Originally posted in February 2022
In the city of Brandon, across the parking lot to the south of Richmond Park MB Church is a neighbourhood called Argyle Courts. It is filled with a diverse population of newcomers to Canada and, for the most part, didn’t have a strong connection with the church next door.
A few years ago a group of people from Richmond Park wanted to change that, so they began to bridge the gap by opening up a new ministry called Club To Go - an after school drop in for kids. Every Tuesday the church opened up their doors to kids from the neighbourhood for snacks, chapel and activities. Led by the Children’s Pastor, Aggie Buhler, they spread the word by putting flyers in mailboxes and pretty soon the ministry grew to about 40-50 kids every week.
Kids stream through the door and up the stairs to the youth room where they are warmly welcomed by volunteers and snacks. After settling in, they participate in chapel then off to a variety of activities prepared for them.
Volunteers for the club are a mix of people from Richmond Park and, more recently, older kids who attended the club but don’t want to stop coming! The church is thrilled with the opportunity to teach leadership skills and raise up the next generation to be passionate leaders. Some of these students have also joined the Richmond Park youth group, growing deeper relationships and connections. In some ways, the whole church is involved in this outreach because snacks are collected from members of the congregation.
The pandemic caused the program to shut down for the winter of 2020 but when government health orders allowed, they opened up again in the winter of 2021 and have been able to continue running their normal programming since.
But the pandemic shut downs didn’t stop Richmond Park from reaching out even further.
During the summer of 2020 they started up a new ministry called Adventure Day Camps. The church applied for Green Team grants and hired 4 summer staff that increased to 8 staff for the 2021 year. They opened up their doors to kids every day of the summer and the kids loved it. They not only had children from across the street, but the adventure day camps saw kids from around the city coming as they heard about it from friends and family.
Richmond Park is planting seeds in the hearts of these kids and their hope and prayer is that these seeds sprout and grow as the children keep coming and hearing stories about Jesus, making the connections and knowing that the church is a safe place.
Please pray for the leaders of Richmond Park and that the hearts of the kids who walk through their doors are open to the message of the gospel.
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