July 2015

A Mission Community What is Young Life? An early mission statement of Young Life in part said this: ‘Young Life is a mission community of Christ-centered people committed to reaching adolescent youth with the Gospel.’  The official statement has changed, but the focus is still true- YL done well depends on a community of believers on a mission together reaching out to teenagers. Being a true mission community means much more than working together, it means living life together with a purpose. I saw this being lived out very well in Argentina this spring. Carolina Pi and her husband Eduardo have done a tremendous job of bringing together a community of people who live life together and impact teens for Christ. They started with a prayer and a vision and with one club in their town of Corrientes and as people felt the impact of being part of that community the movement grew.

        Jonny is a great example of the impact this can have. Jonny was a college student in Corrientes when he was invited to come and see Young Life and he was overjoyed to become part of it. He was a leader throughout his time in college and it was a great blessing to teens in Corrientes, but being part of YL was also a blessing to Jonny as he grew in his own faith along with his new community of fellow leaders. They spent time together, read the Bible together, and prayed for God to work in their town. They also went and spent time sharing with teens and created space for God to work in those lives, and He did—Jonny was part of a community with a mission and it thrilled him.

        When Jonny finished college he moved home to his town of Villa Angela, but he couldn’t stop talking about Young Life and the impact he had seen it have in Corrientes. So he decided to do something about it. He gathered together a group of friends and they began to grow and do Young Life together. And they saw God use it to change their lives and the lives of teens in Villa Angela.

       Recently Jonny moved to another city, Rosario, and now he wants to start a YL ministry there. When I saw him he had only lived there for 3 months. I asked him how it was going and his first answer was about community and a mission-- “I have five friends now who are part of Young Life, and there will be more. We’re excited and God’s going to use it to change the teenagers we’re meeting.” That’s a beautiful answer to me--  Jonny is building a community on a mission and he’s very glad to be part of it.  And because that’s happening in Argentina we’ve grown over the past five years from two clubs to 11 ministries now impacting over 1,200 teenagers. That’s a beautiful statement of the impact a mission community can have.

Argentina is one example of growth, but we’re seeing that throughout Latin America and that has us really excited. Check out the chart below-- more leaders, more teens, and more of Jesus being shared.  Thanks for helping this happen.

Year		Kids Reached / Impacted	Volunteer Leaders	Staff	Avg. Kids at club weekly	Avg. Kids at Bible study weekly	# of TOTAL Ministries
	2010	26,214	705	106	5,293	2,192	130
	------	--------	---------	-------	-------	--------------	----------
	2015	66,760	1,203	156	9,226	3,410	217

Haiti   There’s a common saying in Haiti that says ‘beyond mountains there are mountains’.  It’s a proverb often used to express the idea that even if you overcome challenges today, tomorrow there will be more.

It fits the reality of life in Haiti—there are big challenges every day and it feels like they never end. The reality is I feel this way in Haiti sometimes— the poverty, corruption and dysfunction of the country can seem overwhelming. But it’s when I spend time with our Haitian leaders that I’m reminded that God is bigger than these mountains, and tomorrow’s mountains too. They remind me of this by their joy, hope and dependence on the Lord daily.

I was in Haiti to help with our camp training. For the first time ever we’re going to have two outreach camps in Haiti, so we worked with the assigned team and counselors to prepare them for this time. We spent a lot of time in II Corinthians 5:13-21 which has some pretty good descriptors of Young Life camp and why we do it. 

        “if we are out of our mind” –  that’s YL camp—tons of fun, high energy, no sleep, lots of work.  We may be crazy.

         “He has committed to us the message of reconciliation”— We present the gospel with everything we do at every YL camp- program, talks, cabin times, etc.

        “Christ’s ambassadors” --this is what all the work crew and program team and counselors—everyone—gets to be at camp, representatives of Jesus to non-believers. 

        “Christ’s love compels us”—  This is why we do camp

        “the new creation has come” – and this is the result we pray for and are often blessed to see.

It was a great weekend of focusing on what God has been doing through YL Haiti and what we’re praying He’ll do this summer. There will be 100 teens at each camp we do and we’re praying these teens will come to know the Jesus who is bigger than any of the mountains they face each day.

Prayer for camps: June, July and August are often time for many of our outreach camps in Latin America. Camp is where many teens who we have connected with hear more about the gospel and make decisions for Christ. It’s quite often the ‘bridge’ moment when a relationship between a leader and teen moves from friendship into discipleship. We’ve had some of these camps happen recently and have more coming up. Here are a few highlights:

           -Cuba    Guantanamo Bay is pretty famous because of the large US military base situated there. But our Cuban Young Life team recently held an outreach camp at a beach near it with over 50 teens!  Please be praying for the Cuban YL leaders and follow-up for this vital work.

           -Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador and Argentina-- will all be holding outreach camps soon. Be praying for big impact in South America. 

            -Dominican Republic   The DR has a huge goal this summer of bringing 1,000 teens to outreach camp. That would be more than 4 times the number of teens we brought in 2011—just four years ago! So pray for energy for the leaders, for deep impact and for the funds needed to bring that many teens to camp.

 

Thanks for your support and prayers that make all this possible!