New church program underway at Lodgepole Methodist

A Jesus And Me (JAM) Club has been started for the first time by Pastor Ezekiel Koech and his congregation at the Lodgepole United Methodist Church.

The weekly event is sponsored by church members and occurs every Wednesday from 3:50 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.

The club is free and open to school age children.

“It is for all the kids in the community,” said Koech. “We had seven kids last week and the kids say they are excited and that they will bring their friends next time. Kids love a place with food and fun.”

Paster Koech has been at the Lodgepole church for three years and said that his congregation decided that they should create an event that could get children involved in the church.

“We had a congregational meeting and the congregation said that we are getting old,” said Pastor Koech. “We figured in days to come that we would be forced to shutdown in the long run, so we thought we had to begin somewhere.”

“This will help us to reach out to the children. We don’t have many children in our church; we only havetwo kids who come regularly,” said the Pastor.

The first JAM event took place on March 6 and had terrific results, according to Pastor Koech.

“We plan to keep the program going and we will do it every week, even during the summer,” he said. “We have announced it and talked to the schools and told them that from 3:50 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. the program will be held. Any child may just show up.”

“The church is just a walk from home or a walk from Lodgepole Middle School,” said church officials.

The event provides “food and fun” weekly for children in the community and is a community effort.

Church members provide the food by signing up to bring snacks each week.

“We plan not to study bible at this moment,” said Pastor Koech. “They just come in, they fix lunch and they do things hands on, like they are working on a quilt now.”

Pastor Koech said that they tailor the crafts using alphabet characters and will continue different ongoing projects each week.

“This is for all age groups,” he said. “The quilt can be done by any kids school age and they are enjoying it because it is something they can do as long as they know how to read.”

Pastor Koech said that the main goal of this ongoing event is not only to get more children involved in church, but also to show them that church is a safe place for them.

“What we are trying to do is let kids know that church is a safe place to go and play, not only to watch God,” he said. “Church is not like a business premises where you can look through the window and see what is going on. You can’t see what is going on inside and if you cannot see what is going on inside it can be scary to go in. So we are opening the doors to let them go in and see that this is a safe place to be and that there is nothing to be scared of. We are trying to familiarize kids with the church.”

“This is for future generations and for the future of the church,” said Pastor Koech.