Posted by (0) Comment
It’s hard to believe that 2008 is winding down and 2009 is just around the corner. What a year it has been for Tacoma YFC…our best ever! At our annual Christmas party at Ed and Stacey Ogle’s house 50 of us continue
Posted by (0) Comment
Holidays can be hard for our birth parents, as they are separated from their children, and often times spend it alone. One of our foster families has a special heart for birth parents and their children to reunite. This past Thanksgiving, they opened up their home to the birth mom, who would have had nowhere else to go. The foster mom and birth mom cooked dinner side by side as the kids and foster dad played in the living room. They were able to co-parent and be a “blended” family for the holidays.
The relationship between birth parents and foster parents can be a very delicate one. If possible, we love to see mentor relationships happen between them, but know that there are many factors that can be in the way of maintaining a healthy relationship. Sometimes, all that our birth parents need is someone to love them, give them a kind word, and treat them with the dignity that they have not always been shown. This alone can help a parent to keep fighting for their kids and their own lives. It can also give them open eyes to see how amazing they have been created.
The vision and hope at Youth For Christ is for restored families and relationships. As a staff, we are not able to complete this mission without the help of our foster families. They are the ones who can offer a “life on life” relationship to their foster children’s parents and continue to be healthy resource to them in the future.
Every Saturday from 9-midnight we do Late Night at the People’s Community Center on 1602 S. MLK, Jr. Way in Hilltop. I’ve been part of the Late Night team for almost 2 1/2 years now, and it’s amazing how much God has changed the entire culture of the People’s Center! Even staff members and community members (many who are not Christians) have commented on how much it’s changed!
I remember 2 years ago it was such a thug environment, and it was not a safe place to be. There was a lot of gang activity, and there was always a spirit of intimidation. I would get cussed out constantly and I remember having to call the police for about 5 weeks in a row. Needless to say, there was always the temptation to quit and give up. But we staked our ground, pressed through, continued to pray, continued to love kids, continued to be consistent…and now the People’s Center is a safe place to be, and a place where kids are getting saved and transformed!
Late Night has become an intimate environment, where kids feel safe and welcome on a Saturday night. This is so important as many of these are coming from home environments filled with drug activity, violence, and gang activity. Our leaders are so faithful and dedicated, and they love these kids so much! It’s so amazing to walk around Late Night and see kids having so much fun and receiving love. Whether it’s baking in the kitchen with Shannon and Heather, playing dodgeball with Zach and Mandy, basketball with Chad and Josh, hip-hop dance with Cindy, or hanging out at the front desk with John and Summer…the kids know that they are loved!
Lets here it for the LORD!!!! Jesus Christ!! Who lived and died and sacrificed!!! To bring the youth of Remann Hall to know NEW LIFE!!! To trust not in themselves but HE who Died and rose to LIFE!!!
WOW!! So fun to see God at work! Stirring and awakening hearts to come to himself!! This past Wednesday we had a concert in Remann Hall! 38 kids responded to the Gospel!!! There were 61 kids at the concert!! We were believing for King Pen kids to come into Remann Hall before the concert and for all the kids God wanted to be there!! It turns out that 28 kids were taken into Remann Hall the 2 weeks prior to the concert!! One youth, Kyron, age 16, surrendered his life to Christ at the Concert! His two older brothers started one of the most active gangs influencing many of our Youth in Tacoma. He shared he wants to get out of the gang and live his life for Christ and live in God’s purpose for his life!
Dwayne Parker and his team of two SOZO SOLDIERS – Airfeaira Nelson and Deondre Swansey, aka, “Mister”, shared their testimonies of how God has brought them out of lifestyles of gangs! Air and Mister both used to be in Remann Hall, not by choice, but as result of the decisions they were making in their old lifestyles. But now returned of their own free will to share with teens in Remann Hall the Good News of what God has done in their lives!!
Air shared how she had to lay aside what people thought of her and how many people have said and done hurtful things as she has started to live for Christ. She shared, “I don’t care what anyone thinks of me,” then paused and smiled, “I’m going to heaven!!!” It was so amazing to see how the kids responded to her sharing!! A MIRACLE!!!! Her last charge as a Juvenile was in 2006 and they let her back in as a 19 year old young woman in 2008!!!!! To testify to her peers and share there is HOPE!!!!!!!!!! She shared BOLDLY the details of her childhood and how God brought her out of a life in gangs, with guys, drugs, and steeling!!!!
