ALIGNING WITH GOD'S PURPOSE

Students need us now more than ever. During this season of sheltering in place, all of us are feeling the effects of isolation. Our ministry leaders have been such great champions during this time as they seek to bring hope in these tough times. The following is one such story from one of our ministry leaders in Woodlan, Kaitlyn Bestul.

Over my four years with Campus Life Woodlan, I’ve always wanted to lead a small group, and with the hit of COVID-19, I finally had no excuses. Now more than ever do we need to build relationships and start conversations. When deciding what to go over, I asked myself, “What did I need to know back then that I know now?” I needed to know more about myself: why I reacted to things the way I did and accepting who I was truly made to be. These days, kids are isolated with nothing but their own thoughts and feelings at home. What a perfect time to better understand yourself with minimum distractions!

14 girls across the state (and out of state) have joined the small group and are doing simple activities, like creating timelines of their lives and finding their Enneagram types, with the intention to discover themselves, each other, and how this aligns with God’s purpose for their life. In just the second week, girls have been asking for one-on-one times to ask tough questions. We are only in the beginning, but they want to learn and connect on a deeper level with one another. One of the hardest things to do is to discover who you truly are by diving deeper into your past, and the courage of these ladies to share past traumas with such ease makes me so proud to be a part of their lives.

Pray for our ministry leaders as they bring hope to the world of isolation students are currently living in!

Chase Wagner

Woodlan Campus Life Director

Digital Campaign Surpassed Goal by $70,000 To Support Indigenous Leaders & Urban Community

Our City Life Digital Luncheon replaced our 6th Annual City Life Luncheon which is typically held within the walls of the City Life Center. This May, we went online during COVID-19 season with a digital campaign instead to raise support for our ministry that empowers urban youth to change their communities for Christ.

We went online, and then, you all blew us out of the water. We raised our goal from $30,000 to $60,000 on the first day. 

We hung out at give.yfcnin.org/citylifeluncheon for three days sharing stories of our young leaders, the history of our ministry, and the difference that we are able to make when our community supports us. And support us you did.

We ended the first day with our jaws on the floor realizing we would have to raise our goal again. So we did. To $100,000. Now, one week later, we’ve surpassed that goal as well. The need is greater than even our $100,000+ result, and the community stepped up to get us so much closer to closing the gap than we ever imagined.

You believed in our kids. Praise God for you. 

In the midst of this pandemic — the community showed up — you showed up — once again for City Life in a big way. Because of the extreme generosity of our donors, partners, and community members, City Life will continue to be in a position to lean into the greatest needs of the under-resourced neighborhoods we serve in a unique and impactful way. 

As Nygel Simms, the Regional Director who oversees the City Life ministry for Youth for Christ, said, “This is the greatest investment that we can make, and that’s an investment in the future of our youth.”

THANK YOU.
 

To learn more or visit the campaign page again visit give.yfcnin.org/citylifeluncheon, and fundraise or give!

From now on we regard no one according to the flesh.” (2 Corinthians 5:16a)

Each and every individual an Image Bearer of the eternal God. That is why in response to the senseless killing of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd, we lament. This is a step of solidarity and support for the Black community within Youth For Christ. Unfortunately, these are not isolated events, but rather a spotlight on the pain that cascades through generations of prejudice and injustice.

Our Youth For Christ family is grieving. But not without hope. We are collectively going to our knees in prayer. Not figuratively, but literally. There is no remedy for hatred, or injustice, or prejudice, or cultural blindness, or bitterness…except the life-giving, life-changing blood of Jesus. He gave His life as a ransom…and so, as an act of worship, and in alignment with the Gospel of Christ, we will kneel together. In an act of confession. With a posture of humility. In a step toward reconciliation.

“Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another.” - Romans 12:15

Fort Wayne, Ind. (November 11, 2020) — Youth for Christ (YFC) is declaring November 16-20 WE BELIEVE IN YOU(TH) week across Northern Indiana. Amid a polarizing season of politics, Coronavirus outbreaks, and racial tension, YFC will mobilize the community by inviting individuals to rally behind young people and speak messages of love, confidence and inspiration to the younger generation.

YFC’s goal is for young people to see that the community can come together in support of them despite the polarizing and divisive seasons brought on during 2020. WE BELIEVE IN YOU(TH) week will include a fundraising campaign, a video message for youth from leaders across the region, a public service announcement, and a flood of positive messages directed toward our young people. The campaign will support YFC’s 75 year-old mission to engage young people who don’t know Jesus in authentic relationships with people who love Jesus.

