Summit Ridge supports Straight Ahead Ministry and its mission is to see Jesus Christ transform the lives of justice-involved youth. Straight Ahead began in 1987 in the New England area. They train volunteers to go into juvenile detention centers and lead bible-based discussions that give young people the opportunity to respond to the Gospel in a way they can understand and begin to grow into all the God intends them to be. Straight Ahead Ministries also has programs (like Ready 4 Life) to help prepare the youth for when they are released.
Summit Ridge has a team of 10 that work in this ministry led by Dave Schlothauer. Team members, in addition to Dave, are Paul Blazi, German Rivera, Jeff Frazier, Jon Mefford, Leanne Mihata, Mark Miller, Scott Moore, Amber Nordin, and Cindy Smith. The Summit Ridge team goes into both the Spring Mountain Boys Youth Camp and the Clark County Juvenile Detention Center in the girl’s unit. We go into the facilities on Saturdays.
All volunteers are fully trained before going into the facilities. We have workbooks with the lessons prepared for us and we simply lead the youth through the interactive lessons. We try to go into the units in teams of two so that we can fully support each other. A typical session will be from 60 to 90 minutes. The youth are presented the discussion topic, and this topic is discussed considering scriptures that pertain to the topic. Recently, we discussed the topic of “Dealing with Uncertainties” with the youth. As you can imagine, the discussion covered many aspects of the youth’s previous life and future life. Bible verses that supported our discussion were Genesis 15:5-6 (God’s Promise to Abram); Genesis 22:1-18 (Sacrifice of Issac); John 3:16 (Promise of Eternal Life); John 10:10 (Promise of Abundant Life) and Romans 8:28 (Promise of All Things Working Together for Good). After this session, we had fourteen boys pray the prayer of salvation. We all rejoiced at seeing God work in such a profound way.
This ministry is such a blessing. These youth desperately need Jesus, and we have seen Him moving. Some might think going into a detention facility is scary but none of us has ever felt afraid for our safety. The youth are respectful, happy to see us and grateful to have people show up who care about them. We are in need of more volunteers for our team, particularly for the girls’ unit. If you have questions or are interested in Straight Ahead Ministries, please contact any team member previously mentioned, Pastors John or Marc, or any elder and they will help you get your questions answered.
Looking forward, we have programs (After Care) that will begin in 2024 to minister to the kids once they are released from juvenile detention. These programs will focus on community groups that will provide fellowship, biblical instruction, mentoring and job training. Several opportunities that the kids will have are “Grow with Google”, “OHSA 10 Certification”, and “Serve Safe” certification for the culinary industry. With the coming of the after-care programs, additional volunteers will be needed.
Please keep Straight Ahead Ministries in your prayers and prayerfully consider joining the team. We look forward to discussing Straight Ahead Ministries with you.
God bless you,
Straight Ahead Ministries Team |
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| PS from Pastor John - We as an elder team wanted you to know that we recently approved giving the remaining amount that our cross cultural workers (Eric and Laura) needed for moving from their one Middle Eastern country to another one nearby. This was a result of your generous giving to Summit Ridge that we could supply them a significant gift to get them into their new location to make Christ known to a people who need Him. So, on behalf of the elders, thank you for giving, thank you for your generosity. We are grateful... and so are Eric and Laura. |
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