A monthly message from YouthPartnersNET President Dean Cowles.
For Him and Them by Dean Cowles
August 2007
A Date for Celebration
7-7-07 -- a date for many celebrations. Couples all over the world waited until 7707 to get married for good luck and some magic. A lot of them traveled to Las Vegas to tie the knot, why not? Even married couples having babies tried to time it so they would deliver on 7707. My wife Cheryl, who is an OB/GYN, was on call that weekend and she said it was crazy.
Well, at YouthPartnersNET we also had something to celebrate that special 7707 Saturday afternoon. It commenced the arrival of our first CityConnexx summer youth teams who spent a week serving in the city with our ministry partners. Your gift this month helped us kick off this new exciting program. Along with a start up grant from Compassion International, we were able to invite these suburban youth groups to connect with our urban ministry partners in the spirit of mutual sharing, caring and learning.
You'll never be the same and you don't even need a passport.
Groups from Nevada, Arizona, and Missouri came during the month of July to share, care, witness, and work in the neglected parts of our city. They played with kids in the park, handed out meals to the homeless, visited door to door in the projects and invited families to a Christian hip-hop concert. They slept, worked, and worshipped at the local urban church. Our local ministry staff organized their week and helped them understand their unique neighborhood. Not only did they contribute thousands of hours of volunteer labor and resources, they changed lives - others and their own.
"The most meaningful thing to me was our giving meals to the homeless late at night. I felt great satisfaction and since it was night I could feel how it was to sleep on the streets."
"What was most meaningful was that the little kids were just happy for you to listen to them even for a few minutes."
"The most meaningful thing that was said and done would be the kids at Sky’s the Limit. How they loved just being held and cared for. It made me really happy that I came."
For more information and pictures, check out www.CityConnexx.org.
We need your help! Please share this "urban mission’s trip" opportunity with your church and youth group. Our goal next summer is to have 1000 teens from across American giving a week or more of their summer to "serve in the city with a heart of compassion" – expanding this program to our national network of ministry partners. In fact, why don't you and your family come along as a chaperone? Have you ever been to the mission field? Well now you can. Join CityConnexx and connect with the urban church to share "Christ across Cultures". You'll never be the same and you don't even need a passport.
One of the highlights for me was to take these groups along with some inner city teens and staff for their first time up Mt. Evans' 14,240 ft. It's the highest road in America. We left Denver at 95 degrees and it was 55 degrees at the top. We got out the guitars and had a mountain high worship time as the orange sun was setting over the "purple mountains majesty". Wish you could have been there. Maybe next year you can. Plan now and let us know so we can reserve your spot!
For Him and Them,
Dean Cowles
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