Juarez Outreach
Camps and cinderblock. Feeding the homeless and weeping at the altar. Crossing oceans and cleaning bathrooms. This has been a busy year for King's Kids El Paso-Juarez! Here is 1997 in a nutshell.
The short term outreach ministry was a major focus for us this year with over 1300 young people and their leaders coming from all over the US and Canada to Juarez for missionary work. Over 240 kids and adults came to Spring Break Outreach for our largest camp ever. God worked in the lives of the youth in an awesome way and touched the hearts of many Mexican people through them.
El Paso teenagers ministered in Mexico, Costa Rica, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Papua New Guinea, Scotland, Russia, Malaysia, and all over Africa with King's Kids and Youth With A Mission this year. Several King's Kids who are now young adults have gone into further missionary training by attending YWAM's Discipleship Training Schools in Montana, Hawaii and Egypt.
Local teams of about 70 kids ages 9-12 and 13-18 shared the Gospel in many settings in El Paso and Juarez, gaining further experience in boldness, hearing the voice of God and learning His love and compassion for others.
Outreach teams have made continuing progress on the King's Kids outreach center in Juarez. The dormitories, chapel and staff apartments are a springboard from which young people can be discipled in missions by learning practical service, construction, evangelism and cross cultural skills in the Mexican community.
We praise God for His faithfulness in blessing this ministry, providing for us in so many ways and protecting both kids and staff as we fulfill His call!
Senior Team
This year we again have the largest local teams ever. Our Senior Team (ages 12-18) consists of 45 of the most talented and excited young Christians from the area. We enjoy working with this team and releasing more leadership into their hands. The Senior Team thus far has done four outreaches. First our commissioning service at Jesus Chapel West where we experienced a warm welcome and an anointing of God’s wisdom on what needed to be shared. Next we went to Southwest Keys, a halfway house/detention center for young men. Here we were able to talk with each resident and pray with many of them. Their responses showed a desire to really see God do something in their lives and experience His freedom. In December we headed to Crossroads, a coffeehouse in Northeast El Paso opened with help from The Vineyard Church and a grant from the government. Young people flock here every evening for concerts, snacks, and just a place to hang out. As we prayed about this location we knew that it would be a difficult outreach possibly including mockery and other types of spiritual warfare, but our team felt ready to battle. The same weekend we also helped sort and box goods for the Salvation Army’s Christmas distributions of clothes, toys and food to less fortunate families in El Paso.
Junior Team
Our Junior Team this year is a real treat, as always. We have 27 youngsters ages 8-11, and 17 of them are new to King’s Kids!! We welcome the opportunity to explore the foundations of faith with them as they discover who God is, what the Bible is, what it means to be a Christian, and how we can live like one everyday (concepts that adults still struggle with too!).
This team has a special anointing in the area of purity and innocence. This was confirmed to us this fall when we explored some different drama options. We realized that putting these kids in dramas that depict evil or cruelty is not affective. As one of the keynote verses of King’s Kids, we see in Psalm 8:2 that the enemy is silenced when praise comes from the mouths of infants and children. Through their pure hearts God is glorified. We saw this at the Salvation Army’s retirement home for low-income elderly, and again at the Rescue Mission of El Paso. We bring a treat with us to each ministry location which helps to break the ice and make the kids a little more comfortable. Whether it be hand decorated cookies, craft projects, or bags of goodies, this team has a real desire to bless others and share what has been provided for them.