This year I have been more involved with the youth at the Civita church. Something that I have started to implement in this group is something called LTG (Life Transformation Group). The purpose of such a group is to challenge the individuals involved to study God’s word and to live their life in a way that brings glory to the Lord. About a month and a half ago I started to implement this with the older of the girls in the youth group, Giulia. We meet weekly and go through a list of accountability questions and then discuss the bible reading we chose for that week. I have been so excited to see how well this has gone with Giulia, especially in the bible reading. We have read through I think 7 books of the bible so far, maybe 8! In the next few weeks Giulia and I will continue to meet and then start to meet with another girl each. So there will be 3 of these groups going. Then Giulia and I will also help to teach 2 of the older guys how to do this and they will start together then once they feel comfortable they will split and start groups with the other guys. I am really excited about this. It is a great way for these kids to become more unified and become more serious about their faith.
Tony, the elder at the Civita church, had also asked me to teach the kids more about various evangelism methods. I started that about a week ago. We talked about how we can better share about Jesus in daily conversations with friends, co-workers, classmates, or even strangers. Basically we talked about sharing our testimonies. One of the older youth mentioned that he was really taking away, from everything I shared that night, how important it is to listen to the other person and their story so you can share the Gospel in a way so they will understand it, and see their need for it. I also stressed to them the need for each of them to take time on a regular basis to go through their life and remember all that God has done for them, and to regularly write down how God is daily working in their lives. Sometimes when we think of sharing our testimonies we think that it has to be a story about how we were saved. The youth understood by the end that sharing our testimonies can be anything that God is doing in our lives, or has done, that we use to testify about Him to others. We can share testimonies with other believers, something they are very familiar with in their church, for the sake of encouraging one another and praising the Lord. We can also share testimony with unbelievers, but the purpose here should always be to share the gospel with them. When we do this it can happen through normal daily conversations, especially when we take time to listen to others around us. The next time we meet for evangelism “training” we will be putting this into practice!
Praises:
* The many blessings the Lord is pouring out in my life
* The amazing time Giulia and I have together through the LTG. It has been such a blessing to both of us.
* positive things going on with the youth and that those would continue.
Prayers:
* unity with the youth through LTG groups
* the start of 2 new LTG’s with the girls and for the start up of them among the guys.
* The youth to come up with creative ways to do evangelism
* The youth to develop a heart for the lost and a desire to share the Gospel message with them
* Wisdom and grace as I work with the youth and as I make personal decisions.
