Friendship UMC in Porter started providing extra parking spaces for their neighbors, Porter Elementary School. Their relationship has since grown into a flourishing church-school partnership that runs deep in the community.
Friendship United Methodist Church is a part of the Texas Annual Conference.
Whether it’s providing food for kids in need or coffee for teachers, Kelli Merritt, Southwest District Director of Lay Ministry, has been there since the beginning and has helped expand what is now the Public Education Zoo (PEZ) Ministry. In trying to come up with a name, “it all started as a joke, but it just stuck” Merritt said. The original name was Porter Elementary Zoo, but the name changed because they now serve several other schools in the community.
This week marks the fourth year that PEZ has hosted a back-to-school bash at Porter Elementary to help kick off the new school year, and it was a big success. Merritt said, “we had just the right amount of popcorn and hotdogs. It was amazing! We gave out of 50 pounds of popcorn and 750 hotdogs with not a thing left. We were also able to make 68 bags of food to provide for the kids who needed it.”
Church members accompany Rev. Alan Van Hooser to the school and bless the doors every year by praying over them and anointing them with oil. “We all have a covenant to pray for the building every time we drive by now,” Van Hooser said.
He added, “this is not something we just do on the first day of school and the last day of school – this is every week… it’s all the time.” Merritt said “they know that if they need something they can depend on us, they know we’re praying for them and they’re excited to see us.”
Ed and Sandy Wilhelm are a couple who have also been there since the beginning of the PEZ Ministry and dedicate their Thursdays to help with math, reading, bringing backpacks with food for kids in need, and anything else that might be needed.
Merritt added that the Wilhelms “have developed such a relationship with the kids that on Veterans Day they made him a huge banner, thanking him for his service and for being a veteran.” And when speaking about the kids she said, “I think as much as we touch their lives, they touch ours.”
While the relationship may have taken time to build, Van Hooser said “now the school district uses our church as an example to the rest of the churches in the community and the schools to be like, look, this is the relationship you should have with your church.”
He also pointed out that when the PEZ ministry began, Porter Elementary was at an F rating with the TEA, and in just a few years has gone to a B+ rating, Van Hooser admits “it feels good to know that we had a small part in that.”
This year Porter Elementary is moving across the railroad tracks into a new building and wanted to make sure that the church would be there. “They look for us now and they actually sent us a message making sure that we would be there for the ribbon cutting ceremony,” on August 19, Merritt said.
One of her favorite things about this work is “when we’re out in the community or at the grocery store, you can hear the little kids go, oh, they’re from our church – and even though they may never have set foot in the church they identify us as their church because of the work we do at the schools.”
While a ministry like this does not always translate into more people in the pews, Van Hooser said. “It’s been a disciple making enterprise from the first day, and the first thing we really did was just park cars.”
Story by Troy Griffin, Friendship United Methodist Church
This story represents how United Methodist local churches through their Annual Conferences are living as Vital Congregations. A vital congregation is the body of Christ making and engaging disciples for the transformation of the world. Vital congregations are shaped by and witnessed through four focus areas: calling and shaping principled Christian leaders; creating and sustaining new places for new people; ministries with poor people and communities; and abundant health for all.
