If Jesus were here today, he’d be hanging out at Serious JuJu.

That conviction has helped sustain JD Carabin and his wife, Nicci, through the trials of the last three years. Everything they have — their time, their energy, their money — is invested in the skateboard ministry.

And while the price tag sometimes has been outrageous, they’re convinced Serious JuJu Skateworks is worth it.

Moreover, they’re convinced they’re reaching out to the same people Jesus would.

“Who did Christ hang out with? Not the lovely or the popular ... but the unlovely and the unloved,” JD Carabin said. “In my estimation, if Christ was here today, he’d be hanging out in a skate park.”

The kids and teenagers who frequent Serious JuJu are the people their peers — and society in general — look down on. But they’re kids who need to be fed — with food, friendship, faith and freedom to be themselves.

That’s where Serious JuJu comes in. For the last three years, the ministry has sought to feed kids’ stomachs, souls and skateboarding skills.

The ministry began in July 2007 when Carabin and a friend, Scott McGuffie, brought homemade rails to Woodland Park for skaters to grind on.

By 2008, they had set up shop in Carabin’s 432-square-foot garage in west Kalispell. About 50 skaters a week waited, sometimes for a half-hour or more, for a turn on a scrounged-together quarter pipe or rail.

It was cramped, but kids kept coming back and bringing their friends for a chance to skate, snack and hear the gospel.

When the garage could no longer hold everyone and their gear, Serious JuJu moved into the Boys and Girls Club on Shady Lane. But when the weather turned colder, the tarp walls around the skate park proved inadequate.

Serious JuJu needed a real indoor facility if kids were going to skate year round.

“I started walking and praying at night,” Carabin recalled. He would pace around the neighborhood, asking God — aloud — to provide a building. “I’m sure the neighbors thought I was nuts.”

One of his prayer walks took him down Airport Road and past a two-story red building. At just under 12,000 square feet, it was large enough to house the growing ministry. It was so perfect that Carabin stopped and asked God to give it to Serious JuJu.

Soon after, the phone rang.

It was a pastor of a new church, calling to say he had just rented the building. Disappointment washed over Carabin, but he tried to be glad the church had found a place to meet.

Then the pastor made him an offer.

“We want to give you a night,” he told Carabin. “The building is way bigger than we need.”

Carabin thanked the church for the offer. But Serious JuJu didn’t need one night.

It needed three.

The pastor immediately agreed. “It wasn’t even a question,” Carabin said.

Serious JuJu moved into the building in November 2008. The first night drew 105 skaters.

Those skaters kept coming back and bringing friends. Soon Serious JuJu had outgrown its three nights and added Saturday and Thursday sessions.

Trouble struck in August 2009, when the church moved out of the building.

It could no longer afford to keep up with the rent, and Serious JuJu, which had been using the facility for free, was in danger of ending up on the street.

Carabin turned to parents, churches and other supporters of Serious JuJu for help. He also went to work establishing Serious JuJu as a 501(c)3 nonprofit.

He had resisted putting together a plan — “ministry is not supposed to be a business,” he thought — but at a friend’s urging, finally put together a ministry outline and submitted an application for nonprofit status.

Within 90 days of submitting the application, Serious JuJu was a 501(c)3 nonprofit.

Acceptance that quickly “is just unheard of,” Carabin said. “It was awesome to see God give us favor again.”

Carabin sees God’s favor elsewhere, as in the ministry’s ability to rent the building for a third the price the church had paid. The economic downturn has helped because the landlord doesn’t want the building empty, Carabin explained.

Serious JuJu also has benefited from generous donations. Bresnan Communications donated Internet service, which allowed the ministry to offer after-school homework help. Glacier Pilot Club and Kalispell Regional Medical Center donated 50 helmets.

A grant through the Office of Public Instruction has helped Serious JuJu provide lunch five days a week all summer. The ministry would have fed the youths anyway, but the grant alleviated the need to seek more donations, Carabin said.

Serious JuJu provides meals at eight of the nine sessions it offers each week; between a church service complete with music and a message and skateboarding, there isn’t time for dinner at the Thursday evening session.

About 250 kids come through Serious JuJu each

week, Carabin said. From Jan. 1 through June 1, 4,000 skaters attended 154 sessions at Serious JuJu.

The ministry also boasts a five-person sponsored skate team that holds outreach events throughout the summer. The next event is planned for 6 p.m. July 24 at the Whitefish skate park.

Other people have been inspired by the Kalispell ministry. Carabin recently advised a budding skate ministry in a tiny church basement in Butte, and a group in Ashville, Ohio, founded a skate ministry after seeing a video about Serious JuJu on YouTube.

It’s exciting for Carabin, who never expected to be running a skateboard ministry. Even when Serious JuJu began, he didn’t anticipate the growth the ministry has experienced.

But God can do a lot with a little, he said.

“If God puts a call on your heart, move in it. Don’t just sit,” he said. “If we would have sat and waited for this, it would have never happened.”

Serious JuJu Skateworks hosts its third annual skate competition today.

All skaters must be registered by 10 a.m. The cost to compete is $10.

There are four competition divisions.

Skaters 18 and younger will compete in novice, intermediate and advanced divisions; skaters older than 18 have an open competition.

First place in each division wins a trophy. First-, second- and third-place finishers in each division win prizes.

Every competitor gets a T-shirt and lunch.

Competition takes place at Serious JuJu, 1896 Airport Road, Kalispell.

On the Web:

http://seriousjujuskateworks.com

Reporter Kristi Albertson may be reached at 758-4438 or at kalbertson@dailyinterlake.com.