Dear Friends:

 

In the book of Ecclesiastes, we read there is a season for everything. Over the past few years, we have lived in a season where we have had separate staff positions for each of our children's and youth ministries. We have seen fruitfulness in each of these roles, and are especially grateful over this past year for the work that Kim Bazo has done for our Children's and Family Ministries. Admittedly, this past year has been challenging in other ways as we have been looking for the right person to lead our Youth Ministries, with not as much success in that effort as any of us would have preferred. However, it has been our stated goal, as it is and should be for any role on our staff, to find the right person for this role, rather than simply engaging in the 'warm body process' which, while understandable, can have drastically unintentional and damaging results not only for the ministry in question, but also for our congregation as a whole.

 

With this as a backdrop for our current situation, it was a joy to have a family new to the area, the Carpenter family (with their 6th grade daughter and 7th & 10th grade sons) worship with us for the first time on June 24, VBS Sunday. They have worshiped with us almost every Sunday, and have gotten to know us in several different settings - when I went to visit with them shortly after their first visit with us, all three children talked about how they enjoyed a Sunday where they attended the Aldersgate Sunday School class as a family. As part of that conversation, when we were talking about how our children's ministry was facing a leadership transition and we were looking to reboot our youth ministry, Ashley got very attentive and wanted to know how she and the family could help make this a reality.

 

Not too long afterwards, Ashley came to visit with me at our offices, and when I mentioned that we had these two positions available, she told me she would like to pursue each of them, as it sounded like something that she would want to do, given her background as a teacher, school support staff, and her prior experience in church ministries, including working with a friend to start a youth group from scratch. My immediate response was to let her know we had a committee with which I would have to visit in order to pursue this path.

 

Our Pastor-Parish Relations Committee, chaired by Dr. Catherine White, was agreeable to the idea of developing a Director of Children's, Youth, and Family Ministries role as a 30 hour/week position within our staff. In order to do due diligence, they wisely decided to post the position online for a week to see if we there were any others who might be led to pursue this position. In the end, the subcommittee selected by the Pastor-Parish Relations Committee reviewed multiple resumes, and conducted several hour-long interviews with some wonderful people who would make a great addition to our ministry team.

 

However, in the eyes of the interview team, there was one person who's background stood above the rest when it came to filling this position - Ashley Carpenter. The full Pastor-Parish Relations Committee met at 5:00 on Sunday, August 5, 2018, to hear and act upon the subcommittee's recommendation, and concurred unanimously with their findings.

 

My hope and prayer for us all is that we continue to live out our calling - Central to DeRidder, Centered in Christ, Our Mission is to Grow and Serve in Christ. We look forward to walking with Ashley, Jeff, Zac, Lucas, and Grace, for this next season of our congregation's life. Keep reading for a word of introduction from Ashley, and feel free to reach out to her () to say hello and welcome her to our community and to our congregation!

 

Grace and Peace,

Lamar

WELCOME, ASHLEY CARPENTER!

HELLO, FRIENDS!

 

I have had the honor of being a military spouse for the past 18 years, raising my three beautiful children Zacary (15), Lucas (12), and Grace (11) with my husband Jeff Carpenter. I need more than two hands to count the amount of places we have lived.  Most recently my family and I made our final military move to settle here in DeRidder from Fairbanks, Alaska earlier this summer.  We live and breathe soccer with a side of dance for Grace.

While being a stay at home mom, I finished my Bachelors degree in Business Management with a concentration in Accounting. Once all my children were school age in 2011, I entered the work force. With my degree, I found myself working in an office environment, this was not for me. While working I became heavily involved with the children and youth ministry at our church and discovered I truly enjoyed being involved with the development of children.  

 

This lead me to pursue employment substitute teaching at the local district and eventually a long term substitute 5th grade teaching position at a local Christian school.   I found that after teaching for two years, working with children is what I love most, however it wasn’t feasible for me at the time to go back to school to pursue my teaching degree.  I found a compromise when we moved to Alaska.  I obtained a position as the lead secretary for the elementary school on post. I once again could not stay behind my desk, I still had the need to help children; whether it was with school work, emotional support, or just a safe place to be in a not so stable world that we call military life.  

I left Arctic Light Elementary not knowing where my next place would be.   I was hoping and praying to God that I would be able to continue to be there for today’s youth and help to develop and grow them.  I had hopes of obtaining a similar position to the one I had in Alaska, but God apparently had bigger plans for me.  I am truly honored to have the opportunity to help educate and develop our youth again, and most importantly an opportunity to help them develop their faith in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

 

I have met so many people over the last few weeks here at church that I can truly say I am glad we have made DeRidder our place to stay and raise our children.   I am looking forward to working with everyone over the coming weeks and months to expand upon this great children's, youth, and family ministry.