H15 moves outside to add its newest drawing card
What was once a junk pile is now in the process of being turned into a new courtyard at H15 Ministries. When complete, the courtyard will be available for basketball, volleyball, foursquare and other outdoor activities.
When Andy and Tammy Schafer and the board of directors first envisioned a youth ministry facility in the heart of Historic Downtown Millersburg, one of the major goals of their ministry was to create not just activities on the inside of their building, but also on the outside.
Recently their outside renovation project kicked into gear, perhaps even sooner than they had hoped.
Recent funding became available, and the timing proved to be perfect for the beginning of their courtyard basketball area located on the north side of the facility.
“We have been eagerly waiting for the day that God would provide for this courtyard,” director Andy Schafer said. “I have talked to several contractors about helping us with it, and Duane Miller from Holmes Concrete was very eager to be a part of making it happen. However, there were still funds that we needed to have to be able to do it, and I wondered if we would be able to get it done this summer or not.”
In stepped the Millersburg Rotary Club, which tabbed H15 as the charity to support with their 5k and 10k race on the Holmes County Trail on May 18.
The Rotary came through, raising the most money it had ever raised at its event, allowing the organization to present H15 with a check for $2,500.
That gift, along with a few other private donations, gave H15 enough funding to be able to move forward with the courtyard project.
However, funding was not the sole obstacle in the way.
“This time of year is very busy for contractors, so just having the money available didn’t mean we could start right away,” Schafer said. “I called Duane and told him we were ready to start and asked what his schedule looked like. He said, ‘Well, I’m actually pretty well caught up and I could start next week.’ I about fell over. One of the contractors I had talked to was so busy he wouldn’t have been able to do it until the end of the year. God knew exactly when we needed to have the money to match up with Duane’s schedule.”
Holmes Concrete has since dug in and started the process, and work has moved along swiftly.
Holmes Concrete began by hauling in tons of much-needed fill, then ran drainage pipes and got the footer dug for the wall along the alley.
JMR Concrete then came and got the wall formed up and poured.
“We are really excited to have this outdoor space for the teens to enjoy,” Schafer said. “We are planning to put up a basketball hoop, paint a foursquare court, maybe a volleyball net, or whatever else we can think of. We are going to try to put chain link up as high as we can at the alley so we don’t have to chase balls all over town. I am excited that God has provided for yet another project that felt insurmountable to me.”
That wasn’t the only good news for H15. The old air-conditioner hanging in the facility had been limping along since the ministry took over the building.
When Schafer tried to get it going late this spring, he realized it had a major leak in the compressor.
That is a problem that is often unsolvable, but Schafer, who is handy with tools, decided to give it a go because they didn’t have funding for a new one.
“I decided that since there was no money to install a new HVAC, I was not going to give up on this thing,” Schafer said.
Through May and June he battled with the unit, trying several different techniques in sealing the leak in hopes of getting it to work. He finally tried one that appeared to work and fired the unit up. The only problem was Schafer admits he is not a certified electrician, especially when it comes to HVAC units.
“In my less than perfect knowledge of HVAC, I failed to make sure that there was enough oil in the compressor, and as I stood there charging it up, it gave some uncomfortable coughs, shook violently and gave up the ghost,” Schafer said.
The unit was officially kaput with no hope of resurrection.
Schafer texted a friend at Berlin Heating who quickly texted back a bit of fortunate news. “He said he had just removed a perfectly functioning unit that would be a great fit,” Schafer said.
About one week later H15 had a working air-conditioner.
“I asked Jimmy how often he pulled a working unit like that out, and he said it is almost unheard of,” Schafer said. “He said it could be years before it happens again.”
Schafer said moments like this have happened so often it is obvious to him God has had his hand in this the whole way.
With the ministry now in full swing and with lots of activities like pool, ping pong, board games, a working train set, air hockey, a complete gaming system and now an outdoor courtyard nearly completed, the teens have been showing up for a number of weeks.
Schafer said what they need now are more volunteers to help them expand the number of days they are open.
H15 started by opening on Tuesday nights, and now it is in the process of expanding to Thursday. The hope is they eventually have enough volunteers to open six days a week.
“I have been asked quite a few times if we are going to be expanding our hours,” Schafer said. “The teens are begging us to be open more. The problem is that we need volunteers to make it happen.”
Schafer said the thought of hanging out with teens might be intimidating or even frightening to some, but he assured everyone the teens who have been coming in are soaking up the attention and eager to connect and enjoy the atmosphere.
“You don’t need any special skills and don’t have to be some cool, awesome character to be a volunteer,” Schafer said. “It just takes a love for teens and a heart to serve God. All you have to do is be willing and available. We would really like to be open a lot more hours. We need people who would be willing to commit to a particular schedule to be able to do that, but if you can’t do that, you are still welcome. We try to schedule the minimum number of volunteers, but I love to have floaters who come in when they’re able. The more volunteers the better.”
Those interested in applying may do so at www.h15ministries.org/apply/ or by calling Schafer at 330-231-7147.