Mike King

Free Book Offer... Love, Loss and Life Beyond

From now until May 4, 2012 you can get a free digital book entitled A Mother's Journey of Love, Loss and Life Beyond, on Amazon, Barnes & Noble or Apple.  Let me explain my connection with this book.

Recently, I received an email from Jennifer Scalise, a mother who wanted to share a story with me about her daughter, Brooke.  Just a few weeks after Brooke’s second summer at Youthfront Camp West, while on vacation with her family, she was killed in a negligent accident caused by a tour operator in Costa Rica.  This senseless tragedy became national news.  Ultimately Brooke’s mom wrote a book about her story.  Jennifer has appeared on ABC’s Nightline, Good Morning America, and World News with Diane Sawyer to tell Brooke’s story.

In her book Jennifer describes how their family did not go to church but Brooke had gone to camp (at Youthfront) and had become involved in church.  Brooke had become increasingly vocal about her love for Jesus Christ.  Her mom spoke about how gentle yet consistent Brooke was about her faith in God.  The book chronicles the process of her family’s discovery of Brooke’s deep faith and love for Jesus Christ by reading her Youthfront Camp Journals after her death.  As I read Jennifer’s book A MOTHER’S JOURNEY of Love, Loss and Life Beyond, I found myself moved to tears on more than one occasion. 

The summer that Brooke died was the summer we focused on Jesus’ parables in Luke 15.  It was amazing in the book to see Brooke's own handwritten words in her Youthfront camper manual.  She wrote about her life with Jesus.  She revealed how the parable of the Prodigal Son had impacted her.  In the camper manual we had the picture of Rembrandt's painting of The Return of the Prodigal Son.  Brooke’s mom included this picture in her book and wrote about it, “We found a picture of The Return of the Prodigal Son by Rembrandt, on which Brooke had written “God” with an arrow to the man depicting God and then “me” with an arrow to the son kneeling in front of God. We were shocked Brooke would think this way and would have viewed herself as the child kneeling in front of God.” 

I told Brooke’s mom, “We get to serve thousands of young people and minister to them.  We try to do this with a generous posture that creates space for their humanity.  Too many camps and churches try to force young people into a confining human-created mold when what is really needed is an environment that allows young people to lean into their own God shaped humanity.  Brooke definitely embraced Jesus Christ and allowed her spirit to be set free by God's life-giving spirit.

Brooke’s mom continues, “Much later, a friend looking at the picture discovered something I had missed. Brooke had also drawn and circled a distinctive mark on the back of the head of the son (the person she felt depicted her), a mark in the exact spot and in accurate proportion to what I would later learn was the most severe of Brooke’s injuries, and ultimately, the cause of death. Stunned, I moved in a fog for days after finding this, overwhelmed by the magnitude of what it proved.

This all surprised me. Brooke and I were extremely close. She had always confided in me about everything. Our love was so strong. I have many letters that she wrote to me in which she tells me that I am her best friend and we shared a bond like no other. But, as close as we were, I will admit that I was shocked to find out I was not what mattered most in her life. As we pored through what were now the greatest gifts of my life, I found a sheet that she had filled out at school, titled ‘Explore Your Future.’ Under ‘Who do you look up to?’ Brooke listed God, Jesus, and my parents. Under ‘What is important to you?’ she had written: ‘God, my family, and friends are all important to me.’ Not many 12 year olds would write this on a school worksheet in a public school. Seeing this and the other documents made me realize how her love for God was greater than even her love for me and that she viewed herself as God’s child first. As devastated as I was, it gave me peace knowing Brooke was with who she loved most.”

Brooke’s family is thankful to Youthfront for introducing her into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ.  I am also thankful that Brooke’s story also involves an extension of God’s grace into the life of the entire family.  This happens all the time.  This is our mission and Brooke’s story is one of thousands of beautiful stories of young people transformed by Jesus Christ through Youthfront’s ministries.

