May 2019 Youth for Christ update from Chicago Southside City Life Director James Owolabi
Dear Ministry Partners and YFC Supporters,
I would like to thank you all for your prayers and the unwavering support that you have shown this school year. We have all played an important role in making an impact across the city of Chicago! Over 150 students in 4 different ministry environments have been touched with the word of God through our efforts! To God be the glory for each child that heard the Gospel and felt the love of Christ during the different programs we have in place.
The past 7 months alone have truly blown me away and I’m grateful for our partnership with New Beginnings Church which made our impact even larger. I’m thrilled to share with you the following praise reports:
- Seeing our partnerships with teachers, school administration, and parents becoming stronger! We have already gotten requests to start more clubs at additional campuses this Fall!
- Students both during school and after school are now looking forward to learning about God.
- This year alone we have seen 30 students surrender their life to Christ.
- We have expanded our efforts serve schools outside the southside of Chicago.
- The weekly Friday night event (Refuge) with our partners New Beginnings Church and Project H.O.O.D. has continually had 80+ kids in attendance each week.
- We are seeing God answer our prayers of staffing needs. We have over 10 volunteers now (that includes student leaders) at our Refuge events.
As we head into the summer and planning for the next school year is starting we are preparing to launch Campus Clubs inside of 2 new high schools due to the success and referrals from the schools we currently work with. This news is amazing, however please pray because we are understaffed and are currently attempting to figure out how we can find and equip people to help facilitate at the schools each week.
Thank you again for your spiritual and financial support, your prayers and very appreciated. It’s important to keep in mind how much of a light YFC provides for these students. Just last week I got a chilling phone call from a parent whose child was shot. This young man has visited one of our events in the city and even though he survived the bullet, the news is still sad and scary. Along with that, two students a grieving due to gun violence that has affected their family, I'm hoping the loss will not cause them to lose confidence in Christ. The community we serve is very at risk so every contribution we make truly causes a deep impact.
Respectfully,
Pastor James Owolabi
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