Who is the Assistant to the Young Adult Ministry?
Margaret Broersma
Introducing Reagan Szymanski:
You may have been in church recently when Pastor Ron or Pastor Arek mentioned Pastor Arek’s assistant with the young adult ministry. She goes by Rae (short for Reagan) and is uniquely qualified for this position. She has the unusual but happy experience of being first a young adult gathering attender, and now a leader.
It all began when she was a teen, and she says, “She was not in a good place.” She had lost hope in finding a place to fit in. She even, at times, felt she needed a reason to live. When she ran out of things to try, she decided to try church. Her immediate family were not Christians. Her parents worked on Sundays, and she had no way to get to church, so she began to walk to churches near her home. After a few weeks of this, her grandpa, who was a Christian, heard what she was doing and decided he would be glad to go get her and take her to his church. He drove from Byron Center to East Grand Rapids to get her and then back to Byron Center for church.
After a while of regular attendance, Rae gave her heart to Jesus. She professed Him as her Savior and was baptized. She became an active part of the church by teaching Sunday School. She also helped out in the youth group for a couple of years. This service led her to believe that she was being called to make disciples. She still “Wants to make people fall in love with Jesus every day.”
She decided to join Youth With a Mission ministries (YWAM), one of the biggest youth evangelism ministries in the US. But before she could even go for training, COVID happened, and her plans were thwarted. Finally, in the summer of 2021, she decided she had to take a leap of faith. Searching the YWAM web pages, she thought she would go to Nepal.
She learned that YWAM in Idaho needed staffing, and based on her church experience, they hired her. She joined the staff for a summer of “mission adventures camp.” This was where young people went for intense training for one week and then for a mission adventure for a week. So, she raised the money by working extra hours and received donations from friends and family to go there. She spent three months in training and three months on her mission adventure in Panama. She never did make it to Nepal, but she fell in love with her posting to the city of David in the province of Chiriqui.
Eventually, she ran out of funds and once again returned to Grand Rapids. She decided to stay here but take evangelism groups back to visit Panama whenever she could. She is currently leading a group to raise money to return to Chiriqui and minister again with a group doing kid’s ministry, home visits, and street evangelism.
When she came back to Grand Rapids this last time, she decided to finally put down roots and looked for a local church’s young adult program to join. She found Hillside’s program through the social media postings of Shamber Brown, Hillside’s previous young adult leader. She loved Hillside’s group, and after a year or so of attending and getting to know Pastor Arek, she was asked to become his assistant. She is hyper-organized to balance his rather frenetic style, and she loves working to improve a program she was a member of. Most people find the Hillside Young Adult program through social media posts. They currently see about 100 people a year, with about 40 who attend each month. Last month, Rae married Stephen Szymanski. He has now taken over Hillside Young Adults’ social media pages on Facebook and Instagram.
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always…
- Matthew 28:19-20