Teens Put Faith Into Action

The crosses on the old red city bus raised suspicions at Coeur d’Alene’s Skate Park.

Kids in baggy shorts showed up at the park every morning for half pipes and front-side flips. They were there to merge with their boards during the perfect quarter pipe. Why a bunch of squeaky clean church teens needed to agitate the atmosphere was beyond the skaters.

“They just showed up,” Shred Shed owner Tom Brown says, remembering the day Gus the Bus first parked in the lot.

Dark-haired Garth Mickelson climbed out of the bus amid the sounds of Christian music. Questioning faces stared back until Garth and his dozen teenage boys unloaded free doughnuts and chips for everyone.

“We thought they were wonderful, hot as heck,” Tom says. “Nothing they did was offensive.”

Garth and the teens from Hayden Lake Friends Church wanted nothing more than friendships. Most skaters obliged.

“We had people tell us not to do it, that they’d think we were geeks,” Garth says. “It was like mass weather fronts coming together. But both sides had a bad reputation and found out no one was pushing anything.

“The skaters said, `Hey, they’re not pushing anything down my throat.”’ Kids from both sides go back every summer now.

Garth had grown away from church as a kid. He and his wife, Vicki, returned in the 1980s only to offer their two children Sunday school. But Garth and Vicki found the Bible making sense to them this time.

They dropped landscaping for a living and devoted themselves to kids at home and at church. Garth earned a certificate to do youth ministry.

His working-class background inspired a new brand of church youths.

“I didn’t want to develop a program and convince the kids to do it,” he says.

Instead, Garth followed the kids’ interests. They painted fences when that’s what their grandmothers needed, or weeded gardens or collected bark until Garth imagined a longer-lasting commitment.

He planned a trip to Tijuana, Mexico, so the teens could build houses, remodel a church and work with local kids. Garth persuaded his church to spend $4,500 on a retired 1974 city bus. His group added carpet and cots to the bus they named Gus. In 1997, 35 kids and 10 adults raised $20,000 and headed to Tijuana.

The trip opened Garth’s eyes wider. Some kids with him knew no non-Christian people. They were privileged kids from tight-knit families. Garth promised to close the gap.

In 1998, Gus’ first stop was Coeur d’Alene’s English Village apartments. Living there is no-frills. Divided families are common.

Garth wanted to acquaint his teenagers with an unfamiliar world as much as he wanted English Village kids to learn that strangers care about them.

His kids built a makeshift Slip ‘n’ Slide and planned to fix bikes, paint faces, throw water balloons and serve hot dogs. They posted fliers a month in advance. Still, Gus pulled up to a ghost town.

Apartment kids strayed outside a half hour later as the Friends kids played loudly. Fun and food lasted seven hours. The stop became a regular for three summers.

“I wanted the joy they had in living even though they didn’t have much,” says Ashley Mickelson, Garth’s 16-year-old daughter. “They helped me.”

Garth wanted kids secure in their faith to stop at the Skate Park.

“It was a weird feeling,” says Josh Emery, a church volunteer. He’s 14 and dyes part of his spiky hair blue. “We felt we’d be rejected, but things warmed up after we skated.”

Some skaters ignored him; others didn’t care.

“I got asked if I was one of those Christians that skate for God,” says Stuart Grinnell, a 14-year-old in a backwards ballcap. “I said, `Yeah,’ and that was cool.”

The Gus Bus kids held afternoon Bible meetings at the park, but didn’t pressure anyone to attend. Still, a few regular skaters trickled in and eventually joined the church. Last summer, Garth performed a wedding for an ex-gang member skater who rediscovered his religion.

The Skate Park stops continue every summer. In the winter, Friends Church sponsors snowboarding lessons for seven low-income kids. The Gus Bus accompanies the group with free hot chocolate and hot dogs.

“It’s not our job to change people, just to love them,” Garth says, and judiciously pushes that message. A dozen Friends students nod seriously. “There are a lot of teens out there in our community who care about our community.”

This sidebar appeared with the story: WHAT’S UP Concert tonight

The Shred Shed will host a free outdoor concert featuring three DJs from 6 to 10 p.m. tonight between Fourth and Fifth on Sherman Avenue in Coeur d’Alene.

The Shred Shed will display sale items and set up free skate ramps. Garth Mickelson and the Gus Bus plan to join in the fun. For details, call 765-8781.