Kaitlyn Braswell, a member of River Lake Church, helps a child select a bicycle during the church’s bicycle giveaway on Saturday, Dec. 12, 2020. The church is located along North Jackson Highway in Glasgow. Braswell has attended the church for three years.
(BRENNAN CRAIN/WCLU NEWS)
GLASGOW, Ky. – Over 200 bicycles were given to area children on Saturday as a part of River Lake Church’s “Let Hope In” initiative.
Nic Smith, the church’s pastor, said the church changes its initiative’s outreach each year, and the church sought to help several families this year.
“You know, some of us are so fortunate and so blessed, and we have great memories of Christmas,” Smith said. “We have wonderful moments. And I know that’s not normal for everybody.”
The church partners with Glasgow Police each Christmas to give away money during traffic stops and partners with the Glasgow Electric Plant Board to pay bills. Church members are also encouraged to participate in “big tip night,” where people leave three-digit tips on a restaurant bill.
Jan Hoover, the facilitator of the bike program, said the church partnered with Academy Sports to provide the bicycles. The retailer is based in Elizabethtown.
While the pandemic has created a shortage of many supplies and goods, including bicycles, Smith said the bicycle serves a greater meaning than the limitations of the health crisis.
“That bike is more than a bike. It’s a message,” Smith said. “And I really believe that. To that kid, that bike is a message of hope. It’s a message that they matter.”
Glasgow Independent Schools, Barren County Schools and Caverna Independent Schools’ students were served through the program. Each school’s FRYSCs, or Family Resource Youth Service Center Coordinators, helped nominate families for the program.
Hoover said 179 families were nominated.
The church expected to serve between 170 and 180 families before they carried the initiative to Nashville, according to Smith.
“All of our extra bikes will be donated to them down in Nashville to be given to kids down there,” Smith said, “So that every single bike that is purchased gets to a kid in need.”
Mission 615 partnered with the church to distribute the remainder of the bicycles to children in Tennessee.
Smith said the church was inspired by Romans 4 throughout the year, which alludes to Abraham’s hope against hope.
“I read that and thought, ‘Man, that describes 2020 to a T, ’” Smith said. “Against all hope, we’re still going to hope. There’s nothing in our world that would give us hope, and yet for us as a church, we’re really trying to be that hope and change in lives.”
And as a connection to the church’s message to the community, Smith said “Let Hope In” provides the fulfillment of their mission to serve and love others.
“My job is just to be who he called me to be,” Smith said, “Which is to love this city radically, ridiculously and generously.”