Nothing beats hearing the words "My friend came to know Jesus" by a youth, and this year we witnessed the most incredible story of two youth giving their life to Jesus because of one committed friend and one praying youth group.
Our vision is to see “every young person in our nation impacted by the Gospel through a friend”. This story is a perfect glimpse of our vision and what we hope to see happening in every youth community across the nation.
This story all starts with a youth named Jack with a deep and genuine love for his friends. He shared with us that he has these two childhood friends that he recently had started inviting to come along to youth group. After they said yes the first time, He continued to invite them to youth group and even a youth camp which they loved, so when he invited them to Word of Life camp this year they were super keen. But they still hadn’t made a decision to follow Jesus. This is where the story gets even more exciting.
Not only was Jack praying for his friends but so were his brothers, his youth group, and youth leaders. There was a whole community of youth and leaders praying for these two boys to come to know Jesus. When asked why he shared his faith Jack said “because everyone needs Jesus and because I love them, I wanna share my faith because I want them to come to heaven with me one day so they can have eternal life”. What an incredible outlook, if you love someone why wouldn’t you tell them? When we spoke to Jack it was on the Sunday of camp and he was stoked that one of his friends had stayed behind to ask questions about God the night before. This was an encouraging and exciting step. Leaders, youth, our prayer team and I'm sure many others, were praying that these two boys would ultimately come to know Jesus.
On Sunday night God answered those prayers loud and clear. Both young boys chose to trust Jesus! It was an incredibly exciting night and what made it even more special was the way we saw many of the youth and leaders who had been praying for them ecstatic and filled with joy that they had become part of God’s family. This story didn’t just impact Jack and his two friends but it impacted and spurred on so many more who had been praying for this life change. It all started with one friend inviting his mates to youth group which has now turned into two lives being saved and many more impacted by the Gospel through this one friend.
This story to us is a perfect picture of what we hope to see happening all over Aotearoa, and what an encouragement for us all by Jack that if we love our friends we will tell them about Jesus.
