My name is Alaina Quinn, and I am the new Children and Family Ministry Coordinator (CFMC). I want to thank you for welcoming me into your community and trusting me to help grow and nurture a love for the Lord within your youth.
Since I can remember, I’ve always held a strong desire to help the youth. At six years old, I attended Awanas, where I was told the stories of the prophets night after night; Cain and Able gave up the best of their crops and herds, Noah gave up the world he knew and his pride in being humbled as his friends made fun of him and his family for building the ark, Job gave himself to God after everything had been taken from him. Abraham was asked to sacrifice many of his prized animals and, later, his only son! There were many more, but the main concept I took from these stories as a six-year-old was, “If I want to become a prophet of the Lord, spread the word of His good works, and help bring people to Him, I must be willing to give up the thing I love the most.”
Growing up, I had a favorite stuffed animal. It was a little white moose with red antlers. So before I went to sleep one night, I laid down a pillow in the corner of my bed and put some flowers and sticks I had found outside around the edges. Then, in a ball of tears, I laid my dear, sweet Moosey down in the middle of this beautiful mess I had created, and I fought through my tears to pray, “God, please take my Moosey and make me into your prophet. I want to help show people how much you love them and what your love can do for them. Please take my Moosey, but please take good care of him, and turn me into someone who you can speak through to others. Amen.” And then I cried myself to sleep, knowing my beloved moose would be taken and gone by morning. Waking up the next morning, I quickly looked with glee to the end of my bed to see an empty nest of twigs, but I was sorely disappointed to find my toy still lying there. I thought to myself with the greatest sadness, “God must not want me as one of his prophets.”
As I got older, the calling to help youth became more and more clear. In 2021, I took over my instructor's Karate class, and I now teach kids of all ages how to defend themselves through the works of our Savior, how to grow in the Lord's path, and how the Bible relates to karate and life in every aspect. I also started a non-profit to create more youth-based activities in Delta County last year and am working vigorously to get that off the ground and running.
As the CFMC, my goal is to teach children how to have a relationship with Christ by learning about the Bible and creating strong bonds with their peers and mentors. Though I am a very busy woman, I take pride in this opportunity God has given me to reach out to the youth here, and I will do my Job with a prayer in my heart that the children will not hear my words, but the words of the Father as He speaks through me. John 1:4 says, “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.”