“Dessert tonight is a riddle,” I told the college students as they came in the door. We had made cutout cookies of teddy bears, rocking horses, and little hands and feet. Students could choose pink or blue icing to frost the cookies. We watched intently as the answer dawned on some of their faces. Others would have to wait until prayer time to get the answer: we were expecting our first child. We were excited to share the news with those in attendance because they were not only part of our ministry, but some of our best friends.

For 15 years, my husband and I have opened our home every Tuesday evening during the school year for Dessert & Devotions (D&D), our college ministry. Matt was already involved in college ministry when we got married (in fact, this is how we met), because it was his funnel into the RP Missions program.

When deciding where I wanted to go to college, I chose a secular school instead of Geneva College because, as I had said, “I don’t want to go to chapel because I have to go to chapel. I want to go to chapel because I want to go to chapel.” It turns out that I only went to church when I was home on breaks, and the only chapel I ever went to was on Sept. 11, 2001. I watched as my roommate got involved in a Christian ministry and was invited into a young couples’ home. I wanted that type of ministry. I wanted someone to hold me accountable.

In 2005, when Matt and I had been married for nine months, we started D&D. The idea was that we would serve dessert and have a brief Bible study, and students could hang out off campus at our house for a few hours. Over the years, it has turned into a time of fellowship, psalm singing, and prayer.

In the early days, we noticed a few patterns: If a college guy stuck around until after everyone else left, he wanted to ask Matt for girl advice. If someone came early, they might have something heavy weighing on their mind. If a boy and girl shared a psalter, we could expect their engagement announcement soon (just kidding…kind of).

One constant refrain could be heard weekly: “Let’s keep the tempo up on this one.” The desire to sing psalms without dragging went from a problem to a challenge: could we sing Psalm 98A at a brisk pace without losing our tempo? Before the new psalter was released I received a bootlegged copy of Psalm 99A. We fell in love with that arrangement. In later years, we sang many different psalm arrangements from many different denominations. We compiled new versions into folders that were brought out each week.

Some years, we averaged 25 students each week. In 2018, we had one person coming regularly and were faced with the reality that our ministry might be coming to an end. In His providence, the Lord revived D&D. We had a wonderful year of ministry this year until the pandemic struck, sending everyone back to their homes. Even so, our six-year-old asked, “Can we do Dessert & Devotions on Zoom?”

If you have ever thought of becoming involved in some type of ministry, here are five points I have learned from ours.

1) If you want to start a ministry, just do it. We can spend days and weeks planning an upcoming ministry, working on a mission statement, and thinking through all the positives and negatives and then never face the reality of actually following through. Our goal was simple: open our door, and invite people in for fellowship. Our house would be mostly clean, but never perfect. Expectations were not high. We invited people in, and they came.

2) At some point, you will get discouraged. Throughout the years, I would get discouraged when attendance was low. I would ask myself the questions, “What are we doing wrong? Are we too old to be doing college ministry? Are we not cool enough?” When we began to analyze the situation, we could see that our lower attendance was a sign that the church was doing more than it had ever been doing before to minister to college students. In addition to our program (which was a joint venture between RP Missions and First RPC), College Hill started an intensive discipleship program (DASH) and held a Sunday evening gathering in people’s homes (SWARM). Some students attended our ministry and theirs. If they were not coming because the need wasn’t there as it was before, that wasn’t a reason for discouragement, but for the opposite.

3) The Lord will bring blessings when you least expect it. During the times when our attendance was lower, we were able to get to know students on a deeper level. A few years ago, our attendance had dwindled to two to four people on average. Most of the students coming were not Reformed Presbyterian, but loved singing the Psalms. During the spring semester, two of these ladies’ mothers had extraordinary health problems. Neither lived close to home, and our weekly meetings became a time where we could focus on praying for their families and encouraging them through the Psalms. That year in particular will always stand out.

4) Sometimes you will give and sometimes you will receive. As it is with many ministries, I think those ministering reap the biggest benefit. The testimony of the college students who walk through our door is a strong witness to our children. The students listen to endless Pokémon facts, are excited by the kids’ new toys, and love the Lord and singing to Him. These people who give of their busy week to come and hang out with us have shown our children that they are putting the Lord first.

5) One person is important enough to minister to. Jesus told the parable of the shepherd who left the 99 sheep to look for the one that was lost. Likewise, when it was time to make the decision on whether or not D&D would continue this year, I thought back to those close relationships we had formed in the past. We decided that we would continue to open our door, even just for one.

Heidi Filbert homeschools her four children, directs a homeschool co-op, crochets, and blogs. Matt Filbert was director of RP Missions for more than 20 years and is now senior pastor at First RPC in Beaver Falls, Pa.