CrossRoads Student Center, located at 414 S. Main St., Sheridan, is holding a Christmas party starting at 6 p.m. this Saturday at the Sheridan Community Center, 300 E. 6th St. The event features free roasted pork loin dinner and a baked potato bar. There will be games, an appearance by Santa and live reindeer courtesy of Jingle John from Silly Safaris, Inc.
According to Pastor Chris Brooks, the Crossroads Student Center is a Christian outreach geared toward teenagers and will start an elementary program in January.
“In July we got a commercial building,” Brooks said. “It was important for us to get a commercial building because so many young people won’t go to a church. We have a storefront right on Main Street open five days a week. Each day has a different theme and there is a message given every day that we are open.”
Brooks said the mission of his center is to help local kids, especially those with a higher risk for drug use.
“A lot of the kids that come to us are from severely broken homes, which reaffirmed that this is exactly what God wanted us to do,” Brooks told The Reporter. “I have at least four kids where one or both parents are in prison right now. About three months ago I said, ‘raise your hand if you know somebody who does drugs,’ and every hand in the building went up. The drug thing here is a really big deal.”
Brooks said his center, which is staffed by himself, his wife and one assistant, does everything they can to both get Sheridan youth to know Jesus and to give them better life skills to make better decisions.
And though they offer a Sunday service at 1 p.m., it is not a formal church service.
“It is what most people would call a small group. We watch a video series and talk about it. I am trying to build up the memory of ‘church didn’t kill me when I did it.’ It’s in a storefront building because we are mindful of how many people just can’t get past the church doors because they are church doors.”
The event on Saturday is a push to build awareness in the community.
“We want the entire town to come out to hear what we are about,” Brooks said. “We rented the Community Center. We will have a nice dinner and a presentation of what we do. We will present some drug facts with the actual numbers of overdoses and statistics. There is a very serious point to being in this building five days a week tying to do something with these kids.”