Mister, 18, Air’s younger brother shared his testimony and song – “Time to Make a Change.” His face beaming from ear to ear with JOY!!! Mister had been in Remann Hall last year for the concert but was in a locked down unit and unable to attend! Now ONE YEAR later he was able to get up in front of his peers and BOLDLY shares how Christ has changed his life!! A brief excerpt from his song goes,
Young M-I-S-T-E-R
Growing up banging trying to be a hood star
Now I’m realizing that this life won’t get me far
Just livin day to day, trying to be hard
Till the day I found out I can make a change
Till the day I found out I ain’t gotta be the same
I can make a change, I ain’t gotta be the same
I’m gonna make a change cause I call on Jesus Name
It was an amazing night!! The staff at Remann Hall were so incredible!! Such an amazing privilege to be able to put on a concert for the kids and work with such amazing people!! We also had an amazing team of our regular volunteers committed to seeing these kids lives transformed!!! Plus additional volunteers who joined our team for the evening, willing to pray for kids, pray for the team, and serve in so many ways!!
Thank you FATHER, JESUS, and HOLY SPIRT for all you did that we saw and did not see!!! What fun it is to be on GOD’s team and part of HIS family!!
Soon after Phillip’s funeral, his closest friend and cousin, Lammar K, was arrested and sent to Remann Hall. Some of our team was able to minister to him the night Phillip was murdered as he found out the news and also the following week at the various funeral activities. It was no coincidence that he came into Remann Hall at that time! When one of our Juvenile Justice worker found out that Lammar was in there, he knew God wanted him to speak to Lammar! They got to have a one on one meeting together in Remann Hall and discussed Phillip’s death and how Phillip said before he died that he wanted to change, get a job, get in school, and get out of the gang! Lammar agreed that it was time for him to change his life for the better! Our JJM worker encouraged him that the only way his life would be able to change in this way is through having a relationship with Jesus Christ! Lammar said he wanted Jesus! He wanted out of the gangs! He wanted to change! You could tell his heart was broken and ripe to receive the Gospel! So the Gospel was presented and he prayed and received Christ as his LORD and SAVIOR!!! PRAISE GOD!!!! Lammar has been released and our JJM volunteer is following up with him! He expressed desire to start coming back to SOZO!
Posted by (0) Comment
I love Tuesdays. Why? Because Tuesdays are “story” days. Each week our TYFC staff gather for prayer at the office from 9-9:30 and the 1st and 3rd Tuesdays we have our ALL STAFF meeting when 30-40 of us meet for prayer, worship, and sharing stories of God at work in the lives of young people and families. Here are a couple of snapshots from today’s meeting:
YFC foster families celebrated Christmas together on Tuesday night and had an incredible amount of fun! Over 250 people came together for dinner, crafts, a movie for kids, and a visit from “Gumdrops” and “Sprinkles”. What a great night!
Over the years, this has become a memorable night in the lives of our foster children and it’s easily seen on their faces. A delicious meal was catered by Charlotte Lute for the entire family. After dinner childcare coordinator, Diedre Baker, and her volunteers prepared Christmas crafts for kids and, of course a Veggie Tales movie kept the adults entertained!
The night was capped off by a surprise visit from YFC staff, Josh Van Wyhe and his wife, Kelly (aka Gumdrop and Sprinkles). It was fun to see the joy and excitement on the kids’ faces as they enjoyed their games, skits, and music. Over 170 children received a Christmas stocking filled with games, toys, and candy. It was truely a great night to celebrate Christmas by blessing children that have experienced so much turmoil in their short lives.
This night would not have been possible without the help of the following individuals and churches: Evangelical Reformed Church, Discovery Church, Trinity Church, Life Christian, University Place Presbyterian Church, Abundant Life Foursquare Church, Lauren Benson, Mike and Cheryl Hollstrom, Ken and Debbie Alford, and Stephanie Cochrane. Special thanks to YFC staff and foster parent, Becky and Jerry Rhodes, for coordinating the collection of nearly 200 Christmas Stockings!
Our staff feel blessed to work with such a great group of foster parents and children! There was no better place to be on Tuesday night then with these amazing families.
“Carter” is a student at Henry Foss High School. His life has been consumed with drugs and anything else that can keep him numb to the pain in his life. Carter comes from a family marked by the brokenness. His dad is not around and his older brother is in gangs and has been shot twice already. Carter is always smiling but deep down he has struggled with being hopeless and wanting his life to end so that he doesn’t have to deal with it anymore.
