Cars and empty school buses exited the Warren Central High School parking lot yesterday morning as a group of students and teachers gathered around the flagpole.

Passers-by shot curious looks at the gathered when they started singing, took each other by the hand and prayed.

Among the group at See You at the Pole were Western students Matt Haste, Jeremy Robinson and Laura Green-well from Alive, a Christian ministry for high school students run by college students.

Haste, a Eubank junior, founded the ministry with Nashville junior John Fisher a year ago.

Alive is organized into several teams created to address specific focuses within the ministry.

Louisville junior Dustin Pate leads the high school events team, which attends high school football and basketball games and other social events.

“We try to build relationships. . . on their (the high school students’) own grounds and also bridge the transition from high school to college,” Pate said.

Pate got involved with Alive at the beginning of last year. He found out about it by word-of-mouth and attended the first service in September 2002.

Pate said he got hooked and became one of the more involved helpers.

He said last semester the ministry was lacking organization and firm commitment from its helpers. One of the most prominent changes for this year are the individual teams, he said.

Haste said dedication and focus were missing last year, but he is confident in the new organization.

“We are trying to teach them what God has taught us,” Haste said.

With the teams, there is a greater sense of leadership from the helpers, who can work more with their own ideas and experiences, Haste said.

Haste said Alive plans to hold monthly worship services and fellowships. One aspect of the worship service will be group discussions, where college and high school students can share testimonies and talk about the similar situations the groups face.

Alive held an introductory meeting Monday in Gerard Auditorium in Garrett Center to explain opportunities for involvement to potential “helpers.” Greenwell, a Covington freshman, attended the meeting.

“I felt a really strong call when I was there to work with this group,” she said.

Greenwell said she was involved with a group called Younglife in high school and was looking for a ministry to work with in college. She said being involved here makes her feel at home.

“I also want to give back like I was given to in high school,” she said.

Greenwell plans to be a helper for Alive this year, but has not yet decided which team to join.

This past Friday, Alive assisted with a Fellowship of Christian Athletes area-wide lock-in at Bowling Green High School.

“We mostly helped supervise and chaperone,” Pate said.

Pate said he sees a lot of students who are very involved in church during high school, but their faith does not survive the transition to college.

Brittany Richey, a biology teacher at Warren Central High School, is a sponsor for FCA. She met Haste and the rest of the Alive ministry at the lock-in.

“They serve as a role model,” Richey said. “They are in college and doing the right thing by serving the Lord so publicly.”

Richey said that college is often perceived as a time to party and let one’s faith fall by the wayside.

“They stand up for their faith and that’s admirable,” she said.

Reach Marlene Brueggemann at [email protected].