When we hear the term “ground zero”, we often associate it
with the deadliest terror attack on American soil that occurred on September
11, 2001. Since our country has been at war now for 17 years, families are
starting to experience 2 generations of family members serving in the same war.
Wow!
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| The snapshot of Ground Zero in New York City. |
Here in Leavenworth County, many of the students we work
with attend Leavenworth High School and are a part of the JROTC program. Some
of these students have plans to join the military and serve their country. Most
of these students were born after 9/11, and have only known a country at war.
Some of these students are dependents of military service members, while others
will serve as a first-generation service member. Regardless of the area of the
call to serve, whether it be the military, ministry, a helping profession such
as the healthcare industry, teaching, or any other field where you can serve
others, we all start somewhere. That starting point is ground zero.
Long before that fateful day in September of 2001,
Merriam-Webster defined the term “ground zero” to mean, “the very beginning”.
When it comes to YFC Leavenworth County, the very beginning was in July 2016,
when the affiliate was created. Since we’re still in our infancy, there are
many areas of ministry that we’re working to get off the ground.
One area in particular is with our volunteers. We can’t
offer the different ministries that have launched without quality volunteers
that are dedicated to serving and building Christ-sharing relationships with teens
throughout the county. As we have been planning and vision casting for 2018, we
felt it was important that our volunteers all start from the very beginning.
Does that mean they time travel back to the inception of the affiliate in July
2016? Of course not! However, what we have done, is adapt a training class that
was shared with us by fellow YFC friends that helps our volunteers start at the
very beginning. That class is Ground Zero.
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A front view of Patton Junior High on Fort Leavenworth where we are helping where they have need before school and during lunch periods.
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Ground Zero is an hour-long discussion that helps to
orientate people that are interested in serving with YFC locally in our area. Throughout
this discussion, we touch on who YFC is as a global organization, as well as
the mission and vision of YFC here in Leavenworth County.
We discuss the process of the different ministry
areas where people can get plugged in by exploring their passions, giftsets,
and how we can see God's alignment of their calling to utilize them. The conversation
wraps up by getting these interested folks on track to complete the necessary
forms and background checks, should they decide that YFCLV is a place they want
to serve.
That being said, we have had the pleasure of sharing a new need throughout our area which pertains to the impact of our teens - financial and life skill readiness. We shared the overall idea throughout social media, personally inviting adults throughout the county to join us in this effort as we build from 'ground zero' and develop it as a class the teens can truly enjoy. It would be developed via a focus group of teens sharing what they'd like to learn and the team of adults unpacking their strengths and where they feel led to pitch in and lead each time they get together with the teens. God's onto something since we have fielded 9 responses from adults who are highly interested in helping this move ahead. WOW! Rather than plow into developing this class, we are taking these interested adults through the initial 'YFC ground zero' information to see if there is an alignment and should they desire to proceed with the group who is committed. This basically allows the movement of this class and ministry opportunity to be fully embraced by the adults who wish to run with the torch and be poured into by our staff. Up to this point, every adult who has said they're 'all in' with moving ahead has specified that every teen would benefit from a class like this and essentially we are providing and filling a need our community and county. It's such a blast!
Another area where we have started from 'ground zero' was mentioned in last month's newsletter, specifically on Fort Leavenworth at the Harrold Youth Center. This is one of the 'meccas' of working with military youth on the installation right where they are and getting to know them on their turf. It all started in sharing with them that Phil could help out with their Passport to Manhood class with their only male staff person, Jake. Throughout over the year of relationship and integrity built in serving the folks, Jake specifically invited Phil to come spend more time with their teens on a more regular basis rather than twice a month for Passport classes. We can't make this stuff up. It literally is ALL Jesus and His plans that uncover and provide future plans to work with military teens on the post. Patience has paid huge dividends to His glory!
Also, as we look into the future, God has been opening phenomenal doors for us to discern and see
what He's planning for our opportunity to take kids to summer camp. We believe that when we can take our students away to a place where they can truly unplug from their lives back home and their devices and anything else, God really works in those moments. Through much prayer and seeking God's timing on what we are going to do for our teens, it came from an introduction to a gentleman who was serving alongside Phil while he was helping at Lansing Middle School's Challenge Day in the fall of 2017. As soon as the chance happened to get together with Antonio for coffee to hear more about the summer camp he provides not too far from us in Leavenworth, it truly was God's working in connecting
other like-minded Kingdom people. It became apparent that Awaken Camp which Antonio had been blessed to oversee was exactly what God has in store for our Summer 2018. The camp literally works with kids relationally throughout the week spent with them and they highly encourage all the adults present on camp grounds to 'jump right in' with the kids and get to know them and spend time with all the kids, including the ones each leader brings. The final pieces that also provided confirmation of our choice included the incredibly affordable price of $95 per student and the camp would be an hour drive from most teens' homes in our area.
