Youth West Tour Update

Hi family and friends! I hope you are all having a great spring and I want to thank you for your continued support and prayers as I continue to work with Circuit Riders to reach students in high schools with the gospel!

From mid-January to mid-March, I was on a two month tour through the west of America with Circuit Rider Youth. We had a team of 10 people, including me and two co-leaders, and seven students from the fall Circuit Riders discipleship training school. We visited around 30 high schools, doing after-school evangelism, visiting their student-run Jesus clubs, and doing youth rally events with many of them on their public school campuses. Along with this, we visited many youth groups and helped out with some community outreaches. Our weekly schedule would look like going to the clubs during or after the school day and sharing the gospel and student testimonies, doing after-school evangelism on high school campuses, and then at night hosting youth rally events at the high schools. The youth rallies at the schools consisted of worship, a message on Matthew 5: Salt and Light, and then time to pray for the students. 

Leading this tour was definitely so stretching and pushed me out of my comfort zone each and every day, whether it was from leading a whole team, to meeting and praying for strangers, and speaking in front of hundreds of students. Even though it was so stretching, it gave me so so much life and joy each day, and the Lord equipped me for every situation. I’ve realized that on these tours, devoting each and every day to the Lord is definitely the most alive I feel, and I love it so so much! It is such an honor to get to see the Lord move firsthand in students’ lives and schools as a whole. While schools tend to be described right now as places marked by anxiety and depression and a lack of hope, I have so much faith and already see the Lord turning this around. I have faith that schools will be defined as places filled with hope and life, and joy!

Testimonies:

One of my favorite testimonies from the tour is from a school in Washington called Stanwood high. We attended the Jesus club at their school during the day, and shared the gospel and a testimony from one of the students on my tour team. During the club we met many of the students who helped to run the club, two of whom were girls who were close friends with the main student host. We then had an event with their school that night. During this event after the message, we had time to pray for the students. One of my co-leaders went to pray for one of the girls who helped to run the club. She learned that this girl helped to run the club, but did not actually follow or believe in Jesus. By the end of the conversation, she gave her life to the Lord!! It was such a special and joyful moment for her and her friends, who had been praying for her for years!

Another one of my favorite days from the tour was when we were in Walla Walla, Washington. We got to go to a community outreach across from a local high school. In this outreach, every week, a team from a local church makes burgers and hosts a bible study for students from the high school across the street. Probably around 200 kids come to the community center/church each week. So we got to spend a few hours helping around and talking to the students who came. Some of my team saw multiple people give their lives to the Lord, and we got to pray for multiple people. It was also so incredibly encouraging to see these families and team who take time out of every week to serve these students, form connections with them, and encourage them. It was the sweetest time and just such an encouraging example of serving and investing in your community around you.

Another one of my favorite moments from tour was when me and two students from my team went to the Jesus club at Rogers High School in Tacoma, Washington. We went to their club at lunch and I spoke on the prodigal son from Luke 15, encouraging students that no matter if they feel far from God or stuck in things in their life, they are never too damaged or far for the Lord’s redemption and saving power. I spoke on this and the gospel. After the first club, the students informed us that they had a second lunch with a second Jesus club. I was not aware of this, so last minute we were able to go to their second club which had probably 50 students all in one little classroom. Before the club began, I was going around talking to students and met one girl who told me she had recently transferred from another school. I asked her and found out that she had just moved and transferred from Liberty High School, which was my high school! I spoke the same message for this club meeting, and at the end of sharing the gospel, I gave an opportunity for people to give their lives to the Lord. The girl I had met ended up being one of the students who gave her life to the Lord! It was so sweet to see someone from my home high school give their life to the Lord.

These are just a few testimonies from our tour among so many more! I just want to thank you all again, because without your prayer and support, I would not have been able to go on this tour! You are all partnering in a bigger move of God within high schools and universities!

Tour Stats

From all of Circuit Riders’ outreaches from January to March of this year (America, Europe, South Africa, Kenya):

Total Gathered: 47,538

Total # Salvations/Rededications: 6,941

Total # Healings: 276

Total # Baptisms: 57

From My Youth West Outreach:

Total Gathered: 2,111

Total # Salvations/Rededications: 324

Total # Healings: 4

I Moved To Huntington Beach!

Hi friends and family! It has officially been about 3 weeks since I moved to Huntington Beach, and two weeks since I started my full-time position with Circuit Riders. I want to thank all of you who have gotten me here with your continual prayers and support. I appreciate you all so much and am so excited to share with you the ways the Lord has already been moving since I arrived here!

Since being here, I have been able to get back in the swing of things by going to our local Monday night gatherings, and prayer rooms on Thursday, and the Lord has been moving!! Just this last Monday night, over 30 people gave their lives to the Lord and our team was able to pray with each one of them to encourage them. I also have gotten to return to my local church here in Huntington Beach, and plan to get involved by serving there!

In addition, I am also living with three of my friends in an apartment. Before moving in, we collectively decided that we wanted our apartment to be a place that fostered hospitality and community! So far we have had the privilege to host so many people at our home! We have also been able to provide hosuing for people visiting from all over the country! It has been such a joyful part of living here!

I am also so thrilled to share with you all that I am working as a tour leader on the Circuit Riders Youth West Team. This means for the next 3 months I will be working with two other staff members to plan an outreach to different high schools in the West. We will be planning to go to high schools with Jesus Clubs in the states of; Washington (This means I will be stopping by home for a bit!!!), Oregon, Northern California, Idaho, Montana, and Colorado. As a youth team, we partner with Jesus Clubs which are student-run after-school clubs in high schools. We work with these clubs to help catalyze their leaders into action and leadership with evangelism training, helping them in their Jesus clubs wherever they are in need, and hosting youth rallies for students around their area. We do this because so many high school students are on fire for the Lord but do not know what to do with this passion practically. Thus, we are working to equip these students with practical outlets to live out this passion and the great commission as leaders in their schools. Already with the students we have been in contact with, we have seen some Jesus clubs gathering hundreds of students on a weekly basis!

In the planning process of building a tour, I will be calling students who run Jesus Clubs at their school in addition to finding transportation and housing for our team. In January, around 7-10 students from the Circuit Riders training school will join my team for the two-month tour.

As I have been praying about this current assignment the Lord has placed in my path, I have felt such joy about getting to connect and reach the high schoolers of our nation. In seeking a clearer vision of the importance behind what it is that I am doing, this is what I felt the Lord lead me to be expectant for in the next few months:

I am expectant to see the restorative work of God in students' lives and within schools as a whole. I want to see the Lord open up students' eyes to see their true identity in Christ. My dream would be that students would know that they don't have to be chasing after the world and their peers to find their value, but that they have a father who has created them with an identity and value that no one and nothing can diminish or steal from them; That students would know the hope that no matter where they are at in life, no matter what they have done, they have a father and creator who is joyfully and expectantly waiting to welcome them home in a big embrace full of joy and unfailing love.