Success vs. Faithfulness

75 students at the Rising last night.

20 students regularly attending Bible Study

12 students hiking a longer-than-expected hike (thank you Seth) on Sunday

5 staff members taking joy in every moment

If you wanted to review our ministry by the numbers you could see that we are doing pretty well. Any youth ministry would be glad to have 75 students at a youth night and 20 students coming to study the Bible every week. By the numbers, we would probably be considered successful and making progress.

But in a ministry like ours, we don't find the numbers to be the most significant. In truth, "success" is not really a word that applies to us. A more appropriate word would be "faithfulness." After all, we aren't called to be successful, but we are called to be faithful.

I am pleased to say that each staff member at AYM has been faithful to the call they have received. I watch as my fellow teammates laugh with students, pull them aside for serious conversations, beat kids at chess, and have the ever impromptu dance party in the Kennel kitchen. In terms of faithfulness, our team excels, and it is a beautiful thing to be a part of.

We certainly have deep spiritual and emotional challenges when it comes to working with our students but one thing I always go back to is the joy that emerges when our team and our students collide. It is a joy that is unmistakable and beautiful.

It is the joy that comes when God enters a place and transformation begins. And that, I believe, is more significant than anything else we could hope for.

Join AYM in Prayer this Year!

Hello and Happy New Year! Here at AYM we are excited to start anew as we build relationships with our students, consider new and exciting programming, and continue journeying closer to our Lord. We would love to invite you to be praying with us and for us throughout this upcoming year. In order to give direction and focus to our prayers, I (Meredith) have chosen "Peace" as this year's prayer theme (although we welcome prayers of all sorts and topics!). 

Here are some handy-dandy bullet-point prayers for your convenience: 

1. Peace for our souls: Working in a high-risk environment can wear on a person. Pray for our team, that we are growing in our personal relationships with God and trusting in His goodness amidst despair.

2. Peace for our minds: I personally worry about "our" kids a lot, knowing that if something happened to them it would be hard to recover. Pray for peace of mind as we become part of these kids' lives and take on everything that comes with that.

3. Peace for these students: For these kids, life is consistently unstable and not peaceful. They worry about their families, relationships, grades, and much more serious matters. Pray that they find peace and rest in God and in their interactions with AYM.

4. Peace for this community: The White Mountain Apache reservation has a very high crime rate and a very high suicide rate. Pray that this community finds peace in God and that crime and suicide would decrease.

5. Peace amongst spiritual warfare: I have never seen the spiritual battle as strong as it is here on the reservation. Pray for peace in this battle, that God will declare victory and all evil will be expelled. I believe that there is power in Jesus Christ and that this prayer can be answered.

At Apache Youth Ministries we hope that our youth center is a place of peace and that we become relationships of peace. Those five prayer points should help lead us towards that. As different issues and concerns come up we will make sure to post them so that we can all continually be praying.

Please join us as we seek to walk alongside these students on a journey towards Christ. And as always, thank you so much for your support!