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Beach and Football Events Draw Cyprus Youth

From Brandon Johnson, National Director 

I am excited to share with you about my time spent in Cyprus during June and July.

The first event I participated in was a beach event. This was an opportunity to bring together over fifty Christian youth from two different cities in Cyprus. We played games, had dinner, hung out, and closed the evening with a time of worship and a talk by a local evangelist. The youth loved it and a few who had never been to a Youth for Christ event commented that they wanted to get more involved with Youth for Christ.

The second event was a football [soccer] tournament that was held on a beach. This spot is THE local hang out for teenagers during the summer. We held a four on four football tournament that fielded six teams. This was a new event, and we didn’t have a lot of youth signed up before hand, but as the young people on the beach figured out what we were doing, we had more and more sign up to play!

Most of the youth who played have no relationship with Christ and very little interaction with Youth for Christ. In fact, two of the teams were of young people just hanging out at the beach. After it was over they wanted us to come back the next week and do the same thing. Fifteen teens signed up to be on the Youth for Christ newsletter because they wanted to get more involved with what we are doing.

This was fantastic news because these young people are where the heart of Youth for Christ is. Later I was told that the football tournament was happening two times a week because there was such a positive response.

Praise God for this great initial contact with the non-Christian youth population!