Portland YFC Makes Surprise Deliveries to Students and Volunteers to Encourage Them Face to Face
Youth For Christ Leaders Hit the Road with Coffee, Donuts, and Candy While Investing in Students and Volunteers
June 29, 2020
PORTLAND, Oregon—As soon as schools closed and life began growing socially distant, student-focused ministries throughout the U.S. began to ask, “How do we invest in others from six feet away?” Youth For Christ (YFC, www.yfc.net) leaders in Portland, Oregon, have an answer: coffee and donuts.
Social distancing couldn’t thwart these leaders from celebrating students’ growth in Christ. YFC leader Annie converted the widely felt isolation into an opportunity to continue investing in students face to face.
While many stayed inside, Annie hit the road. She drove to local coffee shops to pick up students’ favorite coffee orders to congratulate them on their commitments to memorizing Scripture.
“I’m really excited because we have a few students who earned a coffee from the campus life team by memorizing some Scripture that we gave them and putting it into a song, and they did such a good job,” Annie said. “Their creativity was outstanding, and they memorized the Scripture and presented it to the campus life team. And so, they definitely earned their drinks from Dutch Brothers.”
YFC Portland leader Joey also hit the road, delivering a mountain of candy bars and LEGO sets to students. The students were thankful—and so was Joey.
“I want to say thank you to some awesome donors and church partners who gave us some funds to get some of these things to drop off to the students,” Joey said. “I think they’re going to be super happy about it.”
Joey recently started a socially distant outdoor skate ministry for students in partnership with a local church. They are meeting kids in their neighborhoods, giving them role models, and creating outlets to burn energy during the pandemic lockdown.
Caring for and celebrating students have always been rhythms of YFC—in and out of quarantine. Not even a pandemic can stop YFC Portland from developing creative ways to encourage students to develop their spiritual lives.
Ensuring students grow spiritually requires YFC volunteers to work diligently, investing in students through online get-togethers and check-ins. Even with the success of these meetings, however, a lack of regular in-person connection with students can take a toll on volunteers.
That’s why YFC Portland leaders surprised their volunteers, too. Annie brought boxes of doughnuts to scheduled drop-offs, decorating their own cars before arriving.
“I wanted to show a few of my volunteers how much they mean to us, so, we are dropping off some donuts,” Annie said.
Joey also made the rounds to volunteers.
“Our volunteers also get a bag with a card, a Starbucks gift card, and a ‘3Story Primer’ in there, because that is the heartbeat of our ministry—just something little to say thank you to them,” Joey said.”
The short book “3Story Primer: Preparing for a Lifetime of Evangelism” is a training resource published by YFC to equip leaders for ministry.
Nationally, Youth For Christ is telling inspiring stories like these through #YFCBeTheStory, an initiative to help spread the word across the nation about how YFC chapters are making a difference in their communities.
Youth For Christ has been a pillar of missional ministry since 1944, when the Rev. Billy Graham served as YFC’s first full-time staff member. Since then, Youth For Christ has continued to be both a rural and urban ministry on mission, and always about the message of Jesus. YFC reaches young people everywhere, working together with the local church and other like-minded partners to raise up lifelong followers of Jesus who lead by their godliness in lifestyle, devotion to the Word of God and prayer, passion for sharing the love of Christ, and commitment to social involvement. Youth For Christ operates in over 100 nations and has more than 160 chapters impacting communities across America.
Visit the Youth For Christ media page here. Learn more about Youth For Christ at its website, www.yfc.net, Facebook and Instagram pages, Twitter feed @yfcusa or on Vimeo.
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To interview a Youth For Christ representative, contact Media@HamiltonStrategies.com, Patrick Benner, 610.584.1096, ext. 104, or Deborah Hamilton, ext. 102.
