Fostering Faith and Friendship: Village Church seniors plan to maintain their relationships and faith despite going in different directions after graduation

Racing up to the Village Church youth loft, seniors Sienna Sun, Grace Strongman and their other senior friends begin to hurriedly crowd around the pool table sitting in the center of the room. The scene quickly escalates into friendly pushing as they all jockey for the best starting position.

Pool Horse had begun.

The loft, filled with a handful of competitive middle and high schoolers soon transformed from a regular youth group meeting to an all-out, no-holds-barred game of “Pool Horse” — a fusion of pool and horse, hence the name. The sound of pool balls hitting against each other was punctuated with the occasional yell or burst of laughter. Sun remarks that she made some of her most unforgettable memories here — even if some heated arguments arose as a result of making their own rules.

“There have been some pretty fun, fond memories made with [games like] Pool Horse, and the excitement of the game — it’s a thrill,” Sun said.

Knowing most of each other for five or six years — some even longer — the Village Church seniors have made almost as many years of memories together as a family — a word that often comes up when they’re talking about each other. 

“Having known everyone for so long, it’s like a second family,” Strongman said. “So it’s like a place where you can go and be yourself and just really, truly be supported by everyone there. Whenever you do anything like that, and just spend time with people consistently, you [really] get to know them.”

Their memories, however, aren’t just limited to the Village Church youth loft. Every year, the Village Church takes several mission trips, including one to the Dominican Republic. 

After a week of hard work and what felt like several gallons of sweat spent helping build a fully-operational school building to promote education in La Romana, the Village Church kids felt something more powerful than the aching soreness in their muscles — connection.

“Being out there after the week of hard work, we take Friday night to relax and sit out on the beach,” Director of Youth Services Rev. Zach Walker said. “We bring dinner out there, and we sing and we talk as the sun sets. I really enjoy, and I think they enjoy it too, being connected to each other in this way. Being as close and as connected as they are is hard to produce outside of this context.” 

These moments, Walker says, are what make working with youth at this age so rewarding — and something they’ll miss after graduation.

“When they come into the program as middle-schoolers, you see them excited about life, excited about opportunities — but also having a certain naivete,” Walker said. “That naivete is met with life experience, which tempers it into hope, into initiative, into a wellspring of ideas and opportunities. I see this in their personal growth, but also in their faith as well. At a young age, they just mimic or ‘parrot’ whatever faith they’re raised into. But as these middle-schoolers grow into young adults, they learn to proclaim their faith and not just parrot it.”

Some of these “tempering experiences” include these aforementioned mission trips. Working together to build friendships is the best part of Village Church for some seniors, including Strongman. She recognizes that the trips have such a big impact on the people they visit, but also a significant one on her life and personal relationships as well.

“I think just going and traveling and being with people on a mission trip is a bonding experience,” Strongman said. “When we go to these places and give our time and do our best to help local organizations and local people accomplish their goals, that’s always positive too, but I think that [these trips] are what makes us as a community at Village really tight.”

Soon this tight-knit group of seniors will depart on their next trip — life after graduation. They hope to stay in touch with one another, but they all know they’ll always have a home at Village Church if they decide to return — an unspoken promise Walker makes to the outgoing seniors.

“I really, really hope we keep in touch, and I know so many of us will because we’re so close and tight,” Sun said. “Grace Strongman and I have had almost all the same classes together for the past two years, and [as a result] we’re super close. We’re going in different directions, but I really hope we can have some meet-ups in the future.”