March 2014 Newsletter

If anyone visits the Club Beyond website, they may see the famous quote shared to all staff around the world; “An Ecumenical Christian ministry reaching out to every military teen.” Although I believed in the overall idea of the shared feeling of ecumenism, I wasn’t really sure what it really meant or looked like in running Club Beyond on Fort Stewart and Hunter Army Airfield. Heck, I wasn’t really sure what the word meant in its entirety. Therefore, this past month, God has opened my eyes to see what it really means in ministry here and I also dug deeper on the meaning of the word itself. Ecumenism is the aim of unity among Christian churches throughout the world. Another answer shared that ecumenism is the movement promoting union between religions.

A great photo of our group of recent students and families,
six represented from Club at confirmation.

Unity – no matter the faith background. Then it started to hit me as I have been diligently sharing with our amazing service men and women all over both locations. I’m hoping to see God’s use of the ministry efforts to reach every teen no matter their faith, whether some, little, none or even unwilling to believe. It’s true and sad to share that most Club Beyond ministry locations get tagged with a label that all of them look a certain way, and are typically Protestant-driven.

Shelby (left) and Cora (right) as they
pose during the events surrounding
Cora's confirmation Mass.

 Speaking of efforts of unity, recently I’ve had the opportunity to work with our fellow Catholic brothers and sisters in the Chapel community since they are seeking to launch a Life Teen high school youth ministry effort on Fort Stewart for the first time. They’ve asked me to come alongside them to see that their launch to reach their students is a success and potentially see a partnership between ministry efforts on the installation. Never before have we had this kind of unity between ministry teams like this in collaboration – typically competition. Continue to pray for the complete volunteer efforts of their ministry as it will be a challenge but God has brought fruit to the harvest in the first meeting of leadership team members. Pray that God aligns more and more to reach a large community of Catholic teenagers on Fort Stewart and the relational ministry in Life Teen catches fire across the installation.

The director of the Red Cross (left) awarding our group the
wonderful contribution in efforts of our pasta dinner for
their 5k the night before. 

It doesn’t end there in our efforts of unity as of late. It came to us as our fundraising team collaborated to seek opportunities to raise money for summer camps since prices were on the rise. One of our highly active parents who is a board member with the Red Cross on Fort Stewart & Hunter and shared they were gearing up for a 5k run at the beginning of March. Thankfully we were able to work with them in putting on a ‘carb load spaghetti dinner’ and registration with packet pick up the night before the race as a fundraiser with their event. Not only were we blessed with a great fundraiser, we were able to join them and help out with the race the next day with 15 people. A good handful of our own youth and adults ran the race too! We decided to also join the Red Cross at both locations in an emergency kit competition between groups for parties to the winning groups provided by Club. It’s phenomenal to see the willingness of our teens to jump in and be part of our community efforts – showing true unity together.

The group of guys who see Club as a refuge and escape the chaos
of real life, no matter what they do or don't believe.

I’d like to leave you all with a story of a young man that I’ve had the great time in getting to know who joined a bunch of guys and played flag football and basketball on a Saturday afternoon. Mike was a guy who had tripped up severely over a hard breakup in his life. It’s brought him to lows he’s never expected and the depression has set in where he has felt he has nobody. I’ve had moments where I have connected with him chatting on Facebook and he opens up knowing that I’m listening to his heart. Mike’s raw and real. His language is very coarse and will turn off most church goers. Regardless, Mike knows I’m interested in what he has to say and what matters to him. He’s a guy that has an insane gift of breakdancing and dancing to music in general. He has a true passion for this ability in his life. However, nothing could get him out of his latest funk. Our invitation to him to come out and join us Saturday was what worked. God infiltrated this opportunity. We played hard and hung out and I got the chance to get everyone to go to Cici’s for pizza in between our football and basketball moments. When it was all said and done, Mike turned to me and said “thanks Mr. Phil for doing this, it’s exactly what I needed and I hope to do it more often.”

The group of guys (with Mike) together on a Saturday where
we 'carved out some time' to live life while competing with
one another. 

I hope to become all things to all men, that by all means I may save some. Some include those who are involved in Life Teen, Red Cross efforts, playing football or basketball on a Saturday or anywhere we can find them in their world. It’s awesome being a chameleon for God’s purpose here. Pray we continue to work toward unity to reach every military teen on Fort Stewart and Hunter.