We finished our fiscal year in such a positive position
to move forward financially. All
our bills are paid and Youthfront is extraordinarily expanding its reach and
impact.
Our sincere heart’s desire is to
be used by God and see more students come into a growing relationship with
Jesus Christ. Here’s just a
partial list of Youthfront ministries you can remember in your prayers:
• Youthfront
Missional Institute
• After
school programs in Croc, Mexico
• Retreats
at Camp West and Camp South
• Engage
Parenting Events
• Youth
Worker Training Days
• Camp
planning and curriculum development
• Staff
recruitment trips to college campuses
• Local
Youth Worker Networks
• Stuck in
the Middle Conferences for Middle School students (we are
• Feed the
Hunger Initiatives
• Youth
Ministry Resource Development
• Leadership
Development Initiatives
• Teaching
and Training at National Youth Ministry Conferences
As we head into the holiday season and the end of 2009 I want to share with you
two very important projects –
Camp Expansion and Feed the Hunger - that will catapult us into 2010 with compelling momentum.
Project One – Camp Expansion
(Completion of Cabin 16)
For the last several years we have painfully had to turn away young people, disappointing them and their parents because we have been overbooked at YouthFront Camp West. This is a problem that we want to turn into an opportunity. YouthFront West is designed for early adolescents.
Now is the time. We feel compelled to move forward with this phase of the
YouthFront Camp West Expansion Project by completing Cabin 16. This is a wonderful opportunity to
provide the transformational experience of camp for hundreds more young people.
We
have dedicated ourselves to providing a Christian Camping opportunity for young
people that is truly unique – where kids feel loved, accepted and understood;
where they are treated as truly unique human beings created in the Imago Dei (image of God) and where the
Gospel is passionately proclaimed both verbally and behaviorally.
So far, we've received $118,000.00
toward Cabin 16 and need $32,000 more to complete this project by our spring
retreats!
Completing cabin 16 will
continue to create more space for young people to be transformed by the Gospel
for decades to come.
Project Two – Complete Feed
the Hunger Start-up phase.
Last
summer we launched a new program called Feed the Hunger at Youthfront camps. In six months nearly 100,000 meals have
been packaged and shipped to those in need. Young people and youth workers are so excited about Feed
the Hunger that we are continuing it as a year-round program.
Feed the
Hunger focuses
on helping young people understand the importance of proclaiming the Gospel
along with embodying the Gospel, not only “over there” but also where they
live, here and now.
Feed the
Hunger is
engaging thousands of young people to address the issue of world hunger and the
reality that this year more than 10 million people will die of starvation, more
than half of this number will be children.
We
did not know that Feed the Hunger would involve teenagers from all across the USA
in less than six months. We have
received some generous funding to complete the “start-up phase” of the Feed
the Hunger program including purchase of assembly lines and
equipment to package meals, develop curriculum, buy a trailer for shipping and
hire a staff person to take this initiative to the next level of growth and
development. We have received $45,000 and need another
$15,000 to finish the start-up phase.
Completing
the start-up phase for the Feed the Hunger will provide an
infrastructure for young people to be formed as disciples and an operation that
will provide tens of thousands of nutritional meals for those who are suffering
from the effects of starvation.
I
am so impressed with the generation of young people whom God is raising
up. They are eager to make a
difference in their world. They
are sharing the story of Jesus with their friends. They are stepping into service and leadership in their
schools and churches. They are
saying no to the world’s agenda of materialism and immorality. They are feeding the poor. They are engaging in the pursuit of
God’s Will to be done on Earth as it is in Heaven!
Youthfront’s fund-raising
goal before January 1, 2010 to complete Cabin 16 in the Camp Expansion project
and the Start-up Phase of the Feed the
Hunger program is $47,000.
What is truly exciting is the feeling that we are moving
forward boldly with positive and healthy growth instead of trying to keep our
heads above the waters of economic uncertainties. Please keep us in your prayers and I will update you on our progress.
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