By Wren Haynes | Echo
It's 4:45 on a Tuesday afternoon, and six silver Taylor vans are parked outside the Dining Commons. Fifteen minutes before dinner starts for the rest of campus, conversation buzzes and silverware clinks downstairs. Taylor students in matching shirts eat quickly before piling into the vans and blasting off-destination, Marion.
Welcome to ReaLife, a student-run ministry under the umbrella of Community Outreach. Every week, more than 30 Taylor students, ranging from freshmen to seniors, head to the Boys and Girls Club of Grant County to fellowship with kids from the Marion area.
"We're not a tutor session," said ReaLife co-director and sophomore Alexa Ross. "They don't bring homework . . . it's definitely more of relationship building and showing them how to live like Jesus wants them to live."
For the kids, the night begins when they're picked up at their homes by ReaLife staff. Once they arrive at the Boys and Girls Club, children and Taylor students congregate for a time of fellowship before playing a group game and having dinner. Afterwards, they break into small groups by age.
DJ Lindquist, ReaLife co-director and senior, says that the kids view Tuesday nights as church. They come, and their parents send them, knowing the Gospel will be read and shown throughout the night.
For the staff, this opportunity to share in small groups and Bible studies is one of the highlights of their evening. The ministry is run entirely by Taylor students, with no outside supervision during the Tuesday night ministry. So whether things go right or wrong, management is up to them.
"I would say the biggest hurdle is overcoming the outward appearance, the insecurity of the kids," Lindquist said. "And even to other people in their grade. It's hard when your friends will know what you share, so we try to make it as personal as possible through prayer time after small groups and things like that."
Ross emphasized the challenges and rewards of working with kids many Taylor students may not have an immediate connection with.
"(We) see that kind of community, where it's not all happy and sunshine . . . I mean, not every Taylor kid went to a private Christian school, but a lot of them did," she said. "(They) grew up in the church, but these kids didn't. These kids-you can't treat them like your VBS kids. They still need to be loved, but in a very different way."
These evenings in Marion have changed the staff dramatically. Ross spoke of Sara Andler, a 2014 graduate who said she was reminded of her blessings every week by the struggles of her ReaLife kids. Ross also described her own experiences. After coming into Taylor as a biochemistry major, working with ReaLife made her realize she was called into ministry with children. In the middle of her Taylor career, she switched to elementary and middle school education.
The students in ReaLife also impacted another person from Taylor-Betsy Smith, one of the students who passed away in the 2006 van crash.
"This was her goal," Lindquist said. "Betsy Smith was going to move to Marion and dedicate her life to ReaLife. So we want to continue . . . her legacy."
Part of continuing that legacy involved building a playground at the Boys and Girls Club at the end of August, providing kids with a safe place to play. In everything they do, ReaLife seeks to make a tangible difference in the physical and spiritual welfare of the Marion community, reaching out to tell kids they are known and loved in the midst of a situation that may be anything but positive.
"When you drive through the streets of Marion-not the big highways, not to go to Meijer-when you drive down those back roads, you see the hurt, (you) see the brokenness, you see the poverty," Ross said. "And if I can for one night put a meal on the table and for one night we can show these kids the love they deserve, that's what matters . . . that's why we do it."
