It’s That Time of Year Again!

Snow and ice are melted. There is daylight after work. Birds are singing in the morning. Flowers are starting to pop out of the ground. Windows are opening for a dose of fresh air. That can only mean one thing….potholes!  While driving the other day, I think I hit a pothole bigger than Sheri’s and my first apartment!

Smooth, smooth, smooth - Bang!

Now that winter sports are over, students have more margin in their schedules to meet with Campus Life leaders for Track Inn, Wing Stop, Bdubs, and McD’s. Leaders are hearing the same theme, “Life has stretches of smooth then, BANG, we hit a ‘pothole’ out of nowhere!” Whatever “IT” is, it results in uncomfortable stress, anxiety, and worry. 

Campus Life leaders pray, listen, pray, love, pray, and listen some more…before the leader shares a related experience or, if the student is open to it, God’s Word. The students know they are heard! They are seen! They are loved! 

That’s part of our mission, it’s called 3 Story…. try to connect their story, with our story, to God’s story. Although knowing God’s story doesn’t always help get rid of every “pothole,” it sure helps with the after effects! 

As smooth as we wish life could always be, “potholes” give opportunity for growth, wisdom and God’s comfort. 

“Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me, for in you my soul takes refuge; in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge, till the storms of destruction pass by.”

Psalms 57:1 ESV

So first, please pray for this incredible team as they love teens toward Jesus. And secondly, pray for the teens as they continue to deal with the “potholes” that life throws at all of us.

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5th & 8th grade moving up day!

After spring break, the Monday night High School Club will open up to the 8th grade class.  This will be their new home till high school graduation!  New to this year is our Middle School, so following spring break, the Tuesday night Middle School Club will open up to the 5th grade class.  This to will be their new home till middle school graduation!

This Team Serves Our Bigger Team

43,237 teens in our 4-county area attend a Middle School, a High School, live at Children’s Home Youth Farm or are detained at Juvenile Detention Center.

____X____ have Christian parents, or Christian friends who are sharing the Great News of Jesus Christ.

43,237 - X = Number of Teens not hearing the Gospel.

What’s your guess about what X equals? 

If we add up all the best efforts of Christian parents, Christian schools, churches, youth groups, youth ministries and others, my guess is that less than 13,000 are regularly, directly exposed to the truth and love of Jesus Christ.

In business terms that means 30,000+ is our market opportunity. We are not close.

But … we are working to reach faaaarrrrr more. The team pictured above mobilized another 120+ Ministry Leaders last year, who engaged in almost 300 Authentic Christ Sharing Relationships (ACSR’s) with lost teens. We are laying the foundation to be in 6 to 8 to 10 times that many someday.

Pictured above L-R: Jay Pearson, Bryan Kinas, Karen Snyder, Rick Byrne, Cindy Barton, Caiti Svymbersky, Jeff Ringenberg, Christi Ringel, Jarrod Briggs, CJ Fisher, Justin Rauh, Andrew Held, Eli Beltran (YES … you read that right! Eli is returning to the team in Central Illinois! His role? “Ambassador to Teens.” Mentoring, Leadership, Church and Donor Relations … helping us rally more Christians to “care about” and “be involved in” ministry to lost teens), myself, and Ryan Anderson.

Please keep praying and funding. We are slightly behind our income plan … 6.8% to be exact. The actual number is $44,700 behind. If you can help, that would be awesome. 

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Special Focus Until June 1

Along with our efforts to host clubs, take trips, attend teen events, pursue lost teens, recruit/equip/encourage Ministry Leaders and pray like mad … we are also investing  time these days in creating a strategic plan for our future. We want to reach faaarrr more teens and we’re laying the groundwork for that before our next budget year starts on July 1. Please be in prayer for us. If you’d like to get involved in that process, let me know … we want pray-ers, thinkers, planners and do-ers.

All Aboard

During Christmas Break, Kankaukee City Life came down to visit Peoria and Bloomington City Life on what they call, a mini tour. As they showed up and started unloading, my mouth was watering. They rolled off a beautiful people mover with our proud branding on the side. Jealousy was the first emotion, then the pride of being a part of YFC and City Life as a movement, defeated it.    

