Reaching Young People in Peoria, IL.
My day was done and I was considering closing my eyes when….”PING”! I looked at my phone to see a text from a teen asking “Can we talk?” This has happened 3 different times over the last couple of weeks. As I’ve talked to our leader team, they too have been receiving texts asking the same question. Every conversation started with, “I just don’t know what to do!” That’s a quick glimpse of how God has been working through our team lately. As we established relationships between leaders and students prior to COVID-19, God opened the door for us to share God’s love in the midst of the confusion caused by the pandemic. Lots of changes, but no control over it.
In their own words….
- “I didn’t realize how much I’d miss ‘normal life’.”
- “I’m an only child, it’s lonely at home.”
- “When I was in school, all in wanted to do was go home. Now that I’m home, I just want to go to school.”
So what do we do? We change how we connect!
- We “Ding Dong Ditched” students houses. With real Ding Dongs!
- We ask teachers and leaders to video their testimony and post them for students to see on Instagram TV.
- We start a phone app Bible study. We’ve completed John & Ruth and are now in the middle of Ephesians with over 20 leaders and teens.
- Lots of Zoom and phone calls.
I’m not going to lie, it’s harder to minister teens while “social distancing”, but we have been checking in to encourage, love and pray with them. Reminding them that even though the world has changed, God has not.
Learn more about the work in Peoria, IL