EVERY - Everyone Everywhere
Dear friends,
During this season, as we celebrate Jesus coming to earth, we also celebrate Jesus coming to young people around the world. These stories are just a small sampling of the many ways God is changing young lives, using you through your partnership with Youth for Christ International, in reaching young people everywhere.
Through Youth for Christ staff and volunteers you are building relationships, meeting practical needs, and most importantly introducing young people toJesus.
As we sing “O come, O come, Emmanuel” this season, we rejoice that in a very personal way He has come to many young people this past year. From Africa to Asia, the Americas to Europe and the Middle East there are thousands who, this year, will celebrate for the first time knowing the true reason for this season.
Thank you for your partnership in reaching youth for Christ,
Dave Brereton
International Director
Breathing Freely Again in Kenya
Hello, my name is Alice and I want to share with you a transformation that has taken place in my life. I felt like I was drowning in the chaos of broken family, struggling with the weight of my parents’ alcohol addiction. It seemed like there was no light at the end of the tunnel, no peace to be found amidst the turmoil.
But then, something incredible happened. Through the loving outreach of Youth for Christ Kenya, I was introduced to Jesus Christ. I heard about His love, His grace, and His promise of peace that surpasses all understanding. And in that moment, something shifted within me. Immediately, I decided to give my life to Christ, and since then, my heart has been filled with an indescribable peace.
It’s as if a burden has been lifted from my shoulders, and I can finally breathe freely again.
The Deaf Hear in Mexico
If you are a deaf kid in school in Juarez, Mexico, you have no one to help you. There are no teachers who speak sign language, no special education services. Y ou are lost, trying to figure out things on your own, but not hearing anything.
Many drop out, never finish. Nayeli was one such young girl, deaf, bullied in elementary school, eventually dropping out. Then four years ago she met Nohemi. God placed on Nohemi’s heart a desire to work with deaf young people. In 2022 she started a deaf ministry through Youth for Christ Juarez.
“First we had one kid, then another five kids, then we created workshops…and then there were more kids.”
Nayeli was one of those young people, learning sign language, hearing the gospel through the Youth for Christ club for deaf students, and then meeting Jesus.
“Little by little I am falling more in love with Jesus,” Nayeli shared. “I have found new sense of life in Jesus.”
Youth for Christ has expanded their outreach to students with other disabilities, helping them finish their middle finally receiving her middle school diploma. chool and high school education. Nayeli, now in her twenties, rejoices in “God cares not only about the spiritual, but about all aspects of life,” Nohemi said.
“There are not many people spreading the gospel in the deaf community, but He is very interested in them.”
Singing to the Lord in Haiti
Growing up around music really impacted Godwin Altidor, now the Youth for Christ Haiti National Coordinator.
“Yet in Haiti” he said, “kids don’t have many oppertunities to explore their God-given talents for musical gifts.”
Wanting to give young people that opportunity, while at the same time encouraging them in their faith, and wanting to be a blessing to the community, Youth for Christ Haiti started a youth choir directed by staffmember Jeff Marcelyn.
Selecting 30 young people from each of their Youth for Christ clubs around Haiti, the young people practiced for a year and
then began performing their contemporary gospel music at churches.
They even wrote an original song about their own situation during Haiti’s current struggles, and recorded it this past summer. Little Loreda, a 6th grader, is one girl God is blossoming through the Youth for Christ choir experience. “Quiet, reserved, timid, and shy is how everyone would have described Loreda,” said Godwin, “But when she opens her mouth to sing, a whole different personality comes out! She is now singing in church and in the community and it has really developed her character.”
A Light in South Asia
In this South Asian nation Christians face severe restrictions, discrimination and attacks. For the protection of the Youth for Christ staff and young people there, the nation will not be named. Yet God is using Youth for Christ in this nation as a beacon of light.
Over 200,000 young people, many of them from poor and vulnerable situations, are being reached there every year. Through educational and job training programs, outreach to trafficked young people, children’s homes, providing wells and homes for poor families, and drug rehabilitation centers, lives are being transformed.
“I am a government social worker,” said one mother there, “and I always teach people not to get addicted, but my own son suffered and we suffered with him as well. Thank God that a Youth for Christ rehabilitation center could turn his life into goodness, and we keep praying that he can stay clean. I just cannot recognize my new son after he has changed through the program.
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