 In the midst of the season of giving and one of our two Peoria YFC vans being down, this vehicle was a very encouraging sight. Both of our vans are passed 200,000 miles and we have put a distance limit on them. If our vans could talk, the stories of conversations, trips, prayer time, confessions of Christ, and life long relationships that have been built in route, would take you on a emotional joy ride! These vans are so vital to the mission God has us on. We have been blessed with donations towards this effort but we are a long way from updated, dependable vehicles. 

Romans 8:28 says “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” With that scale City Life qualifies, and God works encouragement from jealousy, works commitment into relationships, and works prayer into life change.  Please know that we celebrate all the miles accumulated and the generations changed in the process, but I am asking you for your help. 

ALL ABOARD is what I am yelling now so we can yell it for years to come. ALL ABOARD to all who love the Lord and wants all who are called to be saved. ALL ABOARD to all the saints that are connected to YFC and City Life. ALL ABOARD to all who are concerned about our youth and their future. ALL ABOARD to all called by God to serve others and share the love of Jesus Christ! We believe God will provide so we are asking you to join in. Contact me or call our office to build for the future. $1 to $100,000 will help us get ALL ABOARD, and I thank you!

Breakthrough

There was so much to celebrate in 2017- camps, clubs, growing relationships between students and leaders, and ultimately many students growing in their understanding of God’s love and what it means in their life. Last year was a great year! It’s overwhelming to think about all that happened, but it’s clear that God’s hand was in it. 

As great as 2017 was, I’m convinced 2018 will be a year of breakthrough. With each day that passes in 2018, I am seeing more and more affirmation this will be the case.

In Luke, Jesus tells a parable to the people to the effect of “always pray and do not lose heart.” If there is anything that can stop this year from being a year of breakthrough - it’s if we stop praying for the ministry or we lose heart. I’m asking for your help in praying and for your help in ensuring we keep pursuing teens for the sake of the Gospel. Will you join me in praying?

I’m praying for more leaders to step up and commit to loving students where they are… in the midst of the mess that adolescence brings. 

I’m praying for deeper relationships between students and leaders. Our prayer is for authentic, Christ-sharing relationships that point lost teens to Jesus. 

I’m praying for sustainable funding for Limestone Campus Life and YFC Peoria as a whole. Limestone’s funding is growing, but still significantly short of where it needs to be. 

I’m praying for students to come to know Jesus. There are over 1,700 kids (11-19 year olds) in the Bartonville area- many of whom don’t know the redeeming love of Jesus. They need hope. They need love. They need Jesus. 

Will you join me in praying and being a part of breakthrough in this community?

Grandmas & Grandpas

Three guesses why those students in the picture are standing? Those are students who accepted Christ at YFC Camp last summer! I’d like to tell you about 2 of those students in the photo…and their grandparents…

First up is Grandpa Tom and Grandma Midge. They’ve been around YFC as long as I can remember. They wanted their soon-to-be freshman grandson, Matt, to get involved too. The plan was to get Matt to YFC Camp and the rest would just take care of itself, right? Sort of… Matt had a great time at camp, grew close to his leader Phil and committed his life to Christ. However, when school started we didn’t see as much of Matt as we hoped.

Every week I’d get a text from Tom asking if Matt was there. Unfortunately the answer was no most of the time. Grandpa, Grandma and Phil continued to be persistent with Matt. One day Grandma said to Grandpa Tom, “You know we can pick Matt up, feed him and drop him off at Campus Life every week.” So that’s exactly what they’ve been doing and Matt is loving the extra time with his grandparents. Now Matt is fully engaged with Campus Life, and his leader Phil and is working to understand his new faith. 

Next is Grandma Jane who we met at her granddaughter Abby’s graduation party. With teary eyes she thanked us for being involved in Abby’s life and told us fond memories of taking Abby to church with her every week as a kid. But as Abby grew up, so did the distance between her and church. Last summer at YFC Camp Abby accepted Christ! She soon asked how she could continue her involvement with Youth for Christ as a leader. 

This presented the opportunity to talk about the decision she made to follow Jesus and what happens next. One of the steps we encouraged her take was to become a part of a local church. We offered two options: Join us at church or to attend church once again with Grandma Jane. 

