PHC students involved in local churches

“Getting involved in a good church is vital to our spiritual growth. The Christian life is not meant to be a solo trek. It is meant to be walked alongside the church,” junior Esteban Weesner commented. One of the most important aspects of PHC's student body is student's commitment to serving in their church communities. 

Before enrolling, students sign a statement of commitment to the Christian faith. Every Sunday, students attend morning services at a variety of churches in the Loudoun area. However, many students take the initiative to get involved in their church’s ministry outside of regular Sunday morning attendance.

Junior Grace King discovered that her church, Blue Ridge Bible Church, had an AWANA program when she visited their booth at the church fair during her freshman orientation. She had grown up attending her AWANA program at her home church. After visiting Blue Ridge, she started volunteering in the program and has continued helping for the past three years. 

“I thought that serving in the program would allow me to get plugged into the local community while also serving. My family serves a lot at my church at home, so I came to school with the assumption that I needed to be serving,” Grace said. 

Grace also attends and serves as the team lead for the Cornerstone Chapel café. “I see this as a way to serve my fellow employees and the general church body. Many of them are high school students and working there allows me to talk with them and encourage them,” Grace said. “Being encouraged and supported outside PHC has allowed me to shift my focus and allowed me to remind myself that while school is important, it is not everything.”

Esteban also serves at his local church, Trinity Church in Loudoun. “I have been greatly blessed by the many ministries that Trinity offers such as their on-campus Bible study, men's retreats, and college lunches,” Esteban said. “I have also been able to serve at Trinity this past semester in the kids' ministry as well as serving with the finance deacon.”

Outside of these formal ministries, he has been blessed by the intentional discipleship he has received from the pastoral team. Weesner wanted to get involved in a church that did not just meet on Sunday and disperse, but rather one that met throughout the week and involved itself in the lives of fellow members and churchgoers. “The discipleship I have received, and the sanctification that I have undergone, would not be possible if I wasn't attending a church like Trinity.”

Senior Joey Ooi has attended Free Life Church for the past two years and helps in the children’s ministry. One of her favorite aspects of her church community is that “the people know each other there. There are so many opportunities to pray for one another and just fellowship,” she said.

One Sunday, Joey met a couple at the church who was running a children’s ministry night on Fridays. She started attending to help lead discussions and manage the kids. Sometimes, the youngest is as young as seven years old and the oldest is upwards of 17. “It is the highlight of my week to go there. They just all really love Jesus in the most childlike way possible. I don’t think I learned how to love God in a childlike manner until I saw them,” Joey said. She and senior Andrew Bleiler both help to guide discussions about Scripture and lead devotionals. 

“It is not only important for you to reflect how Christ served us in His life on earth,” Joey said, “but it is nourishing for your soul in a way that just sitting in a pew cannot be.”

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 Patrick Henry College exists to glorify God by challenging the status quo in higher education, lifting high both faith and reason within a rigorous academic environment; thereby preserving for posterity the ideals behind the "noble experiment in ordered liberty" that is the foundation of America.