I cannot remember a time when I was ever able to enjoy the childlike nature of youth. Between the verbal and sexual abuse by my peers, neighbors and family members, I never knew what it meant to be a child. I began to believe that the abuse was love and that my abusers really cared for me.
It has been our heart to make the Youth-Reach campus a beautiful oasis within this industrial desert. Recently, when groups have asked what they can come out to do we always answer with, “You can help us plant trees!” We have planted close to forty new trees here on our campus.
Last month we began to unpack the ongoing succession plan that is slowly moving Youth-Reach into the next season and preparing this ministry for growth and fruitfulness in a generation that will present fresh and evolving challenges. Here in Houston, I am excited to serve beside and witness the growth of a man uniquely gifted to labor in the Houston area.
My wife Summer and I came to Youth-Reach with a heart to see a ministry led by the Lord; somewhere we could see His hand working daily. We came from incredible ministries that touched on some of what was in our hearts, but we desired to do it differently from what we had seen.
A few weeks ago at our annual Open House there was a comment that we heard over and over again. It varied slightly, but it ran something like this: “We never really knew about Youth-Reach until we came out here,” or “I had a preconceived notion of what Youth-Reach was like, but now that I have been here, I see that it is so much more.”
When you presume upon the enemy’s plans to destroy young lives, you can expect trials and attacks. If you are not facing trials, you have somehow become ineffective and that should bring its own set of concerns.
On August 26th, the boys of Youth-Reach Houston streamed back into the Dr. Charles E. Cowles, Jr. Education Center here on our campus for the first full day of the 2022-2023 school year.
Currently we have sixteen boys in our program here at Youth-Reach with six or seven guys vying for the two open spots. The problem is, there are no open spots….yet.
