Campus Life is an organization founded by the Youth For Christ organization. Youth For Christ is focused on evangelism to teens and to continued character development based on the word of God.

In Tennessee, there are several counties with Campus Life groups. In neighboring Smith County, they have a group meeting every Monday night and are averaging between 35-50 kids. These are mostly kids who would never set foot in a church, but they will come for the games and free food to Campus Life. Last week, they had a first time attendee give their life to Jesus Christ.

Why was I there if it wasn't even in my county? I have been talking off and on for about 3 1/2 years to Barbara Kanappel, the director in Smith Co., about possibly starting a group here in Wilson Co. Holly & I went last week just to observe what they do and how they do things. It was amazing! It was chaos! But, because of the love that they director and volunteers show the kids, great things are happening.

So, with that said, I have two prayer needs today. First of all, Miss Barbara asked me to LEAD the Campus Life meeting in Smith County tonight. She has to be away, and she really wanted me to experience it first hand. So, I am jumping in with both feet! I've never lead a group of kids this large before, so I am going to need prayer!

Second, pray with me that if God wants Campus Life in Wilson Co., my home county, that I will overcome my fear and things will just start to happen. I need a good location with little to no rent at first. It would be great if kids lived close enough to be able to walk to the meetings. Also, I would need a great volunteer staff. I also would need help with my organizational skills--I don't have any!

So, please pray for my wife and I today. Thanks!

I will pray for you. I hope it all works out.

I would also like to recommend that you take the following with you as a "treat" for the kiddies.....

Holly and you are in my prayers today.
In God your fear will be gone.
My prayer for this is the guiding and be filled with His Holy Spirit.
With God's strength we can do things we never think they are possible to do.

I'm interested to know how it went today.

I'll give a report tomorrow after the meeting tonight which starts at 6:56 PM.

Praying for you on both accounts. I am certain the Lord will be with you tonight.

Praying for you here, too

Fundy

How cool it would be to have a Campus Life in My county lol, I really hope and pray that everything will work out for you if it be God's will for you to do this.

Last night went very well! I started the kids off playing with a couple of inflatable balls I have called Question Balls. They just pitch them around the room and then you yell STOP!!!! Whoever catched the ball or touched it last will take the ball and answer one of the questions on the ball--located under their thumbs only! Some of the questions are pretty silly--but some are extremely personal.

We then went into the class time" Think average youth group meeting, but shorter and more personal. They watched some clips from the movie "Freedom Writers". In the clips, the teacher gets these kids from the 'hood to write in journals about their lives. They aren't graded on quality of writing--just whether they did the work. The kids are dying inside for someone to care about them and hear their pains.

We then took that video and asked a few questions about what the kids noticed. They noticed that everyone has a story and everyone needs someone to hear them. We then took the Scriptures, briefly gave the story of blind Bartimaeus, and showed that he just needed Jesus to hear his cries. Jesus stops in the crowd and calls out to Bart (as we called him). Jesus wants to hear us and even seeks us out to hear our hearts' cry.

What is cool about this Campus Life group is that most of these kids will not step foot into a regular church. They've not been raised in it, and could care less about the judgemental atmosphere of the church. But, these rural kids are just looking for something to do and will come for the games (which get VERY physical--3 injuries last night) and the food. Since the message is short and personalized, the kids are slowly accepting Christ. During our talk, I had several kids who had tears in their eyes when we told them that Jesus wants to hear their hearts and walk with them through their daily lives. I really don't think that many of these teens have ever really heard this message much before. It struck home.

Now, I have to decide if I need to start this here in my county. Most of it is rural, and we have a lot of kids just like Smith County--they just don't care about church. But, they have time to kill and are seeking anything to make their lives have meaning. I just need to get over my fear of failure and really seek the Lord's will for this.

Quote:

How cool it would be to have a Campus Life in My county lol, I really hope and pray that everything will work out for you if it be God's will for you to do this.

Tim, if we start this up, I am looking at starting it right here in Watertown so we can pull kids from here, Statesville, Norene, and Alexandria. I know that we could build a bigger group in Lebanon or Mt. Juliet, but I feel that there is a greater need here hiding right under all the many steeples in Watertown. There are many churches, but there are many kids who never step foot in them, too.

It sounds Campus Life is a blessing for kids who never go to church.
On this way they can hear about Jesus.
I think Campus Life is a blessing for those kids.

My prayers are if God will show you His will for a Campus Life in your region.
It will be a blessing for a lot of kids who never go to church and via campus Life hear who Jesus is.

Very cool, sounds like we need to keep Campus Life in our prayers.

You know if everything works out right, I could help be a leader and stuff, it would probably get their attention more if they new other teens we involved in everything.

To have a successful group, you need both adult and teen leaders. I am not yet sure of the qualifications for either.

Ok

No -- means God has a better plan for you.
Wait -- means God has an other time for you.
Yes -- means it's God's time to be a part of Campus Life.

God never will guide to to things who are causing you fear of failure.
What the eldestin my church taught me is this:
You always can ask God to confirm the things who are brought on your path now.
God is not a quiet God, but a speaking God who always wants the best for His children.

This sounds really awesome, we have some high school groups and university groups very similar around here that have seen many people turn their lives over to Christ.

praying that things will continue going well for all of the campus life groups!

I just got off the phone with Barbara, the Smith Co. Campus Life director. She got nothing but good reports about my wife and I from Monday night's meeting from both the volunteers and kids. She wants to meet me for lunch one day next week to meet with Ken , the regional director, about really stepping up the possibility of starting a Wilson Co. group. I'm just going to keep praying and see what happens.

I am joining with you in prayer brother also. We really need something like this in our county.

I never expected to hear about a bad report.
When you do have the lunch appointment with Barbara?
I will support in this to pray.