City Kids off to the Island

Dear Friends and Family,

Next weekend our youth and young adult ministries will be taking a group of 15-20 year olds on a retreat to Catalina Island. We will be joining with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship chapters from several Cal State University campuses for a time outside of the city and in the word of God.

Some of you may remember that we went on this retreat for the first time last year with a handful of our youth student leaders. Not only did our youth get a chance to spend time with college students who come from inner-city neighborhoods like ours, but they experienced Jesus in personal and profound ways:

- One youth had just come off an incredibly difficult 6 month stretch. His stepfather had passed away, his family was struggling to make ends meet and over the summer he got involved with the wrong crowd on the street. By the end of the summer he had seriously contemplated suicide.

During the last evening session of the retreat, Jesus spoke to him in an intimate way, providing a vision of himself with Jesus and his stepfather who had passed away. It was a moment of healing and clarity and, as a result, he re-committed to following Jesus as Lord and Savior.

- Another of our youth, through the influence of his mother and friends began to consider converting to Islam. Uncertain of where he stood, he came to Catalina Island and received an invitation to commit his life to Jesus. Though he felt something stirring in his heart he couldn’t get himself to publicly commit.

In the next 12 months the seeds of faith planted at the retreat were watered and God grew a beautiful life of faith for this young man. He is committed to our church youth group and has grown into a leader for other youth. At home he has been a peacemaker between his mother and sister. Personally he has made faithful efforts to turn away from drugs and alcohol. He has seen Jesus move in his life and testified to others about this.

I stand in awe of God’s work in the lives of our young people and am excited for how God will use our time together this year. To make it out there, however, we need your prayers! Here are some initial prayer requests for our time this coming weekend:

- At least two of our youth who are attending have not made an initial commitment to follow Jesus. Please pray for their conversion this weekend - their names are Jnye and Dillon.

- The other youth and young adults who are attending have made a decision to follow Jesus. Pray that God would speak to each of them really clearly and personally and that this would inspire deeper lives of faith.

- In youth group we've been doing a series on "Becoming Young Heroes" and taking a look at young people that God has chosen to do great things through: David, Josiah, Joshua, Esther, etc. The weekend retreat has a theme and by God's providence, it is "Heroes: How God Changes the World." Our church had no input into the conference theme and the original conference speaker had a different topic in mind (she is no longer to speak to do a family situation). It feels like God wants to speak to us about this so I pray that our youth would be inspired to do great things in their schools, streets, and families with, through and in God.

- Pray that our youth and young adults would relate well with one another, develop friendships with each other and increase in their trust with the adult staff

- Finally, please pray that the youth and young adults who have decided to come would follow through on their commitment.

Grace and Peace,
Elliot Ling