Friday, Aug. 23, was a thrill-filled night full of excitement and energy where over 400 middle schoolers and high schoolers attended the annual kickoff (Revive) of Bethel Church’s youth ministry, Verge. Verge is a Christian youth ministry dedicated to students from middle school all the way through the end of highschool. The purpose of Verge is to help kids along to find Jesus and help them through their spiritual journey no matter where they are in life along with helping through the daily challenges they will face throughout their school life.

   “Verge is a youth development program out of Bethel Church. Our goal at Verge is to encourage every student to take their next step with Jesus, no matter what that next step is. For some, it’s accepting Jesus as their Savior and for others, it’s growing closer to Him by growing in their prayer life or the studying of His word,” Samanta Stooksburry, a Verge staff member, said

   The night of Revive was composed of numerous activities to partake in. Among these were: bouncy houses, inflatable race tracks, knocker balls, nine square, volleyball, super-sized operations game and so much more. The leaders of Verge and many volunteers put hours of work and preparation to make this event as enjoyable as it could be to give the students a truly amazing night to remember.

    “The energy was really high at Revive, everyone was super excited to kick off the new year. I felt very welcomed and had lots of fun.” Brenna Polivna (10) said.

   Along with helping students through their spiritual journey, Verge is there to help their students with the issues they face in their daily lives. No students are the same, and everyone is in a different place in their life. Verge recognizes that students in their ministry can be facing truly difficult hardships or be living in unhealthy environments. Verge does not care what a student has done in the past because they recognize that people should not be defined by their mistakes.

   “We meet students where they are at knowing that students today come from different backgrounds and have faced all sorts of different trials. We want students to know that they do have a purpose in Jesus Christ. We promise to walk alongside them no matter what they are going through, or where they are at in life.” Stooksburry said.

   Now comes the big part of the night, Revive. Revive had four main ways to communicate the purpose of revive to all the students who attended. These were: through games, activities, worship and most importantly, the work of the Bible.

   “Teaching God’s word is the primary way we revive our hearts to get to know him. Revive and God’s word go hand in hand because we will show our students how God’s word speaks to all of their life issues. Finishing Revive’s auditorium time with God’s word gives us a platform to be able to connect our students to what we will be talking about in the fall.” Foster Toft, Director of Student Ministries said.

   All in all, Revive was truly an exciting night to remember. Fun was in the air and hearts were truly touched all around. Verge holds its student ministry on Sundays from 4-6pm for middle school and from 6:30-8:30pm for high school. More information can be found at bethelweb.org or @vergenights on Instagram.