Words of Life

On several occasions I've had the awesome opportunity to teach a bible lesson at our weekly Young Life Chelsea meetings. Usually Young Life clubs include a message each week during many of their gatherings, but since we're still going through our formative stages I am still earning the "right to be heard." Truly thankful for even having a place to meet, trying to teach a lesson while in the middle of a busy Manhattan McDonald's doesn't lend itself to listening and learning. Recognizing this, our goal has been to create an environment that will build relationships that eventually lead to Christ. Soon we will have our own place and we should be able to teach more often!

Even with all of these limitations, the few times I have actually gotten to share the Gospel it has been amazing! We have been working through the Lord's Prayer and almost all the kids are giving me their undivided attention. This could just be out of respect as we have certainly poured a lot of ourselves into them over the past several months. However, I certainly think its something much deeper than that.

Recently, I was working through the part of the prayer where Jesus teaches us to say, "Give us this day our daily bread." I was making the point to them that Jesus provides for all of our needs and reinforces that fact by referring to himself as the "bread of life." This happens right after the feeding of the 5,000 in the Gospel of John. So in making that point I said, "Have you heard of the story where Jesus feeds 5,000 people with only a few fish and loaves of bread." They all just stared at me! Well... one of them who happens to go to a Catholic school piped up and said he had. All of the rest said they had never heard of the feeding of the 5,000! Simply amazing!

I'm starting to catch the magnitude of what is going on through Young Life Chelsea. We have about 15 kids every week and for all of their relatively short lives they have been... dead. Now, more than likely for the first time, they are getting to hear the words of life as we share the Gospel! Can you believe it, we're doing mission work with unreached young people in the middle of a Manhattan McDonald's!

Can you picture yourself where you had never actually heard any of the Bible before? Would you be dialed in as you hear the gospel for the first time? These kids are! And we get the privilege of being the ones who share the words of life with them.

Pray, Pray, Pray

Got some things for you to pray about:

- Pray for our Young Life Chelsea Bowling Day on May 28th.

- Pray that we have the opportunity to meet more parents of teens in Chelsea.

- Pray for our Young Life Chelsea basketball tournament / block party on June 28th.

- Pray that I can get at least 2 kids to get to Young Life Camp with me this summer.

- Pray that we find a private location to meet for Young Life Club in the fall.

- Pray for that we see salvation through Young Life Chelsea as teens come to know Christ!


We have been packin' um in at McD's and teaching the teens about prayer!

WE BELIEVE IN IT!

Momma's Day @ YLC (Young Life Chelsea)

This Sunday is Mother's Day. So, we helped the teens at Young Life Chelsea honor the mother-figures in their lives. By the way, we had five new kiddos. McD's (where we meet right now) was definitely the place to be last night!

First we started the evening playing the card-game "Mafia." What kid doesn't like "Mafia"? The hard part was keeping them honest. Always hard to do in any game with teens. Either way, we had fun with it!

After the game we made sure they knew about Mother's Day this coming Sunday. We led them in an activity where they filled out cards to their mothers. Each of the cards contained a dessert recipe the teens could make for them as well. They wrote in the cards as they listened to a pretty unique but fitting rap song from a kid in Brooklyn.

God has given us a great group of teens to minister to in Chelsea! However, I know that youth ministry is more than working with teens. A large majority of youth ministry has to be focused on ministering to parents. Pray that God would give us opportunities to pour into the lives of parents in Chelsea. Pray that parents of teens in Chelsea would draw near to the cross of Christ.

The above picture is a picture of my momma. It is also Momma Mills' birthday on the 5th of May. Be sure to wish this beautiful woman a Happy Birthday!