for the Kingdom in rural places.
How to Pray
All three teams ask for prayer as they head out at the end of the week. Isaya Miller, co-leader of the Northern PA trip, echoed the heart of all the groups when he asked for “prayers for the pastors and a lot of the leadership in these churches. We want this to be an encouragement for them to keep on pressing on in the ministry.”
Johnston asked for prayers that the teams would avoid burnout and would have ample time for reflection, conversation, and prayer during the busy week. He also asked for prayers for new student leaders to begin to rise up during this week – many of the returning members of the teams are in their senior year, and they are eager to pour into a new group of student leaders who are passionate about rural ministry and will be able to continue the work of these teams in future years.
Pacifico shared her prayer that the work of the teams would be fruitful in building relationships with these communities and connecting them with CRM’s resources, and that they would maintain an open-heartedness to adapting plans if new service opportunities arose through the week.
Garrett furthered this thought by reflecting on his prior experiences and his goals for this new year: “We want to love the body of Christ in all its variety and glory and beauty, and to get to embrace some of the different ways in which the churches do things in these rural places.”
Anastasia Brown is a junior English Secondary Education major at Grove City College. She also serves as writing fellow for the Center for Rural Ministry.
