Adventures Youth – An Introduction

As I begin this new journey, I want to educate you, my
readers and supporters, about why I’m doing what I’m doing and how I’m going to
go about it.

I’ve been in the nonprofit world for almost eight years now,
seven of those have been working in missions, three and a half of those years I
have been working in youth missions and so it would seem that now I’m going
back to my roots.

 

Adolescent development is a crucial stage in a person’s
life.  It’s the time when they begin
to decide the identity they will take on as they enter adulthood.  It is the time when they decide what
values and priorities they will set for how they make decisions and how they will
spend their days on this earth.

Having an opportunity to reach out and touch the world, the
poor, the marginalized, the forgotten, the lost, the sick and those wandering
can change their life forever.  It’s
a widely observed phenomena that environments seem to matter to teenagers.  Youth pastors notice that the lessons they
drill into their teenager’s heads week after week may seem like they’re going
in one ear and out the other.  But take
them on a week-long mission trip, get them out of their everday, normal
environment and something changes. 
Suddenly they are more willing than they ever have been to consider
change and many change for the better during these times.

So buckle up, over the next several weeks I want to tell you
about the experience Adventures Youth is going to facilitate to help walk
teenagers through change.  I want
to introduce you to the guiding principles and priorities I have set and share
the vision of this program with you.