New Around the Mission

Reaching Refugees on Ice Skates

January 12, 2011

While many people wearing party hats and using noisemakers threw confetti to ring in the New Year, a group of teens from Campus Crusade for Christ were entertaining some refugee children on their first ice skating adventure. The event fulfills the original vision of the Rev. Elijah Lovejoy when he brought the ice rink to Greensboro.

Campus Crusade conference participants ice skate with refugee children on New Years Eve.

Lovejoy is one of several clergy at Church of the Redeemer in Greensboro, North Carolina, and is also the creator and President of Renovo Designs (Latin for “renewal”), an events production company creating Piedmont Winterfest, a two-month winter festival with an ice rink as the centerpiece. The company implements large-scale cultural events geared toward downtown revitalization, seeking the welfare of the city (based on Jeremiah 29:7).

“We tend to seek the welfare of the church, but God also commands us to seek the welfare of the city,” explains Lovejoy. “I was looking for a model to be able to do that in my city and the business model became the best way to do it. The more we do this, the more I see principles of the Kingdom overlapping with the welfare of the city.”

Piedmont Winterfest provides a wide range of fun activities in downtown Greensboro for families and individuals during the winter months leading up to the US Figure Skating Championship on January 23 in the Greensboro Coliseum. The new outdoor ice rink is one of only three of its kind in North Carolina.

The MidSouth Region of Campus Crusade for Christ holds an annual conference in Greensboro called “Encounter.” A large part of the conference makes room for students to go out into the city on New Year’s Eve for local outreach projects through churches like Redeemer. This year they “took to the ice,” partnering with refugee children. The event was organized with the help of a local school ministry which prepares immigrant children grades 3-12 to transition into mainstream schools in the county. The Campus Crusade teens learned how to hang out with someone from a different culture, and the refugees enjoyed the attention on their first time adventure.

“When we ask ourselves what is the lasting impact of doing an event like this might be, we realize that our involvement is a blip, but it does help encourage ministries that are already at work with refugee families,” notes David Lin, Pastor of Worship and College Ministries. “These events create a greater platform to share the Gospel and serve our community.”

While the temperatures continue to be below normal in much of the country, Church of the Redeemer is making the most of the winter season, reaching out to their community through events at an outdoor ice skating rink that build relationships.

Want to know more?
Read this story in The High Point and DigTriad.
Visit Church of the Redeemer.

Posted By: Cynthia P. Brust
Categories: Faith in Action