Thank you for joining us in prayer last month for the men of the city as they are such pillars of the family and community and truly are underrepresented in our church and churches throughout our nation.
Our hearts are also deeply burdened for the youth.
This month we ask that you join us in prayer for the many young people wading through hurts, pains and confusion who need to hear and begin to run with the Good News. Today’s youth are in crisis – to them there is no absolute truth and no morality. Just the other day we received a phone call from a lady in our church referring us to a family that was severely struggling relationally. After going and visiting this family and speaking with the mother and the daughter together we later had the daughter and a couple of her friends over for an introduction to the Bible class. Our heart was broken as she began to share about the gang members coming outside of her sixth grade class and beating up one of her friends. She then shared that her uncle was just shot to death a block from our house recently. She was open to our love and God’s love, but is so hardened at such a young age and has a lot of healing and growing to do in the years ahead. When asked if she knew what sin was she mentioned details of things no 12 year old should know about. 
Many young people struggle with loneliness, feelings of worthlessness, anger, hurt, meaninglessness, and unmet needs. Only 12 percent of people under 18 are coming to church in the US. Surveys show that 90 percent of people who give their lives to Christ do so before the age of 30. The need is huge, because nearly 50 percent of the world’s population is under the age of 25. Clearly there is a lot of work to be done and we realize that this works falls squarely on all of our shoulders. (Statistics from Ten Keys to Reaching Youth by Paul Fritz.)
Many young people struggle with loneliness, feelings of worthlessness, anger, hurt, meaninglessness, and unmet needs. Only 12 percent of people under 18 are coming to church in the US. Surveys show that 90 percent of people who give their lives to Christ do so before the age of 30. The need is huge, because nearly 50 percent of the world’s population is under the age of 25. Clearly there is a lot of work to be done and we realize that this works falls squarely on all of our shoulders. (Statistics from Ten Keys to Reaching Youth by Paul Fritz.)We want to be ready to address these issues that come up within the youth of our church and be positioned for the influx of growth in the next two years. There is a huge high school being constructed just 3 blocks from our home with over 75 classrooms (over 2,000 seats) to be completed for opening in 2012. Soon there will be thousands of young, lost students walking up and down our street, using the park in front of our home and bringing in families for sporting events. 
Currently apart from meeting the youth individually or in special meetings we have been plugging them in to Kaleo, World Impact’s youth ministry, where they are able to interact with a diverse group of youth from all over South Central Los Angeles and receive powerful teaching and activities directed towards their age group. 
This summer we are hoping that we can take many youth to summer camp at THE OAKS, where the theme is “Take off the Mask”. Pray with us please that many would come and that their lives would be transformed in the saturated times of fun, acceptance, relationship building and great teaching during the week long experience.
Please pray with us that Jesus may capture the hearts of the youth here and that they might be an integral part of what is happening in South Central through our church, Fuente para las Naciones!
Currently apart from meeting the youth individually or in special meetings we have been plugging them in to Kaleo, World Impact’s youth ministry, where they are able to interact with a diverse group of youth from all over South Central Los Angeles and receive powerful teaching and activities directed towards their age group. This summer we are hoping that we can take many youth to summer camp at THE OAKS, where the theme is “Take off the Mask”. Pray with us please that many would come and that their lives would be transformed in the saturated times of fun, acceptance, relationship building and great teaching during the week long experience.Please pray with us that Jesus may capture the hearts of the youth here and that they might be an integral part of what is happening in South Central through our church, Fuente para las Naciones!
Thank you!!!
Chad & Fabiola
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