Aaron and Erin Nikou have an 8th grade daughter whom they love very much. “And it wasn’t until we really started getting to know her friends, having them to our house, and having conversations with them – and kind of watching her walk this journey of middle school – that we noticed that there was a really big need for a community just for them. There was a lot of her friends that were not only unchurched, or kind of went here and there, but it really was just a community for them to feel safe, to talk through life circumstances, what’s going on in their lives.” Erin says there was “this heart prompting that Aaron and I were meant to open our home and let God use us to minister to…these kids.”
But how?
This led to prayer and conversations with trusted friends, “and they were all like 100% in, so we had this little gathering at our house just to update them on what I had in my brain, because I knew I needed their help to execute it.” Erin felt what she describes as an “ongoing prompting” from God and “finally, we were just obedient in it and said ‘okay, let’s just do it and we’ll figure out what it looks like as we go.’ And that’s how it just started” this past summer. (Rather listen? Here's our podcast)
Fellowship Nights at their home
Husband Aaron pitched in with teaching from the Bible and selected topics. “And from my perspective,” Aaron says, “her passion, my calling, come together and all of a sudden it creates this explosion of kind of organic growth here.”
The co-ed fellowship group saw 32 young people show up the first week, but it didn’t take long for as many as 125 to gather at the Nikou’s central Indiana home! Many of the kids were dropped off by their parents and, somehow, God kept making room in the home. The weekly get-together became so big that the Nikous accepted an offer from Pastor Danny Anderson at nearby Emmanuel Church to use a church fieldhouse for the fellowship group.
What are young people in the community struggling with?
In her own family, Erin had thought “I had a couple years before I was going to have to deal with some of these topics that I remember dealing with as a high schooler, at 15, 16-years-old.” But she quickly realized today’s 11- and 12-year-olds were facing those issues much earlier. Why? “The common denominator is that they’re just exposed to way more at a way younger age” and social media is a primary reason.
Some of the issues the Nikous are talking with tweens and teens about include, “the gossip, the bullying…the boys, right?, the boy situation for girls is huge at a very young age” these days. Aaron and Erin are not seeing many struggling with alcohol or drugs, “but we definitely have some who are exploring the vaping.” There’s also discussion about anxiety, depression, even suicide. And the need for good friendships and understanding boundaries comes into play.
“The first response of a lot of parents was – we were ‘crazy’ for opening our home to that many kids, and then what I think they really understood was that clearly the kids loved being there and together, right?”
The key
“We started out our first week on the topic of identity,” explains Erin, “because, through and through, if we can truly understand our identity and where that comes from – and where it doesn’t come from – and understand who we are in Christ, if we could hone in on that, all of the other issues that they’re dealing with all comes down to understanding who they are” in the Lord.
A wise message
Arron created a central theme to share called ‘Look In (at yourself), Look Out (around you), and Look Up (to God). He explains the number one thing that young people are missing, “These kids do not have a place to process their issues … If you don’t create the space necessary for them to process with [other] people, then they don’t think rightly about the information.” Bottom line, they don’t need “a place to be talked at, but a place to be talked with.”
“It’s what God can do with two willing hearts, my wife’s desire to make this a passion – and mine to say, ‘I’ll teach,’ and God just opened the doors!” Through obedience to God’s prompting, “You bring God a small amount, and somehow he multiplies it into things you could never dream possible. Glory to God for using two people who are saying ‘here’s our hearts, here’s our house, here’s our couch,’” Aaron smiles, “and see what God can do!”
Others are seeing it, too
“Teachers in the schools are saying, ‘What is going on here? We’ve got kids talking concepts that they’re learning at [your] fellowship night in the [school] lunchroom.’” Erin smiles as she shares that overall school behavior is even showing improvement, with less drama and cliquey situations among girl students. “We’re even seeing reconciliation of relationships, girls that wouldn’t speak to one another are now asking for forgiveness and want to have a fresh start of a relationship.”
Erin and Aaron also hear stories of those who attend fellowship night now being bolder about sharing their personal faith, not being intimidated about talking about Jesus.
In our complete podcast interview just below, Aaron and Erin share that the young people didn’t want to skip a week of fellowship, they wanted to come back each week because of the answers they were discovering. You’ll also hear about delicious s’mores by a campfire in August when it was 90 degrees. And they all loved it!
