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Review

Free Donuts Lead to New Ministry Outreach to Children

When Brian Royer, pastor of Passion Church, felt led to buy a group of children some donuts, little did he know that his decision would lead to kids choosing to follow Christ.
It was a Monday evening and pastor Brian Royer suddenly had a craving for something sweet from Dunkin’ Donuts. Although not an unusual craving, as Royer admits with a laugh to having a bit of a sweet tooth, he and his wife, Paula, headed to the neighborhood shop.

Royer, who prefers personal service and interaction as opposed to the less personal “hurry” (drive) thru, couldn’t help but notice nine or 10 kids inside the shop milling around and taking turns to peer dreamy-eyed at the selection of donuts.

“I got a coffee roll and headed back to the car,” Royer recalls. “And then, as I got into the car, God spoke to my heart. I told Paula that I thought God was telling me to go back into the shop and buy each of those kids a donut. She told me that I had better go back in there and do it then, so that’s what I did.”

It was the right decision.

The Royers, who planted Passion Church seven years ago in Parrish, Florida, have a congregation that sees as many as 50 during the “snow bird” months and roughly 30 to 35 during the summers.

However, on that summer Monday night last year, the decision to follow God’s leading, which was met with disbelief followed by excitement among a pack of kids, has resulted in a ministry the Royers never imagined.

“The kids who visit that shop (roughly ages 5 to 12) live in a 125-unit apartment complex built for lower income families,” Brian Royer explains. “After that first time, we decided to try something — we distributed fliers at the apartment complex, inviting kids to meet us at the shop for donuts on Monday evenings at 5:30 — we call it the DD for JC club.”

As Monday evenings are a very slow time for in-store customers, the store’s manager was agreeable to the group meeting there, with Royer noting how they had led the woman who worked the counter on Monday evenings to the Lord several months prior.

“Our executive pastor, Zane Elliott, and his wife, Karen, lead the kids in a short Bible study and then we buy them each a donut and something to drink,” Royer says. “And each week, roughly 12 to 15 kids show up for the meeting, but the group is rarely composed of all the same kids.”

Royer says that there is a lot of transition that takes place in the apartment complex and many of the kids come from single-parent shared-custody homes, with kids going back and forth between parents (or spending time with non-custodial parents), so attendance is often hit and miss.

However, the ministry has proven highly effective!

“So far, we’ve seen nearly 20 kids accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior through the DD for JC club,” Royer says, the excitement evident in his voice. “And now, we’re also seeing parents show up and join in the meetings from time to time.”

As parents have come to appreciate the efforts of the Royers and Elliotts, the apartment complex managers have opened the doors to doing events there as well.

“They allowed us to do a fall festival this year, and we had almost 50 children show up,” Royer says. “They said we could come anytime of the year and do whatever we want because they had received a good report from their community of us helping out the children and teaching them about Jesus.”

Not ones to turn away an opportunity, Royer says they then held a Christmas party for kids, sharing with them the true meaning of Christmas.

“Who could have imagined this?” Royer says. “God is so good!”

So, although not every time someone has a sudden urge for a decadent treat is it God working out a divine opportunity, it does stand to reason that in every situation a divine opportunity to impact a life for Christ does exists. And as the Royers experienced, sometimes all it takes is a willingness to listen and respond, even at a donut shop.

Dan Van Veen

Dan Van Veen is news editor of AG News. Prior to transitioning to AG News in 2001, Van Veen served as managing editor of AG U.S. Missions American Horizon magazine for five years. He attends Central Assembly of God in Springfield, Missouri, where he and his wife, Lori, teach preschool Sunday School and 4- and 5-year-old Rainbows boys and girls on Wednesdays.