Happy (almost) New Year! At Youth Unlimited, 2015 is all about “The Other 51”, our theme for Live It and Serve this year. We are so excited for the many students whose lives will be changed through these faith-forming experiences and their interaction with The Other 51. To learn more about what these students will be learning and participating in, read below!
Key Passage:
John 20:21b, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you. Receive now the Holy Spirit.” (NRSV)
Live It and Serve are just one week of the year, and after that one week, students head back home. Then what?
Students don’t just go for that one week, though. They also go for the other 51. The other 51 weeks in the year matter too, and they know it. Serving God is not about going away for a weeklong “mission tourism” experience. It’s not just about hanging out, meeting new people, and seeing God in a different city. It’s about taking that experience, that one week, and making it their lives! It’s about participating in the Kingdom of God for one week in an intense way so that they can begin to (or continue to) see God’s amazing reign in the other 51 weeks of the year. It’s about seeing God in all aspects of what they do – all the time – The Other 51!
So, get ready for 2015! The one-week youth mission experiences at Serve and Live It are going to change students! Our purpose for this one week is to prepare them for the other 51. We are going to ask, “What would the world look like with a good God revealed in Jesus Christ in charge of it?” That’s God’s plan: to show his reign, his Kingdom, revealed in Jesus to all humanity, and God wants to use students to do it! In these one week experiences, students are going to hear about the size of God’s plan, which is so much bigger than they could imagine. They are going to hear about the people involved in God’s plan, being so many more than they probably thought. They’ll receive some “tools” for working in the Kingdom, and they are going to experience a taste of God’s Kingdom already alive on earth as it is in Heaven – so that they may desire to taste that Kingdom again and again – for the other 51 weeks.
So these one-week you mission experiences are just the beginning. The students who participate are continuing a journey, but not just for that one week. Jesus never asked for one week. He never asked for a little bit of their lives. He asked for it all. “As the Father has sent me, so I send you. Receive now the Holy Spirit.” Are you ready for 2015?