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Abby isn’t at our church. She’s now back at church with her Grandma. She signed up to be an usher and is beginning the process of becoming a leader in Campus Life!

In the Mess of it All

I came across a phrase I believe exemplifies everything God has been doing in our ministry lately. “Find meaning in the mess”. Recently we’ve taken that quote literally, but it also applies figuratively! Between YFC Camp and our Campus Life Color War Kick-Off, we have literally been in the mess! It has been an incredible chance to connect with students and see God work in mysterious ways!

Last time I wrote you, we were headed to YFC Camp. I was excited about the week, but also had no clue what God might do! The first few days we really dove into the mess. Although we did dive into the mess of crud war (a giant food fight) and a mud obstacle course, I do not mean the literal mess. We dove into the mess of students’ lives. Almost every night, I would see the girls group up tears because of how God was moving in their lives. I found out that each night they had been diving into the hard things going on in their lives. That is what I call “the mess”. This was not only happening in the girls, but also with the guys! The guys may not have gone as the girls, but many of the guys also opened up about struggles in their lives.

We came home from YFC Camp and had a few weeks of relationship building times before our kick-off! Although we simply spent time getting messy with colored water, shaving cream, and flour, I was given a glimpse of what God has planned for this year! Please pray for this school year of Campus Life as we continue to dive into “The Mess” of life!

Please also consider your role financially, Metamora Campus Life received $59,303 last year, versus actual expenses of $72,000.

CHANGE IS FUN...

….says hardly anyone!  Our team is getting ready to start a new season of Monday Night Campus Life club and there is buzz around IVC High about it.  This season brought a couple of changes our way though.  We are changing locations from Matt & Bridgette Lynch’s house, who have been extremely generous temporary hosts for the last year and half.  I say temporary, because for 3 years, we have been looking for a permanent home.  We may have appeared to be trying to lose the students in the shuffle of location changes, but God kept them hungry to continue to find us, invite others, and be excited to share the experience with their friends!  

Our new temporary location is actually our former permanent location, Scott & Stephanie Farris’s house.  It is currently for sale, but they very graciously offered to host as long as they can!

The senior students remember this as Campus Life club home from their freshman year and can’t wait.

Along with the location change, we are also excited to welcome new faces on our leader team.  Season of life changes have called a few leaders away to pursue new job duties and school, but God has brought us 4 new leaders who are all former IVC Campus Life students.  How cool is that?  

Even though most of us aren’t huge fans of change, I have grown to love change.  In most instances, when I’m uncomfortable about what God is doing, growth follows.  Join me in prayer for this upcoming season of Campus Life ministry and for the 600+ students of IVC High School who God has called all of us to love toward Jesus.  Who knows, by year end, it could include the 500+ junior higher’s too!

SO WORTH IT…

This week has been crazy…in fact, finding time to sit down and write a letter is a challenge in the midst of all that is happening right now. September is always busy, but this week has been especially packed.

Monday was our high school Campus Life kickoff. Tuesday was our middle school kickoff. Wednesday was staff meeting and transformational leadership training. Thursday we had a fundraiser for Thomas Svymbersky, our Limestone Campus Life yearlong intern (I thank God for him!). And we haven’t even made it to Friday! The weekend ahead doesn’t show signs of relief. Oh yeah, and we have a 10-month-old at home and are trying to run a full-time wedding photography business. Needless to say, our days are packed.

I pride myself on time management and being able to balance life, work, and family- but this week has had me feeling a little overwhelmed. There are very few times in my life that I question whether or not the chaos of being in full-time ministry is worth it - but this week I’ve wondered.

That is, until today… today God gave me the exact reminder I needed in the form of a text from a former Campus Life student who is a junior in college. This out-of-the-blue text read…

“I just want to take a moment to thank both of you. If I would've never gone to Campus Life, I would not be where I am today in my relationship with Jesus. Without you guys reaching out to me for four years, I’d be so lost right now. I’ve started leader training with YoungLife at school here and I am just constantly reminded how much you guys did for me, that allowed me to end up here. Thank you, thank you, thank you for everything you have done for me and are doing for other kids. I am forever grateful for you both.” 

It’s things like this that remind me… it’s WORTH IT.