Two Time World Series Champion Jeremy Affeldt and His New Book

On Baseball's Opening Day, Youthfront supporter, friend and associate Jeremy Affeldt releases his first book taking readers off the field and into his life story.  The story of Jeremy’s relationship with our President Mike King and his involvement in our ministry, as well as details of his active participation with Youthfront’s Something to Eat ™ initiative are featured prominently in the book.  Expected to make multiple best-seller lists, this book offers a compelling, page-turning story for all readers.  Another fan of Youthfront and five time Major League All Star, Mike Sweeney says, “Jeremy Affeldt may be a two-time World Series champion and one of the greatest left-handed relievers in major league baseball but that is just the tip of the iceberg as to the man that he is.  As you will read in this book, Jeremy Affeldt is not defined by baseball. He is defined and validated as a child and follower of the most high God.”

Affeldt, pitcher for the San Francisco Giants, tells of the ups and downs of his life and major league career beginning with his childhood spent in a military family, the impact his parents had on his life, and his tumultuous high school years.  Affeldt admits that he was often an uncaring, self-centered athlete who was difficult for his parents and teachers. So much so, that his dad kicked him out of the home on more than one occasion.   Although he attended a Christian school, Jeremy wasn’t buying any of it until a series of events led him to see his need for Christ.

After being kicked out of games and sitting the bench because of his behaviors and his attitude, one of his coaches gave him books on attitude and anger control as well as scriptures that Jeremy read mainly so he wouldn’t have to watch the games from the stands. As the Bible began to come alive for him, he was also influenced by God’s transforming work in the life of another student who had been Jeremy’s archenemy. That was the beginning of Jeremy’s close walk with Christ.

Jeremy Affeldt tells of his opportunities in baseball, his marriage to his high school sweetheart and, of course, his success including two World Series Championships – after many setbacks and injuries – in the major leagues.

The book includes Jeremy Affedlt’s passion for social justice and his humanitarian endeavors as he continues to use his time and finances to do God’s work throughout the world.   Available now, discover the side of Jeremy that thrives off the field; the side that is passionate about freeing the slave, feeding the hungry, giving water to the thirsty and seeking justice for the oppressed.

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Stirring Imagination

Recently, Youthfront partnered with Generation Alive and Able Works to mobilize 450 high school students in East Palo Alto to package 100,000 meals for our Something to Eat™ initiative. East Palo Alto is divided from Palo Alto by a freeway. Palo Alto is a very wealthy area fueled by the success of the Silicon Valley. Apple, Google and Facebook are some of the corporate success connected to Palo Alto. East Palo Alto lies in stark contrast to Palo Alto. About 65% of the residents of East Palo Alto are Hispanic/Latino, 16% are African-American, and 10% Pacific Islander/Asian. Several years ago, Michelle Pfeiffer starred in the movie Dangerous Minds as a teacher, teaching a classroom of East Palo Alto high school students whose lives were being  destroyed by drugs, gang involvement, illicit sex, crime, etc. For a young person, living in East Palo Alto can still be a dangerous reality. In the few months before our Something to Eat™ event several young people were killed through drug and gang  violence.  The names Something to Eat™ and Something to Drink™ come from Matthew 25 when Jesus led us to imagine that when someone is hungry or thirsty and we give them food or water it is the same as giving food and drink to Jesus.

More than 450 young people from this under-resourced community moved outside of the dominating and destructive script many of them feel trapped in and instead worked to raise money to provide food for those around the world who are suffering from starvation. Most of these  young people have grown up with a script that imprisons them into thinking that they are stuck forever in a story that centers around poverty,  drugs, gangs, crime and violence. I wish you could have been an eyewitness to what happened in this Something to EatTM event. We worked hard all day and yet, these teenagers didn’t even want to take a break. We stopped for short five minute breaks throughout the event to talk and  reflect on why we were doing what we were doing – information about the world hunger crises, about the importance of taking care of each other along with inspirational thoughts. We had local artists perform Street Poetry that was uplifting and spiritually rich. It was amazing to see what was unfolding.

