Feb12 - Macomb

I just LOVE to see where God is moving. Henry Blackaby is quoted as saying, “Find where God is at work and join Him in it” [Experiencing God]. You don’t need to look far… God is working hard at YFC!

Our Delayed Start Wednesday s Pancake Breakfast is a HUGE success, especially in connecting with kids we would not serve otherwise. At our last event, the total number of kids served with 73! The way to a teens heart is through their stomach… and I could just see Jesus flipping flapjacks to get kids to smile and know they are loved.

The senior high discipleship group has been an ethics discussion group, connecting real-life scenarios to Scripture. We have discussed the 4 year old who smokes & drinks (sadly, a true story), a woman who made her home on a traffic circle… and pet psychics, thus far. It is amazing to apply what the bible says to these seemingly non-biblical topics.

We had more pizzas than I am tall….

Junior High got to bless the guy the slimed… In November, student president Justin Derry was slimed, the consequence for losing the Penny Wars. However, when Justin was performing in the Guy/Girl Bomber Dance Team routine, those very same kids loudly cheered him on! My heart smiles as I see how our junior and senior high students just care for each other.

During a time of tragedy, YFC was able to step up and connect with many hurting kids. In partnership with Timm Harting, student pastor at the Crossing, we were able to organize and host a gathering for teens to come together to unite. We then offered a free lunch and dinner on the Monday they returned to school. Thanks to Bev & John Brewer, our prayer room is now able to remain setup and used as needed.

We capped off the week with Free Pizza Lunch. This was truly just to bring some good to a rough week. We had several pastors on site and two licensed counselors, Vickie Beard and Emily Roberts, just to be available to talk to kids who needed to still process everything. We served 36 pizzas!!! {Five pizzas + desserts were delivered to Macomb & Bushnell police department to honor their service during this trying week}.

We were Jesus with skin on – no “Christian agenda”, just there to love them through it. A HUGE thank you to Chuck & Lynn Lotz for the use of The Lodge; Emily Roberts & Vickie Beard for their services at no charge; to Hyvee, Dominos and Larry A’s for the discounted pizza; all the adult leaders who came out to be available to love on these kids and to everyone who contributed items for the events throughout the week.

The bright spot of the week came from VIBE, when we received the check for the grant they awarded us! This grant will help us get heat upstairs, offer transportation options for Believe, scholarships for various programs and hopefully help us expand our garage for a larger gathering area.

Looking forward: YFC will be partnering with Campus Students for Christ for a College Ready event, [collegeready.com], that offers biblical wisdom and practical advice for navigating the college maze and thriving there. This event is open to all high school seniors and college freshman and will be held at Campus Students for Christ, 1545 Riverview Dr, Macomb, Saturday March 24^th from 9am-5pm, at a cost of $20 which includes, the book, lunch and snacks. Registration will begin shortly.

Feb12 - Golf Outing

Save the Date!!!

10th Annual Golf Outing

June 2nd, 2012

WIU Golf Course

Feb12 - Supporting YFC

How to help support Youth for Christ Western Illinois

Two ways to contribute:

1.) ONLINE We have a new online donation options available: You can donate through Paypal on our new website (www.yfcwi.org) then just click the donate button. You can also donate via our blog, www.yfcwi.blogspot.com (You don’t need to have your own Paypal account to use these!) The donation buttons offer options to designate funds to the general fund or to Lauren’s or Todd’s support. You can set up regular monthly giving or make donations one at a time.

2.) BY MAIL You may send donations by mail to:

Youth for Christ Western Illinois

PO Box 126

Macomb, IL 61455

(You may always indicate on your check if you would like your

donation applied to a specific area, ie, Lauren’s or

Todd’s support, general fund, activity accounts, etc.)

Please do NOT use the 1218 Maple Ave address for mail. We are forwarding all mail to the

PO Box 126 address. This facilitates the deposits as well as prevents our donations from getting lost in all the newspapers and flyers. THANKS!!

Feb12 - Bushnell Beat

You never really know what is coming next in ministry. It may be a teen just having a bad day. It may be a teen needing a ride. It may be a teen getting kicked out of the home. It may be a teen needing a meal. It may be a teen getting arrested. It may be a teen just needing to talk. It may be a teen wanting to know more about life. As was the case last week, a local teen died in a car accident near Bushnell.

What do you say? How do you respond? How about with love and compassion? Show her friends and family that you care. Give time and effort to creating an environment for people to grieve, for people to acknowledge the loss, for people to have a safe place to share if they need to, and for people to have food to eat. Yeh. Those are just some of the things YFC staff and other church leaders were able to help with when this tragedy struck our community this past week. Only God knows the open doors that will come because of the genuine love and concern for teens and adults alike. Please pray along with us for healing. Pray for protection over local teens. Pray for teens to seek wisdom and ultimately God. Pray that we will be in the right place at the right time for them. Thanks!

Also this past month, two ministry leaders from Bushnell and I attended YFC's Ministry Leader Conference in Wheaton, IL. This conference gives leaders a bigger picture of the ministry of YFC. It gives us a chancee to worship God together. It provides training through breakout sessions that relate directly to our current ministry challenges. I love YFC for their cutting edge, relational approach to ministry. To me, that's the model God showed us through His son Jesus Christ. Love God and love others. Pray for our adult ministry leaders as they give of their time and resources to further the Lord's Kingdom here on earth.

I would be remiss not to mention that we had to say “goodbye” to one of our teens that moved to Missouri this past month. Kesia was a young lady that had a great heart for helping others. Pray for her as she adjusts to life there. Pray that she would get involved in a good youth group. Pray that she would grow in her faith in God and let Him direct her paths.

