Recently, Amy and I were going over her daily devotional
early in the month and it really captured exactly what we have been facing in
Kansas as we look to serve Leavenworth County, as a whole. Specifically, her
devotional was based upon God’s call upon Abram to leave his home and go to an
unspecified new land. All in this calling, Abram faced many challenges along
the way but God was looking for a man who would stay true to God and believe He
had his best interests at heart, even through the struggles. Her devotional
finished by asking if we are willing to allow God to redirect our steps…and
literally if we were willing to just ‘go’ where God called us.
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Playing a game together with the group
of teens during the lock-in. |
And here we are…in Kansas, Leavenworth County. We find
ourselves in a new frontier we never imagined before, being asked to pray,
discern and dream about what God would have us doing in reaching every military
teen. Amy and I are not completely certain what things will look like being in
this area, but we are certain that we’re focused on reaching military teens and
their friends, creating a space where they feel like a family and can be
exactly whom God has created them to be, plus to explore their own faith
journey, wherever that might be.
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| Instructing the group on a game of shuffle yo' buns! |
In building some great opportunities with fellow like-minded
Kingdom-building churches in the county, we had the pleasure of meeting up with
a great youth pastor named Howie Lucas. He’s got the exact mentality of ‘going
where th
e teens are’ and just showing up and loving them. After assisting his
youth ministry on New Year’s Eve for a high school lock-in, we had the pleasure
of hearing his pastor preach the next day. Part of his sermon included the
famous Vince Lombardi speech about how he held a football up and stated ‘this
is a football’ and went on about getting back to basics in running the team.
Following up that speech he shared, he held up his Bible and said to the group
at church, ‘this is a Bible,’ and I am inviting you all to get back to the
basics of reading it daily with me over this year. God was keying in on
something yet again – we’re in that same season of getting back to the basics
of doing excellent youth ministry to military teens.
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Howie (in yellow) preps the group as we
move to another game at the lock-in. |
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Amy and I with our dear friends Steve and Lori,
who we love to spend time together. |
If that wasn’t enough of God’s poking me in the side, Amy
and I had the pleasure of having a great dinner with dear friends and partners
in our ministry along with another couple we mutually knew and got to spend
time with that evening. Being in the area awhile now brings on a lot of
questions of how ministry has been going and what’s been happening overall and
Dick and Judy were also interested in how things have been unfolding for us. I
shared how it’s been the toughest 6+ months of ministry we’ve ever encountered.
Dick chimed in and shared an awesome picture analogy of the importance of
building a home. It takes a lot of time on the lot in site work, preparation,
weather holding out for perfect concrete to be poured and so forth. He
continued, saying the site work was the longest part of the process of building
a home in any circumstance which included a solid foundation to build. Then
Dick stated to us – you all have been in the site work preparation these past
months. Any great ministry will need the correct amount of time chosen by God
to prepare for His perfect plans to unfold.
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Doing life well with past students over an infamous
Taco Bell lunch with George (right) and Sam. |
Rewind back to the first year in Georgia. It was basic in
those first months, as it appears it will be the same here in Leavenworth
County. We’ll be paving new roads and making new connections with amazing
partners who love to work alongside military teens and their friends and
praying for God to bless our dutiful work to expand His reach here. To say that
we’re headed ‘back to the basics,’ would be simply perfect to explain. We’re
going to carve time out of our schedules to meet and visit churches, pastors
and youth pastors all over the county to get to know them on a personal level
and how we can encourage and empower them in Kingdom work. Another area
includes partnerships throughout the county schools in whatever demeanor that
might come about, perhaps it could look like how we blessed the PTO in
Hinesville.
Another area of priority will include our prayer and
dedication in raising up invitations to folks throughout our area to consider
being part of our Affiliate advisory board. These people will essentially
desire to see the mission of reaching military teens and their friends all over
the county being reached. They will ensure the ship won’t sink and the vision
and mission of Youth for Christ will be adhered to in the processes of how we
work with our teens and adult leaders.
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| The new logo of our ministry serving Leavenworth County, Kansas. |
So, where does that leave you? Amy and I are asking each of
you who read this newsletter to be praying with us, partner with us and dream
with us in this new season of doing military youth ministry. We are uncertain
on all the details, but so was Abram when he answered God’s call on his life to
‘go.’ We too are in this place where we don’t know it all, but we’re starting
to see the dust settle and things unfold in great ways. Finally, although we
are in a reset of many things, please know that the calling on our hearts
remains the same to impact military teens and their friends for Christ’s glory.
~Phil & Amy
**To join our team in any way you feel led in prayer, financial partnership, spreading the word and anything in between you can reach us at pparsons@yfcmail.org or contribute online at https://yfc.givingfuel.com/30631**
