Students found religious group at high school

Six high school students worked together over the summer to form the new group Catalyst

Members+of+Catalyst+handed+out+candy+with+a+bible+verse+on+it+Oct.+17+after+a+meeting.+Students+hoped+to+spread+the+word+of+God+while+giving+people+the+candy.+

Carly Kinning

Members of Catalyst handed out candy with a bible verse on it Oct. 17 after a meeting. Students hoped to spread the word of God while giving people the candy.

Kate Lichter, Staff Writer

At the end of this summer seniors Nick Lee, Luke Davis and Cole Balmer along with  juniors Olivia Vander Ploeg, Sammi Schaer, and Madie Estrem worked together to fulfill their visions to spread the word about their faith. The group decided to bring the program Catalyst into students’  lives after hearing about it from church conferences and other schools.

“We want to have as many people know who God is as we can and a place for Christians at school to get together,” Vander Ploeg said. Once the team decided they wanted to plan and promote their faith, they successfully persuaded science teacher Matt Jaschen to be their sponsor and allow the Friday meetings to be hosted in his classroom.

Once this was all sorted out they sent the program idea to the school board to have it approved before planning. The group tries to meet each Sunday to spend about two hours outlining the meetings. First they come up with a topic to discuss, then find a video related to the topic to show to the students before finally creating a whole or small group discussion about the subject.

The first Catalyst meeting was held Oct. 3 and about 46 students attended.

“We really hope to see more and more people show up every week,” Lee said. The group has managed to keep hosting 30 to 40 students depending on the week.

In order to send out the word of the newly developed program, the leaders decided to pass out candy to students Oct. 17.

“We gave people candy to hand out to people with 1 John 3:16 on it as a way to spread the gospel,” Vander Ploeg said. She and the other leaders felt this would bring more people to the meetings because candy is well liked by students and would hopefully appreciate the act.