The East Palo Alto Police Captain spent the day with us. He was so enthused that he was on the phone talking to the news media reminding them that they were all at the recent murder scene involving young people and they needed to come and see the good things young people were doing.  I got into a conversation with the Police Captain, an East Palo Alto School Board member and a former mayor of the city. We talked about how important it was to provide the opportunity for these young people to participate in an alternative script to the broken scripts that they had grown up with and ensnared by. We agreed that these young peoples’ imaginations were being unleashed and this has the potential to alter their life scripts forever. It was also cool to learn that the Police Captain grew up in Kansas City and had served our country for many  years as a presidential appointed U.S. Marshall

Albert Einstein declared, “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For while knowledge  defines all we currently know and understand, imagination points to all we might yet discover and create.” I believe Youthfront’s mission to bring youth into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ happens because we embrace the most powerful script of all – the Gospel.  The Gospel unveils a story that unleashes the imagination of those who have ears to hear. The Gospel story has the power to render other scripts impotent. Think of Jesus’ own  disciples. They fled in fear when he was arrested. They witnessed his crucifixion. They were hiding in a state of dreadful trepidation. And when a few of Jesus’ followers, mostly women, went to his tomb the Gospel story breaks forth with the declaration “He is not here, he has risen!” Still the disciples hid in disarray and confusion.  Although a few were convinced that Jesus Christ was resurrected, some, Thomas for instance still didn’t have the imagination to believe that the Gospel proclamation that Jesus was risen could be true. And then he saw Jesus. Thomas declared, “My  Lord and my God!”  I believe the Christian story properly told stirs the imagination of the listener. 

Back From Croc

Back from Croc, Mexico - Amber Shares...

After serving in Croc on the Youthfront Mexico Team for the last seven years I am back in the states where I live and serve in the Argentine of Kansas City for Youthfront’s Missional Journeys program. The transition was welcome, and though at times difficult, I am seeing each day why God has me back in Kansas City. This past December I had the opportunity to join Austin Averill and Mike King in San Francisco where I witnessed something remarkable. Read the full story.

High School Senior gives Something to Eat & Drink

Local Youth Demonstrates Passion for Giving Something to Eat™

I have often had youth talk to me about facilitating a Something to Eat™ meal packaging experience in their schools or with their churches. Most times the logistics and effort required to host an event causes a youth to stop calling or emailing in order to pursue a community service project with less moving parts. For Kyle Sims there was no backing down. Kyle began discussing what it would take to host an event in August 2012 with a goal of packaging 10,000 meals. By November 11, 2012 he had handed out flyers, invited his peers, and spoke at church services until he had raised funds for 14,256 meals with an extra $450 to go towards Something to Drink™ clean water projects.

Read the full story.

Run Home and Take a Bow

Right now is the second best time of the year, if you are a true baseball fan (unless your team is actually playing in the World Series, in which case it's the best time of the year, GO GIANTS).  For most, the best time of the year is Spring Training when all have hope for a future that involves your team winning a World Series pennant. 

My friend, Ethan Bryan, has written a book that captures the hope of Spring Training but deepens this hope for all.  A hope in life and faith that goes way beyond the joy of your team winning the World Series. 

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From the Back Cover, "What can baseball teach us about living in the way of Jesus?  Can going to a baseball game be an exercise in spiritual formation?  Run Home & Take a Bow shares twenty insightful stories of the intersection of baseball and faith.  Grab a Dr Pepper and your glove and enjoy the journey."

Here's what people, including me, are saying about Run Home and Take a Bow:

Every baseball fan knows the ballpark invites solitude, contrition, human solidarity, joy, and enlightenment. Sit with baseball contemplative Ethan Bryan as he opens up the simple truth of human living through one season with the Kansas City Royals. Bryan’s heartfelt stories will call you back to the touchstones that give life meaning—faith, family, gratitude, persistence, and play.

Mark Yaconelli
Director of the Center for Engaged Compassion 
Author of Wonder, Fear, and Longing: A Book of Prayers. 

Ethan’s book is as life giving as Opening Day and it’s as sensory as pounding your glove and smelling the leather.  If you are passionate about baseball you will love this book.  If you are not a baseball fan, just a lover of great stories then read this book and you will be inspired, but beware, you might just become a baseball fan.   

