NORTHERN INDIANA NORTHEAST INDIANA ǀ FALL 2017 SAVE THE DATE Dekalb Rally Tuesday, Oct. 17 LaGrange Rally Thursday, Nov. 2 Noble Rally Tuesday, Nov. 7 Steuben Rally Thursday, Nov. 2 Kristian Jarrett East Noble Campus Life Director OUR MISSION YFC reaches young people everywhere, working together with the local church and other likeminded partners to raise up lifelong followers of Jesus who lead by their godliness in lifestyle, devotion to the Word of God and prayer, passion for sharing the love of Christ, and commitment to social involvement. Born again in Christ G od’s timing can be tough to wrap our minds around. Sometimes we see Him move quickly with clear results. Other times it’s small nudges over a period of time. This is true of a young man I’ve had the opportunity to get to know over the past few months, who made a decision to get baptized at camp a few weeks ago. I first met “Peter” a few months ago. He was new to East Noble, and a friend invited him to come on our spring break trip. On the trip, Peter made some important decisions in regards to his relationship with God. I saw a change in Peter. He was all in. As soon as he heard about camp, he wanted to go and was one of the first to sign up. Fast forward to camp. Peter opens up more about some of the pain he has experienced in life and how he wants to grow closer to God and make him a bigger part of his life. God had been slowly nudging Peter for a long time, and I could see that he was beginning to feel the weight of that. On the last day, after a lot of thought, Peter asked me to baptize him. A few hours later, he was in a pool on the Chesapeake Bay surrounded by friends and leaders who loved him and were excited for him. He confessed Jesus as his Lord and Saviour and was born again. God’s timing for Peter was beautiful and a testament to his faithfulness.
Mike Stetzel Chief Development Officer Ministry Update O ver the last few years we have been so blessed to be able to expand our ministry into nine additional schools. It has been an incredible time of growth, and we are now serving more than a thousand new young people through Campus Life and City Life programs. With all these new school sites, we have also added a large number of new staff and volunteers. We are so thankful for the progress that has been made, and we look forward to continuing to grow the number of kids we can impact. A key next step for us is to make sure we can properly support the much larger structure we now have at Youth For Christ. We must ensure that our staff and volunteers are properly trained, have the assistance they need to do their jobs well, and are held to high ministry standards. For those reasons, I am incredibly excited to announce that Kristian Jarrett will be our new Ministry Coordinator in the Northeast Indiana area. He has been the Campus Life Director at East Noble High School for the last 3 years and has done an amazing job building Campus Life. We are thrilled he is taking on this additional responsibility, and I know that he will help us have an even bigger impact. Thank you all for your support. We would not have been able to grow and serve so many more teenagers over the last few years without all of your support and prayers! PRAYER REQUESTS AND PRAISES • Praise for the many students that said “YES” to Jesus at YFC camps this summer. • Prayer for those still searching for the hope found in Jesus. • Prayer for our staff as we prepare for the upcoming school year! • Prayer that staff positions are filled so we can reach more students with the Gospel message! FOLLOW US! @YFCnIN @YFCNIN @yfcnin
NORTHERN INDIANA Thank you Larry Lance for over 40 years at YFC! “I’m so fortunate because I get to sit on the front row seat every week and hear miracle stories of lives being changed,” Larry Lance, CEO, says. “Who wouldn’t want that job?” It’s one of the reasons Larry fell in love with Youth for Christ, and why he has dedicated 40 years of his life to this organization. Larry first took his seat in the front row of those miracle stories in 1976, when he started with YFC as a part-time Campus Life director at Huntington North and Homestead High Schools. Moving through a variety of roles, Larry became the executive director in the early 80’s. Under his leadership we expanded our reach by growing Campus Life programs, starting the Family Care Center (which provided family counseling) and the Primetime Center, which is now called City Life. Former Primetime Director, and current senior pastor at New Covenant Worship Center, Luther Whitfield, believes YFC is strengthened as a whole by Larry’s ability to lead, build relationships, and invest into people. “Larry loves building and speaking into the lives of people and coming alongside them,” Whitfield says. “He wants to see people advance for the cause of Christ.” That desire to see others advance led Larry to the YFC national office where he served as the vice president of field development for seven years, helping grow and develop chapters across the country. Returning to Fort Wayne in 2010, Larry is now spearheading the movement and mission of YFCNIN as our CEO. Through his leadership, we have successfully expanded from our original four county reach to now encompassing 12 counties. “We started out as little Fort Wayne Area Youth for Christ,” Judge Wendy Davis, Allen Superior Court judge and YFCNIN board member of over 10 years, says, “and now we are Youth for Christ of Northern Indiana, and that was under Larry’s leadership.” Larry’s steadfast leadership and dedication through the years is recognized by both his staff and members of the community. “Simply put, Larry is one of the best leaders in this community, and we are all lucky to have him in our lives,” says Bill Kinder, vice president of Michael Kinder and Sons, Inc. and YFCNIN board member. Throughout his 40 years with YFC, we have grown and changed as the times have changed, but his dedication to the mission has never wavered – to raise up lifelong followers of Jesus Christ.
Chief Ministry Director Roger Vezeau A summer of revival S ummer! Like Olaf in Disney’s animated film Frozen we all seem to like the idea of summer. We dream of a more relaxed schedule, reading more, exercising more and the list grows. In the YFC world, we look forward to summer primarily for one thing…a change of rhythm. This change of rhythm does wonders for our team in a number of ways: more family time, vacations, renewing our spirits and recharging the batteries just to name a few. But it also opens up great opportunities to more intense and deeper relational ministry through our camps and the trips we do with teens. As you read this, our staff are winding down their summer schedules and gearing up for another great ministry year. We are praising God for the amazing way He worked in teen’s lives this summer. We know that from camp alone we had over 70 teens say YES to Jesus for the first time or YES to walk in surrender to Him as their Lord and Savior. As we wind down our summer schedule, and at the same time gear up for a new ministry year, I ask that you pray for your staff in your community. We need an army of people (God’s army) to join us daily in prayer, build trusting relationships, give financially towards the mission, and encourage one another to daily build into the lives of our youth. Join us as we seek to Give Life to their Stories with the love of Jesus! There are so many more stories from our summer trips and relational ministry actions. We hope to share some of those stories throughout the year. THANK YOU, CORPORATE SPONSORS! LEGACY — $40,000 Brotherhood Mutual LH Carbide Mary Cross Tippmann Foundation Micropulse Parkview Health Parrish Leasing Rosema Corporation Sweetwater Sound EXECUTIVE — $25,000 Color Master, Inc. Michael Kinder & Sons, Inc. Professional Parkwest Properties LEADERSHIP — $15,000 ALLEN COUNTY iAB Financial Bank Pizza Hut Steel Dynamics Foundation WHITLEY COUNTY Dale & Elaine Haupert Family Foundation WABASH COUNTY Instrumental Machine & Development PARTNER — $10,000 ALLEN COUNTY Ambassador Enterprises Grabill Financial Services, Inc. Larson Financial Group McCampbell Enterprises Unlimited O’Neal Excavating & Construction, Inc. Parkview Ortho Hospital PPG Cardiology WHITLEY COUNTY Columbia City Plastics DEKALB, LAGRANGE, NOBLE, AND STEUBEN COUNTIES RP Wakefield Van’s Home Center HUNTINGTON COUNTY Huntington Sheet Metal, Inc. Innovative Edge Kline Farms Shawmak Enterprises Stephen DRP, Inc. WABASH COUNTY Stephan DRP, Inc. Please consider becoming a corporate sponsor. For more information, contact Mike Stetzel at mikestetzel@yfcnin.org.
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