Coshocton Church of the Nazarene hosts block party

With the 2021-2022 school year about to begin, some area churches and organizations combined their efforts and resources to give to the community. On Aug. 14, the FCA (Fellowship of Christian Athletes), the Coshocton Church of the Nazarene, the Coshocton Christian Tabernacle, the Roscoe United Methodist Church and Women of Witness, among others put on a back to school block party that was fun for the whole family.

“We want to present a united church to our community because we believe we are healthier together,” said senior pastor, Andy Bird from the Coshocton Church of the Nazarene as he explained the importance of churches working together to impact a community. Together these organizations were able to gather 500 book bags for junior high and high school students. Originally, they had planned to gear the event and giveaways to grade school aged children, but the Coshocton Regional Medical Center had planned to do that, so the group decided to shift gears.

At the event individuals could sign up to win one of four door prizes and were able to enjoy a free meal consisting of a hotdog, chips and drink. There was a bounce house obstacle course kids could run through as well as a bounce house with a slide. Similarly, there were other games available for party goers. In addition, the Ridgewood FFA group provided animals for a petting zoo. The event was completely free to the community.

“We wanted to have an event where we could offer families a day of fun, a meal and give school supplies out and just be a blessing,” Bird said. He added how his church and the churches who united together to make this event possible “want to be known as places of hope. We want to partner with families,” Bird said, “to make Coshocton the best it can be.”

Bird disclosed how he even put “Together. Coshocton can.” on the bottom of each flyer placed in the book bags. “I want the community to know that God is a good God. We want to be the hands to communicate that and hopefully introduce people to the fact that God is better than we think He is,” Bird said.

Bird was excited to bless the community through the back to school block party, and said he is anticipating there being more events to come in the future as the group of organizations who worked together to make this event happen, are planning to continue to do events together in hopes of doing their part to help Coshocton thrive. “I’m hoping next year we will have a bigger and larger slice of our community involved and working together,” Bird said.

Category: Faith