We met Carter about a month ago at our City Life Club at Foss High School. A few of his friends brought him and that night we shared the gospel with him and he made this statement. “I am a Rustafarian, I smoke weed so I can get closer to God.” We were able to challenge him with a question. Do you really smoke weed to get closer to God or do you smoke weed because you like it? Be real with us. He confessed it was all about him and claiming to be a Rustafarian was just a cover for wanting to smoke weed. So we pressed in with the gospel one more time and he said he wasn’t ready.
About a week later we were having our Campus Life Student Leadership time at our house and some of our student leaders brought Carter even though he had not chosen to follow Christ yet. What I didn’t know was that God had a divine appointment for him that night in our living room. We began to pray for and minister to the students and when we got to Carter I was prompted to speak to how he feels hopeless by asking him a few questions. He began to open up and shared that “sometimes at night I wish someone would break into my house and shoot me so I don’t have to live anymore. Then I asked, “do you want to have hope and peace in your life” and he answered with a yes. We walked down the road of asking forgiveness for all the ways he had given in to being hopeless and wanted to kill himself and then we brought it to the cross and then we walked through salavtion one more time and he asked the Holy Spirit to come and live in him. It was an amazing time!
The story is not over yet. That next week Carter was no where to be found. He wasn’t at school and no one knew much about what was going on with him. At first I thought he went back to his old lifestyle and the enemy had snatched him back up, but the opposite was actually happening…God was working in him.
About a week or so later he popped back up on the radar and it turns out his family had to take care of a lot of details with his uncles funeral that week. So he came back over to our house that following week and we had a time of worship with eight students from Foss High School. It was a powerful time and God began moving in the students hearts…before we knew it Carter began weeping and turned his back on the group because he didn’t want to cry in front of everyone. One of our leaders put his hand on him and started praying for him. We continued to worship for another forty five minutes and he continued to weep in the presence of the Lord. At the end of our worship time I asked Carter what was going on and let him know we wanted to pray for him as a group. He preceeded to tell us that the last two weeks of having God in his life was good and he was thinking about how if he wouldn’t have come with his friends to our house that he would still be living in his old lifestyle of drugs. Then he began to talk about how he longed for his older brother to have God too and to be saved from his life of gangs and violence. As he was sharing this he began crying again and then he began to tell us what happened the night he gave his life to Christ. He said, “I went home and my mom wanted to know why I was late and I told her I was at a church thing with friends,” but because of Carters past she did not believe him. He said, “mom I will prove it to you, look here is the sheet we were reading during the time.” He pulled out one of the hand outs we gave the students that had scripture on it and said let me read it to you. A few minutes into reading some of the scriptures he could hear his mom weeping at the other end of the table. His mother was already a believer and she was overcome. Reconciliation happened right there at the kitchen table between a mother and her son. Later that night they called Carter’s grandma and told her what happened and she began crying as well and Carter and his grandma were reconciled as well. That night when Carter went to his room, he found his stash of drugs and he opened his window and through them all out! The Holy Spirit is moving in his heart and bringing about repentance. Carter is one of many that God has touched in a powerful way!
Kyle Nelson – Director of City Life at Henry Foss High School
This has been an awsome week here at the Puyallup Youth Investment Center. We started out the week Saturday the 6th with a float in the Santa Parade in downtown. We 20 teens participate in a living nativity. Before we went out into the cold we fed the kids pizza and cookies. The kids also helped decorate the center.
We have had 142 visits so far this week. This give the staff great chances to talk with kids and hear thier stories inso giving us the chance to share our personal stories as well as Gods story.
Last night at Youth group we had 26 kids as we shared some more of the Christmas story. We will conclude it next week at our Christmas Party. The kids eat the gospel. It is so fun to have them ask questions.
I would like to share a story about a 10th grader I’ll call George. Georgeand I went out to coffee the other day and I ask if he would share his story with me. He jump right in to tell me that during the summer he had to move out of his dads house because of physicalabuse and move in withhis mom. As he shared withme he talked about how he felt like it was his fault that his dad hit him. We talked for about an hour on topics from School parents, siblings and his Girl friend. This time with George has opened doors for more conversations. George came to us on Thursday and wanted to tell us what was going on with his girl friend who he has been trying to get to go to school and not skip. We encouraged him to continue to try talking to her about staying in school and then we prayed for him.
Tonight we will be eating dinner togather and playing board games after dinner. This time ever Friday night gives the kids the feel of tha family meal time and family game time as well.
Thank you for taking the time you do to invest in the Tacoma YFC so kids can have the chance to hear Gods word and have adults around them that love them were they are at.
Kelly J Culver Puyallup Drop-in Director kelly@tacomayfc.org Phone:253-840-1214