“It’s unbelievable to see all of Northern Indiana already unifying around this identity - WE BELIEVE IN YOU(TH),” said Chris Todia, CEO of Youth for Christ. “Even if it’s tough to unify around other things right now, we wanted to help our region unify around that — our belief in the next generation. They are our future, and we are going to be a community that goes all out on their behalf.”

Todia, and YFC, are inviting all of Northern Indiana to join in the movement:

• Post a 30 second positive message on social media during November 16-20 to tell the next generation why you believe in them using the hashtag #WBIYweek.
• Pick up the phone, send a text, or turn to a young person in your life and tell them why you believe in them.
• Teachers and educators tell students why you believe in them.
• Share WE BELIEVE IN YOU(TH) week, so every young person hears, “we believe in you!”
• Donate to the campaign at give.yfcnin.org/YOU.

You can support or learn more about WE BELIEVE IN YOU(TH) week by visiting give.yfcnin.org/YOU.

When Coronavirus challenged our programs in 2020, we picked up a magnifying glass and looked closely at our mission. We knew we didn’t need to host clubs or have family dinners in order to reach kids, but we did have to do some adjusting when COVID threatened to challenge the way we were reaching our young people.

Our young people desire to feel known. This was more true in the midst of quarantine. Instead, they were becoming detached, isolated and anxious about the future. Our team did some quick shifting and learning and found new ways to walk alongside our youth so they would know they weren’t alone. We needed them to know we were with them, even though we couldn’t be with them.

We hosted zoom lunches and ate together with students, screen-to-screen, instead of face-to-face. Our City Life team mobilized volunteers to deliver care packages, PPE, family meals, and graduation celebrations to the doorsteps of our urban youth from a safe social distance. Virtual small groups were hosted in different communities and social media groups were formed to teach students how to teach their friends about Jesus and what they were learning through scripture through social platforms — one of their only means of communication with limited facetime.

Our Juvenile Justice Ministry mobilized volunteers to write scripture on bananas and basketballs that would make it into the hands of young people behind the locked doors of Allen County Juvenile Center — whatever it takes to ensure the hope of Jesus would reach them in an uncertain time. Our team maintained relationships with students, and we made sure they knew someone was for them. If things were difficult at home, we worked to connect our youth with resources, give them a safe person to talk with, and a community full of transformational relationships that would point them to Jesus.

To our friends and generous supporters, thank you for your commitment to YFC through COVID and beyond. You are showing the young people of our community that we are with them.

COLLABORATIVE COMMUNITY

Every month I have the privilege to gather with other local youth pastors, senior pastors, and non-profit leaders here in our community for a networking meeting! We typically come together every second Thursday of the month for a time of fellowship/camaraderie, prayer for each other and our community, to collaborate, and grow together. This past month’s meeting looked a little different as we all met through Zoom from our homes. However, this did not hinder us from sharing both professional and personal difficulties and prayer requests, encouraging one another, bouncing ideas off each other, and helping each other grow through collaboration! 

This network has been quite the blessing in my life over the past year, and I am grateful to be a part of this group, especially in these current times. It has been so encouraging to know we don’t have to go through the struggles alone (or isolated) and be reminded we are truly better together! Iin our last meeting, many expressed interest in meeting more frequently during this time and stated how these meetings were so encouraging and beneficial. Praise the Lord that He continues to move and draw our community together to Himself and each other during these strange times!

JR Gray

Warsaw  Campus Life Director

A few weeks ago, one of our Campus Life Directors recieved a text from a young man who said he was desperate to come over and talk. Clueless as to what the conversation was going to hold this director put his kids to bed and invited the student over. Walking in with tears in his eyes the student sat down full of emotions he had been running from for years. Over the past week he had laid in bed with major side effects due to withdrawal from drugs. These side effects, at points leading him to the hospital to get fluids because of severe dehydration and low blood sugar.  

As the two of them sat in the Campus Life Director’s living room, guilt, shame and sorrow poured out from this student in genuine repentance. Beautifully broken, he received the mercy and grace of Jesus once again in his life. Our Campus Life Director traded an evening with his family for a broken night where Jesus made this young man new! It was truly "Holy ground". Tears of shame turned into tears of recognition of undeserved forgiveness. This young man is now on a path to wholeness for the first time in years. Drugs led this young man to his knees and on his knees he found Jesus waiting! Jesus is still in the transformation business!