Now that we are seeing God's provision for our camp plans this year, we are now plowing the fields and working with the plans of raising support to see our teens go to camp at an affordable rate. We're praying and hoping to see each student to be able to go for half price or better. With all of these details coming together, we are noticing new things come together to get our teens supported, specifically with a silent auction, 50/50 drawing and a pancake feed to kick of spring in our area. Amy's sister has blessed us in a great way reaching out to businesses on our behalf; we have already received multiple generous donations from a dozen or more businesses who have contributed toward the silent auction and we are awaiting on a couple of the local Kohl's stores in coming to support the event as well, in which the company will support the event financially should at least 5 or more employees help us out. We also are launching our first-ever envelope sponsor campaign, where it has envelopes numbered 1 to 50 and folks choose which envelope they would like and the number of envelope they take is the financial support amount they choose to send to YFC Leavenworth County to support our youth for camp.
No matter what happens or occurs, we are truly thankful for each of you believing, praying and supporting God's movement on our lives to serve the awesome teens of Leavenworth County. As you all can see, there IS something going on as we are moving swiftly into 2018! We really LOVE hearing from you all as well, so please let us know how we can be praying for you. If you want to know more about anything we are sharing in the letter, please let us know. We are excited with all the new things happening and all the new adults and teens we're getting to meet.
Onward, upward and Kingdom movement for Christ's glory!
~Phil, Amy, & Parker
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The lunchroom where we help at
Patton during both lunch periods.
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The common area where we help at
Patton Jr. High in the morning.
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That being said, we have had the pleasure of sharing a new need throughout our area which pertains to the impact of our teens - financial and life skill readiness. We shared the overall idea throughout social media, personally inviting adults throughout the county to join us in this effort as we build from 'ground zero' and develop it as a class the teens can truly enjoy. It would be developed via a focus group of teens sharing what they'd like to learn and the team of adults unpacking their strengths and where they feel led to pitch in and lead each time they get together with the teens. God's onto something since we have fielded 9 responses from adults who are highly interested in helping this move ahead. WOW! Rather than plow into developing this class, we are taking these interested adults through the initial 'YFC ground zero' information to see if there is an alignment and should they desire to proceed with the group who is committed. This basically allows the movement of this class and ministry opportunity to be fully embraced by the adults who wish to run with the torch and be poured into by our staff. Up to this point, every adult who has said they're 'all in' with moving ahead has specified that every teen would benefit from a class like this and essentially we are providing and filling a need our community and county. It's such a blast!
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| The front view of the Leavenworth Youth Achievement Center where we will host the ongoing finance/life skills class. |
Another area where we have started from 'ground zero' was mentioned in last month's newsletter, specifically on Fort Leavenworth at the Harrold Youth Center. This is one of the 'meccas' of working with military youth on the installation right where they are and getting to know them on their turf. It all started in sharing with them that Phil could help out with their Passport to Manhood class with their only male staff person, Jake. Throughout over the year of relationship and integrity built in serving the folks, Jake specifically invited Phil to come spend more time with their teens on a more regular basis rather than twice a month for Passport classes. We can't make this stuff up. It literally is ALL Jesus and His plans that uncover and provide future plans to work with military teens on the post. Patience has paid huge dividends to His glory!
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Our most recent snapshot of the 4:13 B-ball ministry partnership with the Leavenworth Salvation Army in which a
friend of ours joined us who used to play in the NBA developmental league, sharing pointers and hooping with us.
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Antonio and his wife Candace who lead
Awaken Camp each summer.
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A snapshot of students worshiping together at Awaken Camp last year.
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These are the envelopes available to support sending teens in our area to camp, each number is a dollar amount in
which folks can choose to help and partner with us.
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No matter what happens or occurs, we are truly thankful for each of you believing, praying and supporting God's movement on our lives to serve the awesome teens of Leavenworth County. As you all can see, there IS something going on as we are moving swiftly into 2018! We really LOVE hearing from you all as well, so please let us know how we can be praying for you. If you want to know more about anything we are sharing in the letter, please let us know. We are excited with all the new things happening and all the new adults and teens we're getting to meet.
Onward, upward and Kingdom movement for Christ's glory!
~Phil, Amy, & 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**
