Its so close to home!
Younglife is a ministry that over the past three years I have become very passionate about. I am a leader at a local high school in Waco and knew that it was worldwide but I hadn’t thought much about it before.
However, while my Dad was in Nicaragua for PVT (parent vision trip, where each racer can invite their parents to come and do ministry for a week), he was talking to one of the locals about Vida Joven in Pantenal – Younglife in the neighborhood right beside where we live! I jumped at the idea of getting to experience this ministry that I so dearly love, in a completely new culture.
After asking, I was given the opportunity to go to Vida Joven during one of our first weeks in Nicaragua. And to give club talk, which in Younglife lingo is a message from the Bible given at the end of each meeting. I spoke on how it’s easy to think that Jesus is about the rules because He is perfect and never broke any of them. However, in Matthew 9, we see that Jesus is less concerned with our perfect obedience and more concerned with our hearts. It’s not about the rules or structure or getting things right as the Pharisees thought. Rather, it’s about connection, relationship and new life with Jesus Christ.
Experiencing younglife in a whole new culture was incredible. And when I asked to go back the following week, our ministry host asked if I would be willing to lead and plan the whole night for the next 2 weeks. The Lord gave me way more of an opportunity to work with this ministry than I ever expected to have! I gathered some of my squad-mates who had done younglife in the states, planned games and club talks and we went for it. Despite language barriers and the influence of the enemy in a dark neighborhood, the Lord was able to work through us and I had numerous conversations following club that were oh so encouraging.
The Lord is working and moving through ministries that are already established everywhere we are going. And we’ve had the incredible privilege of partnering with them. I am so grateful to be part of Younglife / Vida Joven, a ministry that is not bound by language barriers or borders, but one that is working all across the world.
– Cara
p.s. Theres some footage of Vida Joven in my Nicaragua video soon to be posted so make sure you check it out!
