Our Youth Need You
Written by Kayla Power
Brene Brown says, "Laughter, song, and dance create emotional and spiritual connection; they remind us of the one thing that truly matters when we are searching for comfort, purpose, celebration, inspiration, or healing: We are not alone."
Middle School and High School students NEED to know they are not alone in a different way today than they ever have before. They need to know that Jesus reigns, that the Holy Spirit is with them, and that God knows them by name. They need to know that even though adults never really seem to have it all together as much as we like to pretend to, we authentically love and are committed to them. To laugh, sing, dance, and play together creates community in such a thorough way that it opens doors to hard repentant conversations and confusing truth seeking commitments.
We are taking our Middle Schoolers to an overnight event called Fast Forward that WILL be filled with all these powerful moments, and only a week later will be loading up the vans to take our High Schoolers away to Winter Camp. These are your children, your grandchildren, your nieces and nephews, these are the kids who God moved Kyle and I all the way across the country for and we are beyond excited about what He has in store for them. Even more then the NBA basketball game, more than the surf machine, more than laser tag and squid-bee (ultimate frisbee with a dead REAL squid, no, I'm not kidding), we are expecting hard-to-believe-it-really-happened, chain breaking moments between these youth and their Creator. We are expecting their friends to notice a difference in them, we are expecting YOU all to believe in the power of the Holy Spirit a little more when you hear the testimonies of what God did in them at Fast Forward, or at Winter Camp. We are expecting them to KNOW that they are NOT alone.
Both of these events are brand new for this youth ministry, and we know that we need your partnership for any of these expectations to become reality. This is a family affair, and Central Christian Church, YOU are our family. We need you to pray for the youth, the volunteer leaders, the speakers, the drivers, the game leaders. We need you to encourage and build up the parents who are sending their kids on these trips, that they might come to a deeper understanding of what it means for them to pastor their kids when they come back changed. We need you to invite high schoolers who live on your street to come to Winter Camp with us. We need you to give financially with joy so that we might be able to give scholarships to students whose parents can't manage to send their kids with us. This really is a family affair, and every one of you reading this has a part to play in the spiritual journey of a teenage student here at Central.
We are honored to laugh with you, sing with you, dance with you, and to get to stand in the gap for these kids as they make new spiritual connections with their Savior, with our leaders, and with each other. I love being on mission with this family and have peace knowing that Kyle and I are covered by you as we stand on the front line for these kids.
My final words: If you have a Middle Schooler or High Schooler who wants to join us and is not signed up yet, DO IT NOW!