Mike King
President of Youthfront
Author and Editor of Immerse Journal 

I'm not a big sports fan, and care little about the K.C. Royals, and I loved this book!  You will too, I'm sure.  Just a few pages in, you just know that Ethan Bryan is a truly good man, a caring dad, a fine writer, and a great storyteller.  His childlike joy in his beloved game is a delight to behold and along the way you will meet some true athletic heros, from Hall of Fame stars to historic sports writers and some memorably diehard fans.  And there is a caste of characters unrelated to the game, from Mike the Theologian and Chick-fil-A Jake to Bryan's sweet baseball-loving daughters, not to mention bunches of Bible guys, drawn vividly from the pages of  Holy Scripture as they are set alongside the boys of summer.  This is light reading that pitches some serious life lessons, is as entertaining as peanuts during the 7th inning stretch and, like a last-ditch homer in the bottom of the 9th, has you on your feet, leaving truly inspired.  Take a bow, Ethan, author and writer.

Byron Borger
Owner, Hearts & Minds Books
Dallastown, PA 

We've been taught not to talk about politics and religion in polite company, two of the three most interesting things in life worth talking about. So thank God for baseball. And thank God for Ethan Bryan's reflections on life, faith, friendship, and the greatest game ever invented.

Phil Snider
Senior Pastor of Brentwood Christian Church in Springfield, MO 
Author of Preaching After God 

Bullying! How We Should Respond?

 “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you.” Jesus Christ

One of the most difficult things I’ve ever experienced in my four decades of youth ministry was to serve as a Pallbearer for the funeral of one of a 13-year-old boy in my youth group.  Paul was the victim of repeated bullying by a large group of peers that tragically left Paul with the mistaken conclusion that his reality was too unbearable and he chose to end his own life.  This happened nearly 30 years ago.  Unfortunately, bullying has gotten much worse in the last ten years.

Right now the movie documentary Bully, along with several highly publicized  cases involving tragic results because of bullying among teenagers, has created a heightened awareness of the frightening dynamic of this issue in our culture.

Working with adolescents, we regularly hear stories of young people who everyday have to deal with being bullied.  Everyday, hundreds of thousands of young people have to deal with the fear of attending school where they know they will be bullied.  It’s estimated that an average of more than 150,000 young people stay home from school everyday to avoid being bullied.  Most of the time this occurs without parents being aware that it’s happening to their child. 

Bullying involves acts of repetitive negative behavior of a person or persons toward another person or persons that is aggressive and intimidating in nature.  Bullying can take the forms of emotional, verbal, and/or physical abuse.  Bullying can be a one-on-one issue but most often it involves a collaborative group engaged in peer abuse directed at one or more individuals.

Research reveals that young people who are regularly bullied face an increased risk of mental health issues.  Depression, anxiety, lack of motivation, despair, helplessness, and suicidal thoughts prevail among those who are dealing with being perpetually bullied. In addition to thinking about harming themselves, some begin to fanaticize about hurting their tormenters.  According to a report by the Secret Service, two-thirds of students who participated in school shootings were victims of bullying at school that had reached the level of self-described “torment.”

Mona O’Moore of the Anti-Bullying Centre at Trinity College in Dublin, has written, "There is a growing body of research which indicates that individuals, whether child or adult, who are persistently subjected to abusive behavior are at risk of stress related illness which can sometimes lead to suicide."

In addition to aggressive and physical actions that intimidate and harm the victims of bullying there are new forms of bullying that have emerged through social media.  This type of Cyber-bullying attempts to socially isolate the victim by spreading rumors, name calling, threatening, criticizing, manipulating, ostracizing, etc. through a variety of social medias, including Facebook, Twitter, and whatever new social media tools emerged last week, along with those that will surface this week.

According to the Cyberbullying Research Center, One in five teenagers are harassed regularly online. Almost one-half of all teenagers have experienced some form of online harassment. More than one-third (37%) of teens admit to using social networking sites to victimize and harass their peers.

