The Project
The theme at Youth for Christ’s Fort Rocky residentials this year is ‘break out’. Even the mention of those words fills me with excitement – the idea of gathering loads of 11-14 year-olds for an evangelistic weekend, to talk to them about how the love of Jesus can set them free.
Fort Rocky’s leader, Sarah Hockley said: ‘It was a bit of a risk taking on a topic like breaking free – you never know quite what will happen, but God spoke clearly and he has, as always, been faithful.’ Right from the start, the team sensed the presence of God and prayed hard that he would do his work through their efforts. ‘You can bring the creative equipment, preach a message, provide lots of fun, but the rest is up to the power of Jesus,’ Sarah shared honestly.
On the first Fort Rocky Friday they gathered youth groups with their leaders from around the country. They began by talking truth to them about an awesome creator, with a plan for their lives. The following day teaching began by chatting about the baggage that holds us back, followed by an evening of being set free from that baggage. ‘We kept it simple’ Sarah said, ‘there is no point in hype. The young people wrote down the issues that they struggled with; we then held up the paper at the front, prayed over the baggage and tore the paper to shreds. The young people went wild afterwards!’ On Sunday the team talked from Galatians 5 about what it means to be free and how to walk in that freedom. Just before the young people departed from Fort Rocky they heard about the armour of God and were charged with going out to make a difference for Christ.
It is incredible to hear about evangelistic weekends like this, changing young lives, and intermingled with the teaching there are plenty of activities, chances to hang out and eat! What is even more encouraging for the team is when they see and hear that their efforts have not been in vain. When they are able to watch youth leaders, faces fill with joy when they witness their young people affected by the love of Jesus.
One such girl came with a YFC centre for the weekend and during one of the small group chats, deeply questioned: ‘How do I know God loves me, and cares for me?’ The leaders gave the usual standard answers – pointing to scripture and declaring truth over her but it didn’t feel like enough. In the next activity session she hurt her wrist quite badly and was pretty down-hearted. A little later the leaders were all together praying and her youth leaders felt led to pray for healing for her as well as a way of knowing God truly loved her. Amazingly later that evening, they asked her how her wrist was, and she replied, ‘absolutely fine, it is healed.’ They explained to her how they had prayed for her that afternoon and said: ‘What God has done for you, is one way of him showing you how much he loves you.’ At this comment, she ran around the room declaring to everyone who would listen, ‘God loves me!’
For Sarah, the youth leaders and the team, moments like these – an individual having a deep realisation of how Jesus feels about her and a greater understanding of his work on the cross - are treasured in their hearts. Not only are they seeing God set young people free but they are witnessing leaders step out in prayer – like this one for healing – and watching him answer. As they gather together at Fort Rocky there is an increased desire to see God move, coupled with a step of faith to make it happen.
Sometimes we need to be encouraged to do this wherever we are: not to be afraid of what might happen when we pray, not to worry that there isn’t an immediate effect. Who knows - Jesus may be answering the prayer in an unseen way.
When we are not at the evangelistic weekends, events or conferences, we need to keep raising our expectations of what God can do, if we are not afraid to step out. The hardest thing is praying the prayer or speaking the truth, but until we do it, we won’t know what effect it could have.
To discuss with your team:
• When was the last time you took a risk for Jesus?
• Have you prayed for anyone recently?
• Are you running any evangelistic events or weekends in the near future?
• How could you encourage your young people to talk to their friends about Jesus?.
