More than 20 years ago, the principal at a new middle school in Brooklet, Ga. asked if any staff members would be interested in starting student clubs. Math teacher Patia Rountree raised her hand. She had previously been involved in FCA as a college student and a camp Huddle Leader, and she wanted to bring the ministry to her students.
Rountree has been leading ministry at the school ever since, and today the all-school Huddle has grown to about 130 students.
“Through FCA, you are able to be a missionary,” Rountree said. “It provides a platform that allows me to share my faith. It’s a student-led organization, so I am there to support them. I am pouring into the leaders’ lives, and they are in turn pouring into the larger Huddle.”
Beyond Huddles at the school, a large part of Rountree’s ministry involves taking students to Leadership Camp on St. Simons Island, Ga. each summer, which she has done faithfully for more than two decades. Over time, she has played a part in hundreds of students attending camp.
Camp is also the highlight of the year for her own family, which includes her husband Ben and their daughters, Ella Faith, 15, and Johnna Hope, 11. The girls have been attending camp their entire lives, and Ella Faith leads a Huddle at her high school.
“I will forever be indebted to FCA for the way they have helped lead my own children,” Rountree said.
For all her efforts in ministry, Rountree was recognized with the FCA Branch Rickey Service Award for the way she embodies integrity, service, teamwork and excellence.
Karen Carr, FCA Director for the Coastal Plains area, said she has shared what Rountree uses to plan Huddles with other coaches. Carr said this mindset of teamwork has also led Rountree to share what God has taught her with other women in athletics, the local FCA Leadership Board and Huddle coaches.
“She will go above and beyond to make sure her student-athletes have the best experience learning about leadership,” Carr said.
In the spring, Rountree begins encouraging rising seventh and eighth graders to become Huddle leaders for the following school year, and Carr said Rountree immediately begins pouring into the students once she receives applications by inviting them to camp and to her home for training.
“Rountree challenges them to lead out every week during the school year as they plan discipleship groups and large Huddles,” Carr said.
Rountree then encourages students to get involved in the ministry at high school as they get older. Once they graduate, she connects with FCA staff to find out what opportunities might be available for them in college and the next phase of their lives.
“She is invested in her student-athletes,” Carr said. “She knows they have a platform for Christ and challenges them to use it.”
Overall, Rountree said success in the ministry is about faithfulness through the ups and downs.
“It’s about consistency, showing up and providing a space for the kids to share their testimony,” Rountree said. “God has plan for everything that happens. If you stick with it long enough, you just might get the blessing of seeing what that plan is.”
Rountree encourages coaches and volunteers to embrace middle school ministry, and she believes FCA is an essential place for students to hear the truth of God’s Word. She believes her responsibility as a leader is to be a facilitator to allow students to grow.
“It really is about student leadership,” Rountree said. “My role is to be a sounding board for them so I can help them provide what they want for their classmates and Huddles.”
Reagan Boyles is now in college, but she was a leader in FCA under Rountree’s direction in middle school. Rountree lit a passion for camp in her life, and Boyles said Rountree has been there for her throughout her life. Going forward, she wants to model for others the leadership values and servant’s heart that Rountree exhibits.
“[Rountree personifies] the hands and feet of Jesus,” Boyles said. “She is such a light in my life. She loves immensely, and has been with me every step of the way.”
With the ministry going strong, Rountree has no plans to slow down.
“I think FCA will always be a part of our lives...It is a part of who our family is as a structure and who I am as a person,” she said.
Rountree maintains a perspective on what truly matters in life.
“What I do inside the four walls of my classroom is temporary, but I know everything I do for FCA is eternal,” she said.
Patia Rountree, an FCA volunteer in the Coastal Plains, Ga. area, asks for prayer that more coaches and athletes would come to know Jesus as their Savior and students would step up in leadership. Additionally, she asks that God would bring character coaches to each middle and high school team in the area so they can pour into the lives of students.
Learn how you can get involved in a local Huddle in your area.
-FCA-
Photos courtesy of Patia Rountree