Day 6 in England: Mentorship

Today we gave a motivational lesson at Oswaldtwistle House on failing harder. We told them to reframe their view of failure so that it isn't negative but positive because it brings us one step closer to success by showing us what way doesn't work. We also spoke at Accrington Academy about choices. Our goal was to get them to think about consequences and how their choices affect their futures. 

      In the evening we held a youth outreach at Hope Church. There were about 25 youth that came. We played sports with them, hung out, and talked before service. The topic of our service was "If you really knew me". Members of our team and hope church shared their testimonies. We wanted the students to have a time to be vulnerable and share the things that have been weighing on their hearts and hurting them. It was the first time that many of them had ever told anyone about what they were going through. We started with our testimonies because we wanted them to see that although we look put together now, we had experiences that crushed us, but God moved in our lives. We saw a handful of students get saved. Many others were moved by the stories they heard.

           (The youth at the outreach)

(The lovely ladies I got to meet at the outreach)

       As we prayed over the night I kept getting excited because Hope Church has many loving and strong families. So many students have broken and dysfunctional families. They are told they don't matter and are a nuisance. That is the opposite vibe people get at Hope. There are great people here who are ready to love, lift up, and carry others through. They are willing to share life and take people in. 

      I know these students' lives are going to change because they'll have people to pour into and guide them. They will have people to show them the positive examples they never had. That gets me excited because it means that these students will break the negative cycles they've been stuck in for so long. 

     I have hope for these students because the people at Hope truly live out the call in Titus 2 about teaching the older men and women so that they can pass the teaching on to the younger generation. Verses 2-7 (NIV) say, "Teach the older men to be temperate, worthy of respect, self-controlled, and sound in faith, in love, and in endurance. Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. Then they can train the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God. Similarly, encourage the young men to be self-controlled. In everything set them an example by doing what is good."

      It has been beautiful and encouraging watching the older generation teach the younger generation what they know and spur them on in their walk. That isn't always a reality in churches. It is so powerful when it is though. Don't wait for a program to begin mentoring or raising up the young Christians (or non-Christians) in your life. Just come alongside them and let them see you do life. Be there to encourage them and give them tips on how to live in obedience to the Lord. Our countries and our schools aren't doing it, so we need to accept the responsibility of raising up the next generation of Christians. 

Pray that God will continue to raise people up to pour into the younger generation and that He will show you how to do that in your own life.