It is only through the power of the Holy Spirit and the contribution of our supporters we're able to be in the position we are to speak into young people's lives and share the hope Christ has for them. If you currently support or have in the past: thank you. Your support of YFC makes redemption stories like this possible. Thank you for joining with us as we seek to share Christ's love with the youth of Northern Indiana. 

Imagine being a young man with no positive male role models in your life, being raised by a single mother, moving away from your family and friends for a “better life.” However, mom is in an abusive relationship with a man who pays the bills. A normal night is filled with yelling fights, which traumatizes you on the inside, but outwardly you keep it together. How are you to learn what being a “man” looks like? How are you to create a vision of what “success” should look like? You don’t! Instead, you become angry and bitter inside, lacking the ability to trust people — men specifically. The only time you can temporarily free yourself from the trauma is through the game of basketball. Yet, anger can so easily take over you because you are always feeling like it’s you against the world. One morning your older sister gets into a serious fight with this man your mother is with, and feels her life is in danger. She goes to school that day and encounters a person from a place called YFC City Life in the lunchroom who SEES her and CARES about her well-being. This person finds out about her homelife, then the man mom was seeing is arrested and removed from the home. The same person from City Life invites your family to church. 

This is God stepping in up-close and personal. However, this young man still was very angry (on the inside), but consistently comes to City Life! During his Sophomore year, this young man had an opportunity to go on a Spring Break trip to Florida with City Life. Later that summer, he was also given an opportunity to attend a discipleship experience in Colorado where he heard the gospel for the first time and surrendered his life to Christ. He began to give God room in his heart to change. He took these experiences and turned them into lifestyle practices. Changing things like his attitude, his happiness, and how hard he worked in basketball. He also developed mentoring relationships with a few of the male leaders at City Life. Today, this young man is a senior and has shown immense growth in his leadership. He is on the basketball team and mentoring younger men on and off the court. When he comes into his second home (City Life) he brings an infectious smile and a desire to love others well. He is speaking up and leading discussions about Jesus among his peers. He is embodying Indigenous Leadership — living and leading in his community. We are so excited and grateful for what God has done in this young man's life and what He will continue to do!

- Reggie Blackmon, City Life Director 46807

Bryce is an 18 year old football player at Dekalb High School. He doesn't enjoy football, but continues to play in order to please his parents. He has not seen playing time in all four years he has been a part of the team. Bryce lacks passion for the sport, therefore he is not very invested in getting to know his teammates. Ultimately, this results in him coming to practice everyday, saying hi to no one, and standing by himself on the sideline for two hours. 

When Bryce and I first met, it was clear he was someone who needed time and attention. Everyday at football practice I made it a priority to talk to Bryce. I wanted him to feel seen, known and loved. These conversations were always far from the topic of football, but caring and loving others in the name of Jesus is far more important than any sport. I got to know Bryce by simply listening. Sadly, Bryce doesn’t have many people in his life who are willing to sit and listen to him.

Since arriving in Dekalb, it’s become apparent there are many teens in the same boat as Bryce. Young people who feel unknown, unheard, and ultimately trapped because no one really knows who they are and what they actually desire and need. In Dekalb, we need leaders who are willing to listen. Listen to the stories of young people who have not felt able to speak before. People are impacted by leaders who step in and listen. As we seek to show up for the young people in our community, and take up a posture of listening, together we will see transformation at Dekalb High School. 

- Danny Goff, DeKalb High School Campus Life Director

        *Names have been changed to protect the privacy of our students. 

Sammi is a middle schooler who began coming to Club this fall. She is a sweet girl who is living with her grandma, as her mom is in prison and her father lives elsewhere. A miscommunication about pick up time created an opportunity to chat in depth after Club one evening. Subsequently, she, her friend and I met one day after school and enjoyed a sweet treat and simple fun of playing games at a playground and watching the sunset. It was such an encouragement to my soul to see that the simple things can bring joy and connection to a life filled with complicated situations. This relationship continues to grow as we develop a relationship where I continue to get to know her and her story, so that I can share my story and then share the hope of Jesus. Join me in prayer and be expectant to see Jesus change Sammi’s life.

- Jeanette Jordan, Indian Springs Middle School Campus Life Director

     *Names have been changed to protect the privacy of our students.