Friday night youth

Friday night youth- I was invited to speak at a youth night in a local town last Friday. The youth pastor and I play soccer together on Saturdays and we had been talking about doing a program for a couple weeks. I had met with Chris, the pastor, and we spent Wednesday watching soccer and chatting with several of the youth. I even had a birthday song played to me with a trombone, guitar, and piano! Yes, I am now 21. The youth met in the church building in Lavender Hill, a beautiful name for a scary town. This neighborhood is notorious for crime and gang activity, but on this night it was dedicated to Christ. We spent some time in prayer and I presented my story. I spoke on Luke 10 and the harvest. I encouraged the youth to speak boldly of Christ in their lives and to make a stand for the faith.

There were several things about this youth group that struck me (in all of my years of youth experience): firstly, the ages of the youth ranged from 6 to 21 years of age. That has never been attempted in the States, but it worked very nicely on this past night. We split the kids into so many age groups and then give them their own programs, but this night showed me that more is possible than we once thought. The second surprise of the night was revealed at the end of the event. With 20+ kids there was only one compact car to transport everyone home. The level of service and dedication that I saw in the youth leaders is astounding. They had a sense of ownership of these kids. The cost of the transportation and the inconvenience of the trip meant nothing to them. Their main objective was taking care of the needs of the youth.