Before we, as adults, rest in the idea that we have moved beyond the ability to bully, let me suggest that we may not engage in the overt bullying actions of adolescents but we must ask ourselves if we have not just adopted more sophisticated forms of bullying – gossip, character assassination, ostracizing, sabotaging, and exclusionary behavior toward others.

When Jesus was asked what it means to truly be his follower he says, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and, Love your neighbor as yourself” Luke 10:27.  He then tells one of the best-known stories called the parable of the Good Samaritan in order to explain and explore the heart of what it means to be a genuine follower of Christ.  In this parable Jesus commends the man who comes to the rescue and takes care of a victim of extreme bullying.  We must stand up for those who are being bullied. Christians must speak up.  We have to take action concerning this issue

What is Youthfront doing about this issue?

• Teaching young people to treat all people with respect and the love, grace and mercy of Jesus Christ.
• Teaching young people the Golden Rule taught by Jesus, “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you.” Matthew 7:12
• Teaching and mentoring young people the importance of defending and standing up for the marginalized victims of bullying.

What can parents do?

• Talk to your kids about bullying.
• Go see the movie Bully with your age appropriate kids.
• Educate yourself on your kid’s world, their friends and the social environments they spend time in.
• Be appropriately curious of your kid’s social media world.

I believe that we have a window of opportunity created by this movie Bully and the media’s attention on this issue to double down our effort to radically alter the reality of bullying in our culture.  This, I believe is something that the followers of Jesus and God’s church must passionately engage in.  We must do this for our kids.

Resources                                                                                                                                          The Center for Parent/Youth Understanding, www.cpyu.org                                                          Wikipedia

Kings of Kauffman

My friend Ethan Bryan, is a youth worker who has a passion for writing.  Several times Ethan has become discouraged in his attempt to get published.  He has written some good stuff for the Immerse Journal and has contributed to several other projects.  I always tell Ethan, if you are passionate about writing for the pure joy of it then you must keep writing even if no one ever reads your words.  Ethan is also passionate about baseball.  He is maybe the biggest baseball fan I've ever met, especially because he has never waivered on his love for the Kansas City Royals.

Well, Ethan is now writing for the blog called The Kings of Kauffman and I'm so happy for him.  Here is his latest post of a reflection on life through Royal's pitcher Charlie Leibrandt and I must say as a big baseball fan and a Royals fan, it's really good.

Hallelujah, Jason Castro and American Idol

We are days away from another round of American Idol.  The last two years Vicki and I have gotten into the show.  Last year with David Cook from our community of Blue Springs making it all the way to the top resulted in American Idol becoming a part of our weekly schedule.  Come on, you gotta have some diversion.

Anyway, one of the participants that I enjoyed last year was Jason Castro.   I just thought he was a  fun and likeable guy with some talent - I don’t know, I just really liked him.  Several people gave me a hard time for being a Jason cheerleader.  One person told me, “he’s just a stoner who has a happy high.”  “No he’s not.”  I just thought he was a decent likeable guy.

Then Jason sang the song Hallelujah, which was quite a surprise.  Rufus Wainwright, Damien Rice, and Jeff Buckley have all done amazing renditions of the song Hallelujah written by Leonard Cohen who also performed it in a transcendent manner.   But Jason did this song major justice in front of millions of people and wowed all the judges, even Simon.

I liked Jason even more as the competition went on.  It wasn’t that I was pulling for him to win.  In fact, I was surprised that he got as far as he did based on pure talent.  I guess the adolescent girls kept him in.  I liked the fact that both him and David Cook cooperated with the cheesy choreographed musical numbers because they had to, but they did it in such a way that screamed, “I know this is cheesy and I can’t believe I’m doing it so don’t make too much fun of me.” 

I also loved the growing ambivalence that Jason displayed as the finals approached.  It was obvious that he really didn’t want to be a part of the show anymore.  He had reached his limit, which came across as very cool to me.  

Last night I watched the video below for the first time and it put a whole lot of my thoughts about Jason Castro into context.  I like this guy even more now.  Very cool

Linus shares The Christmas Story