Last, but not least, Our 12^th Annual Super Duper Soup Supper will be Friday, March 9 at 6 pm in Bushnell at the Community Christian Center. Come be served by the local teens involved with Youth for Christ and hear how God has been working in their lives.

The Rodeffer's

Pray for:

Family and friends of local teen that was killed in a car accident

Desire for teens to go deeper with God

For Christians to live out their faith in a real, live, loving manner

Upcoming events

Feb. 20 – Ski/Tubing trip to Snowstar

Feb. 24-25 30 Hour Famine

March 9 – 12^th Annual Super Duper Soup Supper

Jan12 - Macomb News

Happy New Year From Macomb!

LAST MONTH: Like many of us this time of year, December was a flurry of events as well.

YFC raised $520 for the Salvation Army kettle drive, ringing bells for them a total of 6 times!

We had great fun combining junior and senior high, when the older kids performed “The Reason for the Season” for the younger. We hosted our Annual Christmas Free Pizza Lunch, serving nearly 100 kids! We started off Christmas break with a huge pancake breakfast with many treats, candy and pancakes, bringing smiles to many! Finally we ended the year with a Teen New Years Eve Party: NYE @ YFC. We incorporated many New Year’s traditions from around the world – from Sicily, where the only pasta that should be eaten is lasagna; to Spain, eating 12 grapes for the 12 upcoming months; to the US, a kiss a midnight (the milk chocolate kind, of course).

THIS MONTH: Campus Life returns with its New Year’s Eve party on Tuesday, Jan 10th, and focusing how unlike the calendar, Jesus renews us daily, not annually. Information about Believe has been emailed out. Anyone that needs additional information should contact Lauren.

Just this past week, we hosted Finals $2.00 lunches. Wednesday: Mac & Cheese, Thursday: Tacos and Friday Pizza lunch. Delayed Start Weds was the first day of finals. We hosted pancakes on Weds until finals start – and then offered lunch. We also offered a light breakfast Thursday and Friday – so that students could come study, ask others for help – or just unwind before finals.

LAST YEAR: We had an amazing year!!! How blessed are we to make connections with so many awesome students! We have helped build relationships – between leaders & students, between junior and senior high students - among students, in general. We have had some deep talks, in depth studies and grew our prayer lives.

THIS YEAR: We look forward to keep doing what works well, trying new ideas, investigating God-sized ones. All the while, prayerfully seeking God’s wisdom and insight. We are open to whatever God wants us to do… and we know we need to hold on for the ride – because it’s going to be amazing!

YFC Macomb Tidbits

the approximate number of…

15 ... volunteers connecting with kids in a week

85 … forks used in one week

150 … kid connections in one week

160 … plates used in one week

180 … pancakes made during one pancake breakfast

576 …of drinks distributed in one month

600 …kid connections in one month

1 The One it all matters for

OUR PRAYER: This is our prayer for the coming year – we ask that you join us: We continually ask God to fill [us] with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives so that [we] may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with

all power according to his glorious might so that [we] may have great endurance and patience, and giving joyful thanks to the Father (Colossians 1: 9-12)

Pizza Lunch Partners

Jan 13 Industry Assembly

Jan 20 First Christian

Jan 27 Wesley UMC

Jan12 - Macomb News - photos

Jan12 - Bushnell Beat

Bushnell newsletter info for Dec.

“Our fight is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces in the heavenly realms.” Eph. 6:12

It was the perfect time for Bev to share her testimony with the middleschool teens. She had been helping for a couple of months now, and she was ready. As she wore some of the clothing she used to wear, which contained many places for chains to be placed and held. She told how God had helped remove some chains in her own life. She told how God had replaced those chains with love and a desire to serve Him. She then challenged the teens to let go of the chains that bound them and let Christ have 1^st place in their lives. Many teens responded. Several indicated that they wanted to trust Christ as their Savior. A couple admitted that they were not ready yet. Still others indicated their need to recomitt themselves to Christ. Praise the Lord for how He is working through not only Bev, but all of the leaders that are giving of their time to serve Him through Youth for Christ! God has place a unique bunch of volunteer leaders together to reach out to the teens in Bushnell, and I am very thankful.

Your prayers and time spent in prayer is so crucial to the open hearts and minds of the teens we reach in Bushnell. The enemy is pushed back by your prayers and God is able to reach into their lives because of your prayers and those of many others. I don't understand it all, but I do know that prayer is where revival starts. It often leads people to repentance and opens the door for the Holy Spirit to work in a person's life.

One of the ways we serve the community is to collect canned goods for the annual Christmas Basket Give-away, sponsored by the local ministerial association. A concerted effort to cover the entire town of Bushnell and Prairie City is made possible with the partnership of the local Varsity Club and FFA students at BPC high school. The Varsity Club puts out bags and collects the food in Bushnell and several students and I collect the food in Prairie City. We all help package the food at the local Rec. Center and distribute it the weekend before Christmas. Around 120 families are helped by all of the generous donations from the community.

Will you please pray for:

ñ continued vision to reach teens in Bushnell

ñ for God's spirit to convict teens and lead them toward the cross

ñ for several new students to sense the need to dig into God's Word and find His ways

ñ for the faithful volunteer leaders that are working with the teens on a daily basis

Thanks so much for your uplifting before the throne of the one and only true God!

The Rodeffer's

Upcoming events

Jan. 14 – 16 Faith Bible Camp Sr. High Retreat

Jan. 16 – nursing home visits with teens

Jan. 20-21 – YFC Volunteer Conference

Jan. 28-29 – Faith Bible Camp Jr. High Retreat