December 2017 Newsletter

What an amazing and incredible 2017 it's been! We feel sometimes we don't tell y'all enough about what God has been up to with the ministry to military teens and their friends throughout Leavenworth County, Kansas, so we'll give it our best with more detail shared on the stories of students' we've served. We hope and pray we do justice in sharing what Christ's been doing in and through us this year. 

Brandon (on far left) with our guys helping raise funds for

the Salvation Army kettle campaign this year. 

Brandon is a young man that has been attending the basketball ministry at the Salvation Army since its inception, and before that I got to know him through the basketball ministry at the local church we were partnering with. As I have gotten to know more of his story through our time spent together, I learned that his dad is a Navy veteran. He didn't even realize he was a military kid since his dad wasn't currently serving. Many of the kids that we work with are military kids, but because their parents are retired, they aren't moving around all of the time, changing schools, or any of the other things on the long list of what military kids have to endure. Recently, a local church in our area had to make the hard decision to close its doors. I have known the pastor for many years, and worked with his kids in club when I previously lived and served in Leavenworth before moving to Georgia. He wanted to bless the ministry with all of the sound and audio/visual equipment from his church since it was no longer needed, as well as the local youth center with the chairs from their worship center. I showed up to help them transport the chairs to the youth center and load up the sound equipment one Saturday morning. I checked with a few students to see if they wanted to help, and Brandon stepped up and came out to help me. As we were moving stacks of chairs, he started to tell me a story of how he had been reading in the book of Revelation. Wow, I thought, that's awesome! This news came as a bit of a shock to me, as we haven't really shared much of God's story with the students attending on Thursdays as we are still working to learn their stories and build the relationship to a place where we can share God's story with them. As the conversation continued, God continued to blow my mind and this is an amazing opening of a door toward gaining that access to having more faith conversations with these students. He shared with me how he had been watching a movie that mentioned Revelation, so he decided to look into it a little more by pulling out his Bible and doing some reading. His reading led to some questions, so we talked a little more about what he had read. As the conversation went on, he shared how he would be interested in getting some friends together to start exploring more of God's Word! He was even excited to share that one of the Christmas gifts he received was a Jesus Calling devotional book. We're praying that the Lord continues to penetrate his heart as he digs deeper.

Brandon (in back left) with a group of teens

helping with bell ringing for the local Salvation

Army fundraiser this season.

Some of our students that aren't military kids, are experiencing a lot of what military kids have to endure in that they are moving all of the time due to poverty. Some of these students are moving a lot more than military kids have to in a lifetime. This has really opened my eyes to a whole new demographic as I previously have never really worked this closely with this population. Leavenworth County is a very affluent county in Kansas with so many military households, which boarders Wyandotte County, which is the one of the poorest counties in Kansas. Sadly the need of our students and their families in Leavenworth County who do not have their basic needs met are typically ignored or pushed out. Some of our students come out on a Thursday night, and by the next week, they've already switched schools and changed addresses. Many of our students are couch surfing, and one day they may be staying with friends while still able to attend their current school, but the next day, they may end up staying with relatives in a different area of the greater KC area, where they have to switch schools, only to return to Leavenworth in a few weeks and have to transition all over again. A big piece of what our leader team is learning is that these students are struggling to have their most basic needs bet. When they are struggling to figure out where or when their next meal will be, whether or not they have clothes to wear for school, or a place to lay their head at night, it's so much more difficult for them to believe in a God that loves them, because after all, why would a loving God allow such pain, misery, and hardship? As we love these kids and are becoming the only consistent piece of their lives, they are learning that they can lean on us and look forward to our time together. As we continue to work with them, we hope to build the bridge to point them toward Christ and His constant love for us, regardless of the circumstances we face, and teach them that the trials we endure in this life are so much easier to handle when we're walking with Jesus. 

As one can see, the gym gets packed on a 

Thursday night. Showing that our teens 

talk with their friends about a space and

place they are welcome and safe to hoop.

In the mean time, we continue to show up and love these kids right where they are, and partner with others in the community that are doing the same thing. Jesus loves us in the middle of our mess, and we do the same for these kids. They are noticing our love for them. Oftentimes throughout the day, students will text me and ask for a ride to the community center or to or from school. I'm not always available, but they reach out to me because I have become a trusted person in their lives that they know they can reach out to. Even when I have to tell them no, they know that I'm still here for them and love them and they can always reach me. 

As I have been parenting my own son for the last couple of months, my eyes have been really opened to what exactly these kids are lacking when they grow up without a father in their lives. Some of our students have fathers that are in prison, others have fathers that they have never known because they walked out before they were born. Others have fathers that have been killed or have died of cancer. I know that I can never replace the father that they lost, but I can walk alongside them and point them to a relationship they can have with an eternal Father that will never leave them or abandon them. 

Simple sandwiches and mozzarella sticks

with marinara sauce mean the world to 

these teens who might not get much to eat 

from day-to-day.

It is through these stories we can see that Christ is working in and through the relationships we are building with these students. Our prayer is that God will continue to grow these relationships, bring us more students to engage with, grow our leader team so we can reach more students throughout the county, and continue blessing the work that He is doing through us. 

Our family together at Kansas City's Union Station during their annual 
Christmas display.

As most of you know, I had to pick up part-time work in July in order to offset the financial deficit we had due to the loss of the government contract in 2016. I have been working part-time for our local church as the operations director. It is with an extremely joyous and grateful heart that I am excited to share with you that we have raised the additional monthly support amount needed to offset the deficit so that we can return to a full-time ministry status with Youth for Christ. In less than 4 weeks, we went from a $1500 per month deficit, to being fully funded again. With this additional funding accounted for, we can now focus on raising funds to get the affiliate fully funded and growing the ministry throughout the county as God leads. 

As 2017 comes to a close, if you would like to make any year-end gifts, feel free to follow the link to make your charitable contribution that will continue to fund the work we're doing here in Leavenworth County. We pray that you all had a very Merry Christmas and that your new year is filled to overflowing with God's blessings. 

~Phil, Amy and Parker

**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**