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But everything changed for the third-grade teacher when she “felt a tugging from God” to be in full-time ministry.
“I had no clue what that was to look like, but I knew I had to explore the possibilities,” says Ashley, now 28.
She considered attending seminary, but decided that wasn’t the right path to take at the time.
“I felt Christ was calling, but I just didn’t know the answer,” she says.
Her path became clear when she learned about the Presbyterian Church (USA)’s Young Adult Volunteer (YAV) program, which since 1994 has provided yearlong mission opportunities for young people between the ages of 19 and 30.
Volunteers serve in the United States and overseas. They live together in community, serve in Christian ministries and meet regularly for prayer and Bible study.
As of 2002, more than 600 young people had participated in the program, which is sponsored by the National Volunteers Office in the PC(USA)’s National Ministries Division.
Ashley says she got exactly what she needed: “A year to serve God, and a year to discern what God was calling me to do in ministry.”
In September 2001, she was called to North Presbyterian Church, an urban congregation with about 100 active members in an impoverished neighborhood in Cincinnati, OH.
She worked with troubled children and served Churches Active in Northside (CAIN), which provides crisis assistance to more than 200 families a month — helping them with food, rent and utility assistance, bus tokens, clothing, and household items.
Through a partnership between Cincinnati’s Council of Urban Churches and the YAV program, Ashley built relationships with people around her “while developing a closer relationship with God.”
At the Cincinnati church, she led youth groups, took part in Bible studies, taught Sunday school classes and escorted kids on mission trips, including one to Mexico.
Hoping to accomplish more, she got permission to stay in the program for a second year. Toward the end of that follow-up year, her calling for the immediate future became clear.
“I came away knowing that He was not finished with me in Cincinnati,” Ashley says. “I had more to learn and more to do.”
She was soon hired by North Presbyterian as an urban missioner in youth and children’s ministry and by the Presbytery of Cincinnati as the site coordinator for the YAV program in Cincinnati.
“When I see these kids and their struggles,” she says, “and to be able to have an opportunity to make an impact in their lives and in the lives of their parents ... is just an awesome responsibility, and it’s very humbling.”
She has the Pentecost Offering to thank for some of her life-transforming experiences.
The YAV program is supported by the Offering, one of four special offerings of the PC(USA). It is collected on Pentecost Sunday, which this year is on May 30.
Sixty-percent of the money collected will go to national-level PC(USA) programs for children, youth and young adults, including the Child Advocacy Office, the Presbyterian Youth Connection and Young Adult Volunteers.
Congregations will keep the other 40 percent to pay for projects for children deemed “at risk.”
The first Pentecost Offering was collected in 1998. So far the proceeds have totaled almost $4 million, according to Billie Healy, project manager for the Offering.
This year’s Offering theme is “Together with Christ We Will Be Given What God Has Promised,” from Paul’s Epistle to the Romans. The emphasis is the promise of the gospel — the certainty that God is with us now and is propelling us into a future of justice and joy.
Ashley’s story and her ministry at North Presbyterian typify the successes of the Pentecost Offering in making a difference in children’s lives, Healy said.
“It is one concrete way people can make a difference, not only in their community, but also in the church,” she said. “We need to invest in them — make space for their growth — so they can lead their church into the next generation.”
How can congregations invest their portion of the offering? Among the suggestions of the Pentecost Offering leader’s guide:
- Become a partner in existing programs in your presbytery or synod.
- Combine your share of the Offering with those of other congregations in your area to address a community need.
- Sponsor someone who works with “at-risk” children or youth.
- Provide support for a local food pantry.
- Purchase car seats for infants.
- Support your local fire department’s safety education program.
Pentecost Offering packets were mailed to congregations in February. To order additional materials, call (800) 524-2612. Many resources, including some in Spanish, can be downloaded from the Offering Web site: www.pcusa.org/pentecost.
For more information contact Teresa Mader by email at tmader@ctr.pcusa.org or by phone at (888) 728-7228, ext. 5121, or Healy by email at Bhealy@ctr.pcusa.org or by phone at (888) 728-7228, ext. 5689.
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