V-S High School Student Disciples

VINTON — A group of Vinton-Shellsburg student leaders visited the Vinton Kiwanis Club on Tuesday, November 26 to talk about how the organization, Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA), is teaching them leadership skills and discipleship.

Three V-S juniors came to speak to Kiwanis members: Jacoby Johnson, Madeline Blais and Annalyn Stiefel. All three are in their second year serving as FCA student leaders, and shared how FCA is making a positive impact on their school and in their own faith journeys. Sarah Matus from the FCA organization accompanied the student leaders, along with swimming coach Ashley Hesson who serves as sponsor for the V-S FCA group.

Before the kids shared their FCA experience, Matus said that the first step in the mission of the FCA is to empower student leaders by first helping them strengthen their own “walk with Christ” and then to “empower them to go and do the same, much like Jesus did with the 12 ordinary men that we call disciples.”

Matus also took a brief moment to explain the legality of having a Christian group in a public school.

“Religious and faith-based organizations have every right to have groups and clubs inside schools, just like FFA or the National Honor Society or any other club that meets in a school. Faith-based organizations have those same legal protections as long as it’s student-led,” Matus said.

Hesson explained that her main role is to provide guidance and that the FCA group at V-S High School is definitely student-led.

“I want to commend the student leaders for all the work that they put into this group. As an adult leader, I send out text messages and I buy groceries. That’s about it. The rest of it is truly done by the students,” Hesson said.

Despite what the name suggests, Jacoby Johnson pointed out that all students are welcome in FCA, even those not involved in sports.

“We invite everybody, not just athletes. We’re trying to bring the whole school in,” Johnson said. “For our annual dodgeball tournament, we also include other schools.”

Madeline Blais explained that the group organizes get-togethers, called “FCA Huddles,” which give V-S students a chance to pray for each other and study the Bible together. Blais said the V-S FCA group has seen an increase in attendance for the huddles, now held every other Thursday in the V-S School Library.

“We’ve had a lot of growth in the last year. In the 23/24 school year, we averaged about five students who were not leaders attending the FCA Huddles. We’ve been seeing continuous growth and we now average about 50 students attending the huddles,” Blais said.

In addition to the bi-weekly huddles, FCA also hosts a tailgating event and a dodgeball tournament each year. Another organized FCA event is “Meet You at the Pole.” In this activity, students gather around the flagpole at school to join hands and pray.

V-S FCA has other occasional fundraising events which enables them to distribute FCA Bibles and bracelets to help them engage with students, and to support their annual project “Operation Christmas Tree Boxes.”

Although some FCA events are planned, Annalyn Stiefel shared how some of the most faith-enriching experiences come from day-to-day interactions with their fellow students.

“We have the opportunity to make differences in students’ lives,” Stiefel said. “I’ve recently been talking with someone who’s never gone to church. Never knew God. I’ve been praying for her to come to church, come to youth group, come to Bible Study, and the other day she prayed for me. It was so impactful, and I just started crying, because that’s what we do. That’s why we’re here.”

To learn more about this organization, visit their website at fca.org.