Leaders prayed in teams for their adolescent friends during the first leader meeting of the year Sunday night. This is the Fayetteville Wyldlife team.
Friends,
It's finally arrived! School has started; leaders are back in town; and new relationships are forming--relationships that lead to changed lives when leaders go into the world of adolescents as "Jesus with skin on" for their friends.
That means, of course, following Jesus and doing what He did: "The Son of Man has come to seek and save the lost." (Luke 19:10) It's taking the initiative to go to where the lost are and share truth with them by our lives and our listening and caring and words.
But what can be missed is that kids far from Jesus are not simply lost, as in "cannot find their way." As I shared with our leaders last night, the original Greek word for lost in this verse is apollymi. It means "destroyed." People aren't just frustrated because they are lost; they are devestated because they have been destroyed. Jesus also used this same word in John 10:10: The thief has come to steal, kill and destroy. I have come that they may have life and have it to the full.
And so we prayed. We prayed because there is NOTHING more important than joining Jesus in his rescue mission to overthrow sin and evil and bring his children home. And apart from him, we can do nothing. (John 15:5)
Friends, we ask you to pray with us! So that kids like Luke, Shay, Myriah, and Alex can be rescued from destruction. Pray for YLCollege Party Week, that we would connect with as many freshmen as possible and offer a safe community to process spiritual truth. Many of these students will become YL leaders!
We are deeply grateful for you!
