Youth Club

Youth Club

"The Rock"

"I put my hope in the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the dungeon, out of the mud and mire; he restored my feet on a ROCK and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord" Psalm 40:1-3.

My (Aaron) passion is for youth and my dream for years was to open a youth club or center for the young adults of the area to have an alternative form of positive entertainment. In Cubatao there are very few positive things to do for youth and young adults. The basic options are the dance clubs, which are very promiscuous and definitely not wholesome, or turn to alcohol, drugs, sex, thievery, vandalism and so on. As a result many good kids are turned into drunks, addicts or young parents who would not otherwise be involved in this type of activity. Furthermore, there are no churches in our area doing real outreach to the young and disenfranchised youth that are out wandering the streets until the wee hours of the morning.

In late February I hired an assistant and we opened a place for the young people to come in and play ping pong and foosball, watch movies, play video games, listen to some music and have a snack and a soda. Not many, if any, of these youth would walk into a church for a Sunday service, but what young person would resist hanging out with their friends, playing some games or just relax on the couch and drink a coke? By meeting the young people in this location they can see, through the people working there, that Christians can be fun too and that alcohol and drugs aren't needed to have a good time. But far deeper than a place to have a good time, many of these people will find a real family that they don't have. They will find a common place where people come together with love in their hearts; a place where people are willing to address the hard issues of life through daily Bible studies. They will find a place "where everybody knows your name, and they're always glad you came." Instead of keeping Christ locked in the church, like we have done all too often, we are bringing the true and simple gospel to these young people wrapped in love. This new generation does not identify with tradition and rituals, but the Gospel transcends culture and generations and the message of love and grace cuts to the heart of everyone. No lines are drawn, no boundaries set, and no group excluded, the love of Christ reaches all. Through this type of ministry the only bridge is love. There are no standards or expectations that need to be met, there are only people that need to be loved and reached out to. Of course we do have some rules, if we didn't the place would be out of control. However, the idea is for the youth to feel at home when they are there.

From the first day we opened the club has been full of youth. We did very little advertising, and frankly, I don't think we could have handled the crowds if we had. On some days we have up to 70 youth that pass through our doors. The ping-pong table is the biggest attraction so far. We recently completed a ping-pong tournament that was very well attended. There is a solid group of about 20 kids that are at the club nearly everyday and spend close to 20 hours a week with us. Many of these youth come from broken homes and before the club was opened they spent up to 12 hours a day on the street running wild. One of our biggest struggles is to keep order. These are not the "nice" kids at school that study and respect their teachers. So, please pray that we can have wisdom to balance order and love. We don't want to be policemen, but we don't want to be permissive either. Every night around 8:00pm I do a little devotional with the youth. I can tell that they are starting to learn, but in the beginning they had no clue about the Bible. The week of Easter I asked them why we have Easter...not one of them knew the Easter story. Please pray that I will have wisdom in how to communicate these precious truths. We have also started cinema nights on Friday and Saturday nights we show a movie and have popcorn as a new attraction. Very soon we will be offering a computer class and an English class to some of the dedicated youths.

In the future we hope to be able to do thing like: Christian concerts, lock-ins, road-trips, game shows, surf classes and basketball/soccer camps for example. We would also like to do more beneficial things like: job interview/resume classes and rehab and addiction counseling and groups. Bible studies and small groups are given daily focusing on topics that the youth choose; giving them an opportunity to invite their friends to a place where the truth will be spoken, but in a way that is relevant to their peers.

It is amazing how God has allowed me to be exposed to various unconventional youth ministries that have helped me picture an outreach that could result in many people coming to Christ. What is even more amazing is that God has placed me in a location that is starving for a ministry like this, an outreach to the lost youth and there are so many of them.

In August my first assistant, Darcio, went to the U.S. to study at Arrowhead Bible College (a 1 year Bible training course run by our church). This left me with a need to fill his spot. I was a little concerned about finding someone in a short amount of time that would be qualified. Out of nowhere, a friend of mine from church started talking to me about how he had recently quit his job at the factory because he needed to do internships for college in physical education and he wanted to know if he could help at the club. We talked quite a bit and Robinson decided to come onbaord and work at the club. Robinson has been a huge help and has a lot of vision for the future of the club.

Money is needed to help in financing rent, supplies and salaries for my assistants. If you would like to assist "The Rock” please click on the "Contact Us" button below where you will find our address, phone number and e-mail, thank you for your help and prayers.

The latest

Because of growing problems of disrespect and seeing the need to have solid youth leaders at the club, I decided to form a leadership council at the club. The nine most influencial guys were choosen to represent the club population. Robinson and I will meet with them at least every other month for us to tell them the disciplinary problems that need to be fixed and for them to share ideas for activities at the club. So far this leadership council has made a great difference. Suddenly they feel responsible for what happens at the club and are influencing others to be more respectful.

Big Buddy

December of 2007 we will be starting a program that will be called Big Buddy. The Big Buddy program is sort of, an adopt a youth program. We are looking for sponsors that are willing to pay about $95 per month to support a teen. This money will pay for many things:

1. A package of staple foods each month.

2. A dental plan for those under 18.

3. A course of the teen's choosing (language, computer, driver's ed., or any other course approved by the director)

4. Enrollment on an athletic team or club (soccer, basketball, surf, swimming, karate and many more)

The youth and sponsor (individual, SS class, men's/women's group, church) will be expected to communicate at least once a month by e-mail or telephone. Sponsors are invited to come and visit their adopted child and see where they live and what they are studying. Students will also be expected to do some studying about the country and culture of their sponsor. We hope this interaction with people from other countries will help broaden the horizons of these sheltered youth.

We will be enforcing some more strict rules on the youth that choose to enter this program. They will be expected to participate and assist to a certain level in club activities. Those under 18 will sign forms promising to abstain from drugs, alcohol and smoking. They will be expected to meet with the program manager regularly to monitor their progress. Furthermore, some spiritually educational assignments will be given monthly. These assignments will probably be things like memorizing a verse, or reading a text and answering some open-ended questions. We feel that this program is worthless if these youth gain the whole world, but loose their souls. For this reason and evangelistic emphasis will be prevalent in this program.

If you or your church is interested in sponsoring a teen please contact us by clicking on the "Contact Us" tab of course.

Playstation 2 and New Assitant Added

The last part of November we did some major work on the club. We had a thorough cleaning day; we fixed broken windows and we made a new cement lid for a sewer tank that had broken. The most exciting part for the kids is that we installed a TV and a Playstation 2 for them to play.

We have also done some restructuring of the hours open. We will be open the same amount of time, but now the club will be open every day except for Sunday. Now, on Sunday afternoons we are going start practicing for an indoor-soccer team. We hope to form a team that will be able to compete in local tournaments.

Also, starting December 17th, we hired an additional assistant at the club. Izabel has been a long-time member of our church. She has been preparing to go to the States and study at our alma-mater, Vennard College, but she doesn't plan to leave until next June or July. In the meantime, we hope to be able to use her friendliness and love for God to reach out to the community girls, of which we have had few to this point. This new position represents a big leap of faith for the club in regards to finances. Please pray that the money necessary to pay our employees what they are worth will be available.