Project Gives Iowa Church Renewed Life

When her pastor asked her to start a program aimed at helping troubled youth in Pella, Iowa, Danielle De Ruiter was afraid she didn’t have what it took.

 “He encouraged me to give it a try, but I was totally overwhelmed,” said De Ruiter, who makes a living as a cake decorator and also serves as the children and youth coordinator for her church.

Her pastor suggested she apply for a grant from the Christian Reformed Church’s Sustaining Congregational Excellence program. This would help cover the cost of launching a project that targets young people who need places where they can do court-ordered community service.

The CRC’s Sustaining Congregational Excellence (SCE) program seeks to foster health in smaller congregations — so they can flourish. It was formed to advance the denominational priority to create and sustain healthy congregations.

Since it began in 2007, more than 65 percent of smaller CRCs, the ones eligible for grants, have have participated in SCE programming.

“Applying for the grant seemed to be way too much for me. I’d never done anything like this before,” said De Ruiter, who decided to try applying anyway.

To her surprise, Grace Fellowship was awarded a grant, which they could use to provide training to church members and begin a program called Project Second Chance. Read a CRC News story about one of the first participants.

As it got rolling, De Ruiter started to feel more confident and was able to realize the significance of what they were doing.

“I began to see God’s hand in what we were doing,” said De Ruiter. “I began to grow personally and the church was able to grow too. The project really helped our congregation to focus on who we want to be as a church in our community.”

Before beginning Project Second Chance, said De Ruiter, they had gone through a difficult period as the church sought a new pastor and people wondered about the future of the congregation.

But coming together to start and develop the new program made a big difference. Grace Fellowship members found renewed purpose and had the chance to learn much more about their community and the vulnerable people living there.

An important experience for church members, said De Ruiter, was going through a series of training sessions taught by representatives of  The Well, a local faith-based resource center.

“We learned about generational poverty and about how the church could better reach out to people who are locked in poverty.”

For instance, she added, “We have always measured our ‘success’ in trying to get people/families to come to us for the worship service on Sunday morning.

“Our training helped us to learn how uncomfortable it could be for some who are less fortunate to go to an unknown place full of strangers.”

As a result, they went out into the community, holding what they call “Grace Bombs” — cookouts and other activities that give them a chance to be with people where they live. 

During one of these events last fall, said De Ruiter, they talked with community residents and learned that families in a nearby apartment complex needed help paying their bills.

With Christmas coming up, people in the area pooled their resources and Grace Fellowship matched their donations and together they were able “to bless three families substantially by paying their rent,” she said.

Besides allowing many members of the church to attend the poverty training, the SCE grant covered the cost for church leaders and many youth to attend the CRC’s Awaken: Ignite Youth Conference this spring.

Although the numbers of those young people doing community service were small during the period covered by the grant, said De Ruiter, the church has been able to build a relationship with the courts and the police and Grace Fellowship is now on the list of sites at which young people can do community service.

Reflecting on her experience, De Ruiter said, “I never thought God would use me and stretch me in all the ways that I have grown throughout this wonderful experience.”