Why Are They Leaving God?

Sally is getting ready to go to university this September and she is like many others in her class. The time that a teenager graduates from high school and enters college or university is an important step in their lives. Often at this moment they transition from being their parents' child to an adult. And as many students say, "Adulting is hard!!"

Through these transitions so many decisions need to be made:

• Who will be my friends?

• What should I study?

• What will my career be?

• Who can I trust?

• Is my future spouse here?

• How will I shape 'me'?

With so many things out of control these days, Sally will try to find things that she is able to control.  It might be impossible to find a job in her field that she enjoys, buy a house in the city, or find a husband; but she can control what she believes. 

This Renegotiating Faith study shows the impact of this moment in the life of Canadians 18-28 years old who have spent significant time in church. Why are 66% of Canadian young adults leaving the church? How can we help students like Sally from walking away from the faith that she grew up with? 

Power to Change partnered with other Canadian Christian organizations to try to find answers to these questions. The study is extensive, and the executive summary (pages 10-13) is a very helpful overview.  We found this helpful to put words to what we observe on campus everyday. I hope reading this gives you a glimpse into our everyday battle for souls on campus.  Click Here to get the report and more information about the study.

In the end of July, we had the joy of gathering with the Power to Change staff from all 10 ministries plus support staff from across Canada. 
Such a blessing it is to celebrate what God is doing through these staff and the thousands of volunteers around the world! 

Halfway Through CREATE and Transitions Coming Up

The beginning of July marked the half way point of our CREATE mission trip here in Guelph. Some of the highlights from the first half of the trip have been:

• Starting each day together with morning prayer.

• Going camping together (pictured beside).

• Doing a one day spiritual retreat together.

• Watching the students grow in their skills as they work with our creative communications teams.

The evangelism component of our mission trip has been testing different ad campaigns on facebook and instagram using articles that speak to the felt needs of students (This is a campaign we did on anxiety). At the end of each article students are given the opportunity to connect with an online mentor. I've been chatting with a girl, Vikie, who responded to an article we advertised on loneliness. I'm still trying to discern where she's at spiritually and how to help her in her journey to Jesus.

In August we plan to repeat some of our most successful strategies. We're praying that right before the beginning of a new school year would be a strategic time to connect with students online. Also, we hope that some of these students would eventually get connected face to face with our campus ministries. 

During our "work time" on the mission trip I've continued to create small group workbooks with my team. Last week we got to do a tour at our printing company (Ampersand) in Guelph. We got to see our workbooks in production! Below are some pictures from our tour.

Transition Ahead:

I've always said that one of my favourite things about my job is getting to lead mission trips. Back in April I was asked if I would consider joining our Global Missions team as the new global missions manager. Mid May I accepted this position and I'll start on September 5th. In this new role I will be helping to lead the global missions team which overseas all of our summer mission trips and international partnerships.

This is a new role for the global missions team and it's a different focus from the small group resource development I'm doing now. I'm looking forward to this new leadership challenge but I'm also sad to leave my current team especially as we just hit the half way point of all the workbooks we set out to create. Pray for me as I wrap up one role and prepare for something new. There's lots to do!

Summer Update

Dear Friends and Family,

What a year! It’s hard to believe the school year has come to an end. I have exciting things to share about what Jesus is doing in my life!

For the past year and a half, I have been working through the credentialing process at YFC. This includes week long training events, offsite scouting, a Bible and Theology paper, a Philosophy of Ministry paper and the final credentialing interview. It has been an incredible time of learning and growing. As of June 4th, I am officially credentialed!

As a year-end trip, we took youth from our Campus Life program, the Impact Leadership program and some youth who attend our drop-in centre to Wonderland. We had a blast! More than that, two of the drop-in youth opened up about really difficult things they’ve experienced. Sometimes their brokenness is really hard for me to understand but regardless, God is moving. It is clear He is calling their hearts to His. Please pray for transformation in these kids’ lives.

For the summer I will be serving at Conestoga Bible Camp on the pastoral team for the second year. I absolutely love watching the counselors serve, learn and grow as they desire to know Jesus more and more.

I really believe I am living in God’s sweet spot as I serve in Listowel. Time and time again He has revealed Himself in mighty ways and I am humbled every time. I am thrilled to announce I will be joining Youth for Christ/Youth Unlimited in the fall as salaried staff. Up until this point I have been working as an intern with year-long contracts. This is a big step!  I cannot wait to see what God has in store as I continue to build into the youth of Listowel.

As I step in faith into a more permanent position, it requires a larger financial need. With the transition of coming onto salaried staff, I need additional monthly support. My salary solely depends on the generosity of an incredible team of people.

If you haven’t already, will you join me in making Jesus’ name known in Listowel by joining my support team? You can do this by filling out the enclosed response form.

This ministry is not possible without you. Thank you for your prayer and support!

All for His Glory,
Jenn Brubacher

Prison Ministry Kingston June Newsletter

Last week I was having a one on one visit with Jeff* who had attended the Love and Respect program Susan and I facilitated in May.  His interest in spiritual things grew as he participated in this course based on Ephesians 5:33.  Following the completion of the program he requested one-on-one visits with me and shared his personal life story filled with struggles, hurts and losses.  

