Thank you so much for your prayers recently as I travelled to Voorthuizen, Holland for a gathering of 70 youth workers from across Europe. It was a beautiful thing to see all of the people that God called to be part of this gathering, and to hear the vision and dreams they have for reaching not just their country but even all of Europe and the world. One of the best things was that God brought people from not only a variety of countries, but also a variety of ministries and stages of life. There were couples there who had years and years of youth ministry experience and then we even had a couple teenagers who were fully engaged with reaching out to their peers. Probably the largest block of people represented were college-age students who were volunteers or interns with Agape (Campus Crusade for Christ in Europe). Germany, Spain, Portugal, and Estonia each brought college-age volunteers. This was so encouraging to see!
My main purpose in going was to share about our work with the Coaching Center and what we are doing to launch campus-based ministries from a distance. I have not done a lot of speaking reccently so it was a challenge to think about how best to communicate what God is doing here, and yet put it in a context that could be applicable in Europe. I'm sure God used it to give people some ideas, but the highlight for me was getting to sit down over meals or take walks with a number of the people I met. It was fascinating to learn what different ministries and staff are doing to reach youth in their countries and to brainstorm ways that we could encourage and help each other. There are some tremendous challenges to reaching young people across Europe, but nothing that the Spirit of God cannot overcome. To that end I also sensed a great desire to come together and pray for each other personally and our ministries.
What's next? One of the strong impressions I came away with was how many young college-age people God was raising up to help influence the youth in the countries represented. One of the contributions I think I can make is to serve as a mentor/coach/resource for some of the young men who I met. Not long ago this would not have been possible with me living in Orlando, but with great tools like Skype it makes communication much easier and extremely inexpensive. It's not quite the same as living there but God can certainly use it, so we will see what happens in the coming weeks and months.
One guy you can be praying for right now is Christian Tiedeke from Frieburg, Germany. He is an intern with Campus Crusade in Germany and working with the Frieburg team to reach college students and high school students for Christ. The staff team there does not have much experience with doing high school ministry nor does it have any male leadership to help mentor guys like Christian, so he and I are going to talk periodically on Skype. Pray that I can be a help and encouragement to him when we talk, and that the Lord would give Him wisdom and creative ideas for connecting with young German guys who need to know Christ.
Below is a short slideshow from the retreat. You can click on it for a larger view.
Thanks for your prayers and giving that allowed me to take part in this event that is going to influence an entire continent of young people for Christ!
Scott
p.s. - feel free to share a comment or prayer request below!!
