Update
Ministry – Past Six Months
In April, we took twelve teens from Victory youth group to the Fire UP youth conference. Several of them took to heart speaker John Vermilya’s challenges to stop collaborating with our spiritual enemy, “Join the Resistance,” “Get in the Game,” and “Be a Domino” in the life of a friend who does not know Jesus yet. Two students in the group experienced physical healing as a result of prayer during the weekend, one of whom is still in the middle of heated spiritual battle.
The third week in June was the Jerusalem Marketplace Vacation Bible School, a community effort of people from several churches in the Gwinn area. For a second year, I had the privilege of playing the role of Jesus among about 70 children and a dozen teenage volunteers.
Ministry – next six months
For the K.I. Sawyer youth group at Victory Lutheran Church, our goal is that they will each develop a deep personal relationship with God so that they are not dependant on the youth group for their spiritual nourishment and growth. We’ve also been teaching the group some worship songs; we are helping one girl learn to sing, another to play bass guitar, and another teen to play the djembe drum. Angie is hoping that this will be the beginning of establishing a youth worship band in Gwinn.
Please also pray for our MERGE network. It is our hope and prayer that fostering collaboration among youth groups through future MERGE events will equip, empower, and unify Christian teenagers to impact their “mission field,” their school, for Christ. We are currently working with youth groups in the area to decide what next school year is going to look like for MERGE.
Testimony
We rejoice over what God has done this year in one middle school girl’s life. Two years ago, Erin was, like so many other girls her age, full of self-hatred and expressing those feelings by cutting herself. I can’t even tell you exactly when it happened, but today I am certain that Erin is a new creation in Christ. This year we gave her a devotional book for youth struggling with cutting. We found out a few months later that she had been referring several online friends to the healing ministry that published the book. Since Fire UP, she has been inviting a friend to youth group, witnessing to friends online, and praying for her parents to become Christians. Recently, at an overnight at our house, Erin designed two homemade rubber stamps, both with the symbol of the cross. (name changed due to the personal nature of her testimony)
About
Our Area network program was created because of a strong desire to see youth workers, volunteer or paid, in towns and cities receive the resources and training needed to be able to effectively reach teens, in a relevant way and lead them to the churches in there area.
Methods we use to do this:
~ Help foster area networks where church youth workers combine their efforts to evangelize and disciple the youth of their community.
~Establish a Area Network Director in your city or town.
~ Help local church youth workers by providing training resources, visioneering, accountability and encouragement, event planning and much more!
*In places where Fire UP Network is involved in hands-on youth ministry, we never intend to compete with churches for teens. Rather, our purpose is to reach out to youth, share the Gospel with them, and help them get connected in a local church body where they can grow.
