JIMMY LUNDGREN | guest writer
photo | JIMMY LUNDGREN
One of the children that attended the skate ministry shows off his skateboarding skills.


Whether it is learning how to do a kick flip or hanging out, APU students build relationships with Azusa citizens through skating and living.

The four cornerstones of Azusa Pacific University are not just a slogan or model for the school, but they are supposed to be a way of life. On Thursday November 29 APU students went to Memorial Park to skate and spend time with the children and teenagers of Azusa.

The goal of the Skating and Living event is to build relationships and connect with Azusa children and teenagers, but the program is not just for people who can skate. If students want to play soccer, throw a Frisbee, or cook some food for a BBQ, they are more than welcome to attend.

“This will help the APU students and skaters get connected with local skaters in the community and at the park,” junior cinema broadcast arts major Ryan Weilert said. “We just are down to hang out, have fun, skate, BBQ, and build relationships with them.”

The group meets Thursdays from 3 p.m. until the children and teenagers need to go home. The event is held at Memorial Park where there are BBQ grills, open grass areas, and a skate park.

“To have APU students come down here and to connect with people in the community, that’s living out the kingdom right there,” Assistant Campus Pastor Jim Ostlund said.

Around 30 children and teenagers were at the park skating and hanging out.

“It’s fun to skate with college people because they can show us tricks,” Six-year-old Frankie Salazar said.

Freshman global studies major Jillie Ryan started this outreach because she felt a separation between APU students and the Azusa community. Ryan felt that APU students might be intimidated by the Azusa citizens, so by bringing the two together, relationships and understandings can be formed.

“[The Azusa citizens] are so open and so kind and so warm but we have these preconceived thoughts that they are going to be closed minded and they are going to have a negative view of us, but they just want to chill and just want to hang,” Ryan said.

Sophomore youth ministry major Eric Vanosdall said he would like to see more APU students at the event and building relationships with children in Azusa.

Vanosdall said, “That would be the point of something like this not as much a ‘Hey how’s it going? What was your name?’ type of thing, but being here more consistently and building relationships with just a couple kids who you can encourage.”