Every month, our Advance Youth meet across the country. From the North East to South Wales, young people come together to pray, worship, grow in their evangelism and step out on mission. We caught up with Henry, one of our Advance Youth leaders, to hear about how God’s been moving.
‘We recently challenged the young people to take what they’d been learning about mission and put it into practice, sharing Jesus with people they met on the streets.
‘It was Dylan’s* first time getting involved in street evangelism and despite the nerves, he didn’t let anything hold him back. We went prayer walking together asking God who we should speak to next. As we did this, we saw a man, Jake, sitting on the grass and got chatting to him. We asked if he’d like prayer for anything and he opened up saying that he used to have a faith but had gone through really difficult things in life and since walked away. But he was open to prayer, so we prayed for him and as the conversation ended, we walked away.
‘After a few moments, Dylan tapped me on the shoulder and said, ‘I need to go back and share the gospel with Jake!’ And I just watched as this lad went back to Jake and boldly told him about Jesus using the4points. I was so amazed at how bold Dylan was even though he’d never done this before.
‘And this was just the start for Dylan. Later that afternoon, we were chatting to a homeless guy called Mike. He told us that he wanted prayer for food and shelter so I began praying for him when Dylan said ‘Wait! I’ve got something.’
‘He opened his bag, rummaged around and pulled out his packed lunch. ‘You can have this!’, Dylan said as he offered all his snacks for the day to Mike. From this moment of generosity, Dylan and I got an opportunity to share the gospel with this man and remind him how loved and valued his is by God, despite the hardship he’s currently facing.
‘I absolutely love seeing young people step out of their comfort zones for Jesus and seeing God use them to speak his life and love into people. Another young person I saw this happen with that day was Lily*.
‘Although it wasn’t Lily’s first time sharing about Jesus with people, she was still nervous. Asking Jesus for boldness, she plucked up courage to approach three young people at McDonald’s. Handing them a bag full of goodies that the church had made to bless the community, she asked them if she could share the gospel with them.
‘One of the them agreed and listened as Lily described how God loves us so much that he sent Jesus to die in our place; the greatest act of love the world has ever seen. The lad started crying as his mates around him laughed. Seeing he was becoming embarrassed, Lily gave him some resources and said she would be praying for him.
‘She came back to the rest of the Advance Youth group, and said how amazing it was to see the Holy Spirit working and stirring something in the boy’s heart.’
‘As the team continued walking around the city centre, they noticed a Muslim man boldly praying. Dylan said to the group, ‘If he is bold enough to publicly share his faith, then why wouldn’t we?’ So, the group split off and Dylan went straight up to this man and asked if he could share the love of God with him. Dylan went on to tell him how we can have a living, active relationship with God, filled with love and joy. This really impacted the man who said he would go away and think about all Dylan had said. How amazing!
‘Later that week at youth group, I saw Dylan and he was beaming with joy from his experience of Advance Youth and from all the faith-filled conversations he’d had. And when I got chatting to him, he said ‘I now know I can be confident in who God says I am!’’
Find out more about Advance Youth and get your young people involved at message.org.uk/advanceyouth
