Pray for Our Youth Ministry this Summer

Pray for Our Youth Ministry this Summer

Teens can be tempted to want full separation from adults and “big church.” And adults can be tempted to view teens as a necessary evil in the church. Youth groups then slowly drift into isolation and are sometimes viewed as a “church” within a church. We constantly need to fight against that current by continuing to teach, remind, and show the teens that they are part of New Covenant Bible Church. An excellent way for New Covenant to build this kind of unity is by knowing and praying for the youth ministry. As you read about two of the main summer events in the youth ministry this year, I hope that your love for the next generation and your prayers for the next generation will increase.

Mission trip to Honduras - June 16th-25th
We are taking 17 teens and 6 adults on a mission trip to Honduras to serve with Matthew and Jennifer Allen. Each member of our team has been preparing for this trip for months. The Global Outreach team interviewed each teen that was interested in going to Honduras to make sure that he or she was ready for a foreign mission trip. The interviews were also a great opportunity for the GO team to give the teens input into how to prepare spiritually for our trip.
In January, our youth group watched four DVD’s about mission for a short Sunday school series. The series is called Dispatches from the Front, and each of the DVD’s have compelling stories about how the gospel is going forward into unreached people groups. Watching the series was helpful preparation for us as we began to think about missions. Each of the teens going to Honduras is also reading a 31-day devotional book called Gospel Meditations for Missions. This is an excellent little gospel-centered devotional book that is preparing our hearts for the trip.
During our ten days in Honduras, we plan to spend some time at all four of the churches that the Allens serve. At each church, the youth will help lead an evangelistic event for children. We will be helping with teaching, crafts, and games. We will also be able to assist in some work projects during the week. Matthew has asked us to build some benches to provide seating for one of the churches, and we will probably also do some plumbing and other projects to help the facilities.
We are still raising funds for the trip. If you desire to help financially, you may give in the offering and write “Honduras Trip” on your offering envelope or check memo line. We are very excited to see how God is going to use this trip in our individual lives, in our youth group, and in our church.

Our purposes and prayers for this trip:
To provide encouragement and support to our missionaries, the Allens
To see their ministry and better pray for them
To help the Allens spread the gospel through the children evangelism times
To open our eyes to the greatness of God and to see what He is doing globally
To awaken in us and increase our passion for global missions
To be an encouragement to New Covenant Bible Church as we return changed

Local Mission Trip – July 17th-20th
Along with our mission trip to Honduras, we are planning a local mission trip right here in our community. We reserved our Honduras trip for some of the older teens, but this opportunity is available to the whole youth group. Our core project for the week will be a 4-day summer camp that we will be helping to run with Luke Preussler. We hope this camp will be a good gospel outreach for children in Kindergarten through 4th grade. We will be hosting the camp at Lord’s Park in Elgin and primarily hoping to reach children in the neighborhoods where Luke ministers.
During the week we also plan to do some other activities to further open our eyes to the spiritual and physical needs here in our own community. One of the days, we will help package food for Feed My Starving Children. We also plan to visit and learn about some of the false religions to help remind us that there are religious people all around us that do not follow Jesus. We also hope to visit Iglesia Elohim in Elgin for a Thursday evening service. This is a Hispanic church that partners with Luke Preussler and loves the gospel. It is a beautiful experience to see a unity in Christ that overpowers language barriers.
We are going to house the teen girls at the mission house and the guys in the church building. This will give us some extra time to spend together in devotional times and some fun activities. Our four days will be very full with lots of variety, but we think it will be a great time of serving, learning, and growing for our youth group.

Our purposes and prayers for this trip:
To strengthen our relationship with our local missionary, Luke Preussler
To grow in our passion for Jesus Christ and the gospel
To grow in our passion for spreading the gospel to the lost here locally

Praying with you for the next generation,
Dan Leeper