The Bible was not new to him; however the gospel was never made clear.  In talking with him I utilized the ``Bridge to Life`` diagram and we read together the verses on sin, sin's penalty, human inadequacy, the death of Christ, and how to receive Christ as Saviour.

Before I was able to share the verses on the assurance of our salvation Jeff asked if he could pray and receive Jesus as his Saviour.  (John 1:12)  
What a thrill to hear him confess his sins and ask Jesus Christ to come into his life. 

It was a privilege to embrace my new brother in Christ. I almost forgot to share the verses on assurance!  The following Monday evening Susan and I were into the same institution doing a program in the chapel and Jeff came over to tell Susan of his salvation and this new beginning of spiritual life in Christ. 

Pray for Jeff*: growth as a new Christian, assurance of his salvation and the possibility of him getting permission to attend our church. 

For Steve’s* salvation and an understanding of his need of forgiveness for his sin; he continues to physically deteriorate due to cancer…

For Larry*: he made a profession of faith just before Easter and was joyful in his salvation.  We haven’t seen him for a couple of weeks and we just learned that his fiancée has told him to have nothing to do with chapel services or the Bible.  This is difficult.  We pray his love for the Lord Jesus will be greater and that his fiancée will have a change of heart. * real names not used

“We minister to those in prison - places of physical confinement. True freedom can be realized, however, as men cry out to the Lord and are released to know him as their personal Saviour and be adopted into God’s family.  Then even from their physical prison they can praise His name!”

This month of June marks 33 years since we began serving the Lord fulltime.  He has always been faithful and present through all of the changes, the joys, and the difficulties of our lives.  We can only praise Him and give Him glory.
As we move forward adjusting to a more independent format in our prison ministry, we are thankful again for His promises, encouragement, protection and His direction through all of the adjustments.  Thank you for your prayers, your emails and the phone calls we have received as we have transitioned.  The Lord has used you to encourage us.
 
There is darkness inside prison walls but God still pours out His marvelous and infinite grace to those who turn their repentant hearts to him seeking forgiveness.  It is our prayer that we would faithfully present this message at every opportunity.

Blessings,

Robert and Susan

Denmark: An EYE OPENING Experience

During our time in Denmark, God led us to talk to many people on the 6 campuses our campus teams visited. It was eye-opening to see that the Danish spiritual climate is very similar to our experience ministering in Quebec; with a tougher spiritual soil, historically strong church influence, but only few true followers of Jesus. Although people intellectually believe that they are 'better' than Christianity and don't need it, a number of them are curious about how Jesus can change their life. An example of this was talking to a student named Kenneth.

Kenneth is a PhD student studying climate change. As an atheist with mostly atheistic friends, he was interested to hear a different worldview. Trevor and his teammate John talked with Kenneth about evidence for the existence of God and relative vs. absolute truth among other topics and shared ideas. Kenneth seemed compelled by some of the arguments we were making and when we challenged him on his belief in relative truth and compared it to whether climate change is real or not, he conceded that we had made a good point. Soon, he did ask about how Jesus makes a difference in our day-to-day life and we were able to share about the purpose and supernatural resources we have through Christ.

One thing that helped us to minister was learning from a local missionary how Denmark is very paradoxical:

• Has an official state church which many people are technically in, but is a very secular culture
• Denmark is one of the “Happiest” countries, but also has the highest rates of depression
• It's a more reserved society, but also has a massive partying culture
• Historically Vikings, but now very socialist
• Generally taboo to talk about spiritual things, but we found great openness to the gospel

On the last day, we spent some time looking back on the doors that God had opened and the conversations that we had with people like Kenneth. You can see from the picture below that we wrote the names of the people we talked to on 100 Danish flags (and ran out of flags) and prayed for them. You might not know most of them by name, but would you continue to pray with us that these students would discover Jesus and walk as His disciples?

Here is picture of our team with our resident Viking, Alex, who helped us understand what Jesus is doing in Denmark

 It was such a joy and encouragement to partner alongside Danish Christian students. Please pray for them as they continue to persevere as light in a dark place. 

Thank you for praying for our mission trip in Denmark. We know that God has used it to change lives of not only the Danes, but also Canadians. As the Canadian students finished off the trip we asked them what were some of the highlights they had, here are some of their answers: 

• "Meeting Danish Christians and seeing them persevere in their faith"
• "Becoming friends with Benjamin who became interested in knowing more about Jesus"
• "Seeing the two agnostic German girls excited about the worship night"
• "I loved living in community and being on mission together"
• "I came in knowing no one but am leaving with lots of deep friendships"

AMELIA UPDATE

Amelia did so well during the rest of the trip. She enjoyed all the big brothers and sisters she had. She is growing so quickly. Her favourite things now are to bring us her shoes when she wants to go out to play, wearing her sunglasses like mommy, helping unload the dishwasher, and sitting on little chairs or ledges.  It was a step of faith to bring her on a mission trip but we are so glad that we did. 

Trevor & Hannah