We had our third big youth event about 10 days ago when we took about 32 youth from the community to a corn maze for some fun and fellowship and bonfire. This was a followup to another big outing in September with 25 youth to a family fun center in Yakima. I’ve been really excited about the way our youth group is growing. Currently there are seven groups of 3-5 youths being pursued and discipled by members of our team and the kids are responding really well. Our discipleship groups meet at least once a week while we try to have at least one big outing per month.

We continue to meet on Tuesday nights at the Longhouse as part of Hope Fellowship. We have moved indoors with the change in seasons and are now meeting at the opposite end of the ceremonial room from the adult Bible study. I was really nervous about the arrangements on the first Tuesday when we tried it. (I tend to be pretty nervous on Tuesday nights as a general rule, anyway) How would the adults respond if the kids got too loud or unruly? Would the kids feel secure enough to participate with some of their caregivers just some 60 feet away? So that night we had one of our largest youth groups ever - about 25.

When it was all over and we had time to debrief, a couple of things came into focus: The adults really were excited and happy to see the teenagers in their community hearing and studying scripture and I think the teenagers felt a sense of maturity in doing the same thing as the adults in the same room. It really felt like church. Since that week, we’ve continued to meet in the ceremonial room talking about justification, the Holy Spirit and Jesus as we walk through Mark.

The discipleship groups have been great as well. Most of the groups meet on Thursday nights and its funny to see another team member driving through White Swan with a carload of teenagers on your way to pick up your group. Discipleship times have included burgers, pizza, movie nights, homework and prayer times. Relationships are being built and continue to grow deeper not only between us as staff and the kids, but even between the kids themselves.

I continue to be amazed that God would let me be a part of His work here on the reservation. The struggles that make up the day-to-day lives of these teenagers stagger the mind and break our hearts. And as much as we pray that they would, they don’t show any real signs of going away anytime soon. Still, these kids invite us into their lives in real and authentic ways so beautiful that it compels all of us to keep trying. To God be the Glory.

Please pray for these kids, they need your prayers so deeply, so urgently.

Veronica (Sacred Road) and Tara

Baby Shane, Aqua and Emily (Sacred Road)

Toby and Eric

Johnny, Eric, Kyle and Toby

Ann

Tara, Brandon, Angela, Kat and Veronica (Sacred Road)

TOby and Brandon

Chris and Mary

Sarah, Darion, Seraand Ella.

LISA, Gretchen (SACRED ROAD), Tionna and Jade

Sera, Darion, Ella, Sarah and Kassandra

Lisa

TAra, Heather (SACRED ROAD) and Eileen

THOmas and kyle

Billy, Bryan and Toby

MIke and thomas

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 28th, 2009 at 4:51 pm and is filed under Youth, Reservation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.