Students Serving 2021 | Generosity Story
Ty Johnsrud:
The students are the most important part of this church.
Azaria Pishney:
Westside has always been a very consistent part of my life. I gave my life to Jesus when I was 11, when I went through a stage of anxiety, I wasn't able to work or take difficult tests at school. Every day my dad would have to physically pick me up out of my bed to take me to school. Westside is what kept me going, and even if I was just sitting in the corner and I couldn't talk to anyone, I wanted to be here, and I felt comfortable and safe here.
John Benda:
Azaria is someone when I met her, I had the sense that she was someone with whom I need to be very gentle, just because I was picking up on all of these sort of struggles with anxiety and other things that were sort of playing out. But I kept seeing these little glimpses of just this bright, light shining through, and she just has this kindness and compassion.
Jazmyne Leiker:
Seven years ago, I started coming to Westside with one of my really good friends. 2019 was one of the hardest points in my life, I was going through so much family problems, abusive relationships. Ty has been a really big help. He helped me through a lot actually.
Ty Johnsrud:
Jazmyne's been around Student Ministry for a long time and I have two and so we just had a lot of conversations in the tech booth about life. That's really what it's about, right? Is trying to figure out how to get through life, and that's something that I think Jesus has a lot to say about.
John Benda:
Jazmyne and I had a conversation once, she indicated that she would like to be serving more, and I asked her, "Why?" She just said, "I realized that students get older, and they graduate from high school and they don't have this connection to Student Ministry anymore, they leave the church and I don't want to do that."
Jazmyne Leiker:
I saw me serving, and I just, I knew it would be a big part of my life, and it has been, it's really helped me a lot throughout the years.
John Benda:
I've been so blessed to see Azaria have to rise up above all of that stuff. And now she's serving in all these different ways, and she's teaching herself new things and basically just needs us to give her our approval and get out of the way, and that's a wonderful thing to see.
Azaria Pishney:
The serving opportunities have been incredible so that I continue in that journey, continue to grow in my faith and with the church and taking advantage of those opportunities given to me. I choose to be here on Wednesdays and on Sundays because it is my absolute favorite place to be.
Jazmyne Leiker:
Throughout serving, I've really gotten to know the team and through knowing people, I feel like I know God through them. I didn't know Jesus, I didn't know Him, I came to church, I worship and stuff. But when I got more involved and talk to more people, I just, I knew then and there that Westside was a family and I love it, every single second of it. It's one of the highlights of my week.
Azaria Pishney:
Westside to me is the people, that's what it is, it's the people that have been consistent, that don't leave my side even when I can barely stand up next to them.
John Benda:
I'm grateful to Westside, because Westside is a community that allows for responsibility to be given to young people.
Jazmyne Leiker:
I couldn't ask for anyone better to go through, everything I've went through with.
Ty Johnsrud:
The students are the most important part of this church, they're not the next generation, they are the generation that's going to make a huge difference, and not in the church, outside of the church. Right? That's what we're really equipping them for, to share Jesus where he already is.