Elizabeth & Ryne Robinson are the partner team that runs our Children & Youth program here. Both are graduates of DeRidder High School in 2014, but each had a unique path.

Ryne was born & raised in DeRidder by his parents, Julie & David. Ryne has many fond memories in our church from the halls of our Methodist Learning Center to the old Youth Building across our campus, he is the definition of a life long Methodist. Ryne has seen our church & the town through many seasons & it has remanded a vocal point in his life. Ryne spent some time at Louisiana Tech, before joining the workforce to support his family. Ryne enjoys golfing & spending time with his beautiful wife & daughters.

Elizabeth was a born & raised ‘worldwide’ which is her way of stating she grew up in the U.S. Army. As a military child, she was able to see the world from duty stations in Colorado to across the ocean in Germany. In 2010, Elizabeth’s family settled here in DeRidder where she met her husband, joined our church & graduated in 2014. Elizabeth attended college at Southeastern Louisiana University & graduated with a degree BA in Criminal Justice and a minor in Sociology.

After a few years the couple moved to Hammond, La while Elizabeth finished her degree & in 2018, the couple tied the knot in Covington, La with their oldest daughter, Adalynn by their side. After being away from ‘home’ for sometime the charm of DeRidder & the church called them back. In 2023, the couple took a leap of faith & moved home where they started attending church regularly again with all three of their girls’. The story on how they came to their positions is one only faith can explain, around 2024 as the church was searching for new children & youth director the couple was helping out with the sound booth. As Pastor Laraine was talking, Ryne simply nudged Elizabeth, not knowing she had been thinking about applying for weeks prior. As Elizabeth explains coming to church should be like coming home to a family you never knew you needed. One that is full of love and grace which has always been showed to me her at FUMC - DeRidder, since I was a teen. The nudge turned into a talk and that turned into a job interview & now we fast forward to present day where the children & youth program has grown from five regularly attending to over 20.

We can’t wait to see, y’all!