Youth Lovingly Exhorts Mother

School is in full swing; the communities of South Central Los Angeles are into a new, yet familiar rhythm.  Summer has come and gone, but was definitely a fruitful season for our church plant.  The believers are maturing and we met a lot of new families seeing numbers of them get integrated into the church. 

We would appreciate your prayer support this fall as we launch two new ministries.  We have been building up to them since last spring, but we have just launched a new youth ministry through our church and a scholastic tutoring program as a means to serve the community and build more relationships in the community.  We are perfectly sandwiched between a public elementary and high school.  Our youth group’s focus is discipleship and training the youth to take leadership and initiative to minister to their peers and their families.

There is a mother that we have known since we moved here that has come out to a few events, but has not yet given her life to Jesus.  She is a single mother of four.  One of her children has special needs.  She often feels overwhelmed.  One of her sons, Ricky (name changed), gave his life to Jesus through our ministry and was later baptized.  At church we have talked with him about how he is one of the leaders who will help take the youth ministry to the next level.  We have also been training the church in how to give words of encouragement and life to one another. 

The other day a group of us from the church were doing some work projects to fix up the building where we hold the youth ministry and tutoring program (along with our music ministries and office space) and Ricky’s family came out to participate in the BBQ we had afterwards.  After eating, Fabiola challenged Ricky to listen to God and see what He might want to say to his mom.  This is what the 14-year old Ricky shared with his mother:

“Mama, God thinks that you are a strong women and He is proud of you for raising four children.  He thinks you are intelligent and wise.”  After that he asked, “Mama, can I ask you a question?  But I want you to promise to answer honestly.”  “Do you want to go to the Christian church?”  The mother responded positively and Ricky continued, “Then why won’t you come?” (Ricky comes to church activities two to four times a week – always alone.)

Ricky then prayed, “God, thank you for my mama.  Help her to come to church so that she can know Christ and be saved.  Help her.  Thank you God, because without her I would have never found how to walk in your ways.”  As you can imagine, both Ricky and his mother were crying at the end of this beautiful exchange.  She also came out to church the following day with her two youngest children and a beaming Ricky. 

We are here to see families and individuals restored through Christ.  Thank you for praying over our lives and the lives of youth like Ricky and his family.  Together we are making an impact and seeing more and more people enter the Kingdom of God.

Restoring broken lives through Christ,

Chad & Fabiola