Forever Young:Briercrest alums live out their faith among Moose Jaws youth
Kyle and Leanne Young havenât even been married a year, but they already have lots of kids, and theyâre all teenagers.
The Youngs serve as the male and female outreach workers at Joeâs Place youth centre in Moose Jaw.
âWeâre here to be available to the youth in Moose Jaw,â Kyle said.
âThe mission statement of Joeâs Place is âTo help youth reach their full God-given potential,ââ Leanne added. âSo, itâs sort of like everything that Kyle and I do is to drive that.â
Besides connecting with Moose Jaw teens at the centreâs weekly activities, the couple says several camping trips they take with the youth throughout the year are a highlight.
âThose are one of the biggest ways we connect with youth outside of our walls at Joeâs Place â going on retreats, and going on camping trips and hiking trips and things like that,â Leanne explained. â(The kids) are able to focus more on themselves, building relationships with their volunteers and staff. Thatâs where we see the most growth I think.â
The Youngs have a simple plan when it comes to impacting Moose Jawâs youth.
âWe live out our faith by our lifestyle and the kids know weâre Christians,â Leanne exclaimed. âWe walk alongside them and they walk alongside us. We celebrate their grads and when they get married and when they have babies, but we also go through funerals and through grieving and sickness.â
Kyle and Leanne signed up for this kind of work. They both came to Briercrest from their hometowns of Peterborough and Halliburton, Ont. wanting to study youth ministry.
âI went to Briercrest to do youth ministryâactually to do more of a paracurch program or like a drop-in centre,â Kyle explained. âI heard about Joeâs Place through Youth Quake in 2007. It felt like a natural fit to come and join the Joeâs Place volunteer team and then into an internship and then into employment.â
Leanneâs path to Moose Jaw began on a ministry trip to Hong Kong.
âWhen I was there God really broke my heart for unchurched people,â she explained. âI started to take some global studies classes because I thought I was going to go overseas. Then through volunteering at Joeâs Place, God just really showed me that the youth in Moose Jaw were just as unchurched. God was actually calling me to the youth in Moose Jaw.
Leanne felt God giving her specific direction in her calling through many of the things she was learning in her Briercrest classes.
âDifferent classes I was taking, God just continually broke my heart for those who didnât know Himâfor injustice and for the fatherless,â she explained. âMy education definitely confirmed my calling of where I was supposed to be. To move to Moose Jaw and live with the kids here and just live out the presence of Christ.â
âThrough our classes, through our education, through our experience living in Caronport with the students and faculty (we were) prepared not only mentally but also socially to live authentic community in Moose Jaw,â Kyle said.
That kind of community looks a lot like a family.
âA lot of our kids call us mom and dad,â Leanne said. âWe get to be spiritual parents to them and speak biblical truth and Godâs hope into their lives. Even if they donât grasp it right awayâbecause weâve been here so longâover time (we see) that the truth does sink into their hearts even if itâs not right away. God is still using it.â
The Youngsâ steady, consistent commitment to invest in into the lives of their youth has brought some wonderful results.
âSeeing some of these youth who come back to be volunteersâor (hearing) that theyâre living elsewhere and that theyâre actually in a good place in life and not in jail or addicted to substancesâthen thatâs a victory,â Kyle exclaimed.
âItâs been cool to see our kids go from just thinking about themselves to thinking about other people,â Leanne said. âWeâve been teaching them about Godâs heart for injustice and that they can stand up for those who are oppressed and thatâs actually what Godâs called us to and by them doing that, then theyâre encountering God. . . Iâm excited that theyâre still in high school. Iâm excited to see them grow and graduate from high school and see where God takes them. Who knows where theyâll go from here and what impact theyâll make wherever God leads them?â