Great Neighbors: Church Youth Groups
If you happened to be downtown last week on Saturday, you would have seen an interesting sight – dozens of kids out sweeping the sidewalks of Idaho Falls.
The youth group from the Church of the Nazarene and the young men and young women from the Shamrock Park ward of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints met downtown as their leaders explained the project.
“Idaho Falls doesn’t need its faith groups to be divided – it needs its faith groups to find common ground,” Church of the Nazarene youth pastor, Tim Meeks, said. “As we got discussing what that common ground is, we decided that common ground is community service.”
“In the end we’re all just people trying to make our community a better place and worship the way we know best,” Shamrock Park Ward Young Men’s President, Todd Hansen, said.
In the parking lot the teams came together for their assignments and care was taken that each team had members of both youth groups mixed together.
There were no complaints – just excitement to be outside on a nice day with old friends and new acquaintances.
“I think it’s really fun getting to know everyone from other churches and mingling with them because we don’t really do this a lot,” Laura Urling from the Shamrock Park Ward said.
“I think it’s really fun getting to know different people and how they work,” Abbi Dyal from the Church of the Nazarene said.
“It’s cool to talk to them – they seem like very neat kids and it’s good to get to know them,” Jake Hansen from the Shamrock Park Ward said.
Streets were swept, leaves were raked, and through it all there were plenty of smiles and laughs and good times.
“Having a blast, making some laughs, sweeping some streets, helping some people out, that’s what we’re here for,” Anthony Ferrell from the Church of the Nazarene said.
The fact they were different religions didn’t seem to matter.
“And it’s cool to meet other people because when it comes down to it your religion doesn’t necessarily make you a better person or a worse person,” Spencer Shull of the Shamrock Park Ward said.
“I don’t think it matters too much about your religion – we’re here to help the community and that’s all that matters,” Anthony Ferrell said.
The event was such a success that the two youth groups plan to get together again.
