Reardan Presbyterian reaches out to community

 

By Molly Ertel

When members of Reardan First Presbyterian Church and the Reardan community want to accomplish something, they innovate and collaborate, said Katie Thirupal, who became the pastor in 2020 during COVID.

Reardan is a town of 637 in Lincoln County about 30 minutes west of Spokane.

At a time when many congregations were longing to return to normal, the church folks asked themselves, "How will God do something new through us in the midst of this?"

The mixed-age congregation with 30 to 40 attending on Sundays includes some involved since childhood, as well as young families raising children.

"Care for the community is the congregation's heartbeat," said Katie.

Reaching out to neighbors beyond its walls is a core value of First Presbyterian.

They help run the nonprofit, We C.A.R.E., which stands for We Care About Reardan Edwall, a project covered in an October 2025 Fig Tree article.

First Presbyterian is one of four churches that collaborate to run We C.A.R.E. The others are Reardan Bible Fellowship, Emmanuel Evangelical Lutheran and St. Michael Catholic.

We C.A.R.E. funds the school district's Bite2Go program, providing food to more than 70 kids so they don't go hungry over weekends. We C.A.R.E. also dispenses school supplies, clothing and holiday gifts.

Through We C.A.R.E., First Presbyterian helps stock the local food pantry and provides gas vouchers and food vouchers for staples such as milk, bread and eggs to be used at Raj Singh's grocery store. They also offer rental assistance as needed.

Through ecumenical get-togethers, shared services and a vacation Bible school, the four congregations strive to be the church together.

In 2024, the Presbytery of the Inland Northwest received a grant from Lilly for the Ezra 3 Project, designed to guide churches to use their space to better serve their communities. The presbytery disbursed $10,000 seed money to each church that participated in a cohort and completed the curriculum, "Good Futures Accelerator" and submitted an application detailing how they would use the funds to improve their buildings and lands to support the community.

Through the Ezra 3 discernment process, First Presbyterian decided to use their gathering space to develop an after-school program and hired Rebecca Mischel as program director.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10 to 12 elementary children attend this nonreligious program in the church's gathering space.

The after-school program, called Creating Community After School (CCAS), is the fruit of the Ezra 3 discernment process. It grew out of input from the school superintendent, police, parents, business owners and school staff.

While these stakeholders did not determine what the program would look like, they agreed it was needed. Grant funds from the Ezra 3 Project and Innovia Foundation gave CCAS its start with the hope that it will last for years.

CCAS's focus is to build healthy relationships with trusted adults through wholesome activities such as field trips, science and art projects, and safety and first aid workshops. Family dinners are another way kids and families can connect with one another through the program.

Church members are also invited to these dinners, giving them the opportunity to meet community members they might not otherwise know.

Reardan Presbyterian has another mission partner, Adult and Teen Challenge PacWest. This yearlong, intensive addiction recovery program in Airway Heights serves men aged 18 and older struggling with addiction to substances and other destructive behaviors. The church supports them with worship, potlucks, relationship-building and Christmas gifts.

"The more I think about it, the more amazed I am at how much this tiny church does," said Katie.

In addition to serving Reardan and its environs, First Presbyterian has been involved for 13 years in bringing awareness to the scarcity of clean water in developing countries, refugee camps and disaster areas through the international Christian charity Water Mission at watermission.org.

On April 26, First Presbyterian congregants and area residents joined together in the Reardan Community Walk for Water. They started at the city park and walked two miles with empty buckets to a gully in a field. There they filled their buckets and then walked back the same two miles with full buckets as a way to connect with people across the world who do this every day just to exist.

Donations were encouraged, though not required, The Reardan community collected more than $4,500 to provide clean water where it is most needed.

Looking to the future, Katie sees the church continuing its commitment to serve local youth. The after-school program is part of that.

In addition, a Wednesday night youth group meets at the church. Most are community kids, not from the church. Participants who identify as LGBTQ+ find it a welcoming space.

"Kids are drawn to relationships more than programing," said Katie. "Church is meant to be a place where both kids and adults can share their gifts."

In that spirit, the church uses one Sunday service a month to experiment with intergenerationally accessible forms of worship. They invite both kids and adults to lead readings or prayers and to choose songs. During the sermon time, they offer moments for the congregation to move, shout out ideas or act out scriptural characters.

Church has always been a second home for Katie. She was born in Fairbanks, Alaska, but when she was three her family moved to Post Falls, Idaho, where her father, Doug Waltar, was pastor of Community Presbyterian Church. Her mother was a speech therapist in local schools. Katie, the oldest of three sisters, described her childhood as "beautiful."

Katie graduated from Whitworth University in 2016 with a double major in English literature and theology. As an undergraduate, she knew she wanted to continue her studies after college but was unsure which discipline to pursue. She chose theology when she realized most papers she wrote dealt with theological questions.

In 2019, she earned a master of divinity at Duke Divinity School in Durham, N.C.

On returning to the Pacific Northwest, she took an interim position as pastor of the Reardan church. When the permanent position opened, she and the congregation felt that she was a good fit.

"I felt at peace being here," Katie said.

She was ordained in the summer of 2020 in an outdoor ceremony because of the pandemic.

That year, she also met her husband, Manoj Thirupal, professor of leadership studies at Gonzaga University, on a dating app. Katie had experience with the app, but it was a new experience for Manoj. They met for a walk. Because they wore COVID masks, they only caught a glimpse of each other's face when they lowered their masks to sip coffee.

They have been married four years now. Katie's family has taken Manoj in as a son and a brother, and the members of Reardan Presbyterian have been welcoming.

Now that Katie and Manoj are parents to 15-month-old twins, Micah and Naomi, both are juggling to balance their careers and family life.

To support Katie's family responsibilities and reduce their expenses, the church reduced Katie's work week to 28 hours.

To help with childcare when Katie is at work, Patsy Soliday, the oldest active church member, takes care of the twins on Tuesdays. She even read Manoj's thesis during the twins' naptime.

Manoj is a Dalit, the lowest caste in India, and has done the heavy lifting in overcoming the cultural divide, according to Katie.

He has adapted to life in a country vastly different from the one he grew up in. Assuming Manoj's citizenship papers come through in time, the family plans to visit his family in India in January 2027.

Having previously lived in cities, Katie has also been adapting to and appreciating life in a rural community, and she notes that "folks here take care of one another."

For information, call 796-2141 or email reardanpres@gmail.com.