MISSOULA (AP)
The congregation of a church vandalized by three young men has invited them to church and is gathering gift baskets for each of them “to reach out and extend love and mercy to them,” an outreach pastor said. “The judge will give them consequences, but as a congregation we want to reach out and extend love and mercy to them,” said Jason Reimer, a pastor of outreach at the South Hills Evangelical Church. “A lot of us, whether we’re churchgoers or not, have been in their shoes before and have made some bad choices. But God forgives us.” For Justin Wurth, 18, Duane Barry, 19, and Tyler Pearce, also 19, the bad choices began just before midnight on Sunday, Nov. 12, when they broke into SHEC. They’re accused of stealing money and electronic equipment, and causing several thousand dollars’ worth of damage. Police caught them in the act and the three were charged with felony burglary. But last Sunday, Pastor John Erbele devoted his sermon to the young men, preaching about mercy and forgiveness. “He challenged members of the church to give love baskets,” Reimer said. “We’ve collected several hundred dollars’ worth of gift cards, Xboxes and controllers, a DVD, a VCR. All three young men still live with their parents or grandparents, so we hope the message will be clear.” The church plans to deliver the baskets over the holiday season. Erbele became pastor of the church six years ago, and the congregation has grown from about 50 members to 1,700, Reimer said. Erbele places heavy emphasis on the importance of effective teen outreach, Reimer said. The church sponsors a skatepark and Erbele plays in a Christian rock band and offers a twice-a-week drug recovery program for adults, called Addictions and Recovery in Christ. Because police found marijuana, a pipe and some painkillers on the young men, Reimer said he hopes they’ll consider SHEC as a healthier outlet in the future. “They’ve all been invited to the church, and one of the young men is registered at the skatepark,” Reimer said. “They did smash some stuff, like computer monitors, windows, televisions and sprayed fire extinguisher in the gym, which left a huge mess that we had to have professionally cleaned,” Reimer said. “But this isn’t about the stuff at all. That can be replaced. “Our biggest concern is the hearts of these guys. That’s how we generally feel. We wonder what prompted them to do this in life, and we want to help them get their lives straightened out.”
