JOY Club at LeRoy Covenant Church

By Amber Kelso, LeRoy Covenant Church, MI

This past March at LeRoy Covenant Church in Michigan, two high schoolers were baptized. That may not seem unusual, but their stories are. These young ladies started in the J.O.Y. Club Program as preschoolers. The J.O.Y. Club is a Tuesday after-school free program in rural northern Michigan, started in 1982 which partners with the local schools to bus kids (K-7^th grade) each week to the church.

Over the last several years, the average attendance is 90 children! This club presents the Bible through story, worship, hands-on lessons, games, with a volunteer staff of adults and teens who love Jesus. Eighty-five percent of the program’s children are unchurched, including the young ladies baptized last spring. These young ladies attended through 7^th grade and then became helpers for the program. In March of this year, they redefined their family trees for Christ.

Over many years, this incredible outreach ministry has developed deep trust and support in the community and it is a recommended program that the schools endorse and help advertise. Because of the faithful community presence, not only have they been able to serve and care for children, bless parents and caregivers with the free afterschool program, but it has become an incredible evangelistic ministry as children discover, explore, and follow Jesus in their lives.