Thanks for your donation and picking up the tab for our urban youth workers lunch the other day. We really appreciate it! The Mexican food was delicious!

What! You didn't know you were buying lunch for about 35 urban leaders? Sorry, sometimes I forget to tell you all the ways your gifts to YouthPartnersNET is making a difference in so many lives and is such an encouragement.

Let me explain. For years now (I've forgotten how many) YPN has been providing a free monthly lunch to honor, encourage, and equip urban youth leaders in Denver and Colorado Springs. It's one small way to say thanks for all the hard work they do 24/7/365. And it's a great time to fellowship, share ideas, activities and network together. We've seen God do some amazing things in these groups.

Here's how our typical lunches play out. In Denver, we meet in an old inner-city former Jewish Synagogue that has been transformed and renovated into Confluence Ministries, one of our key partners in Denver.

Folks start gathering around 11am. Desiree brings in the food she's prepared at her home. (It's our way to help this hispanic mom with her catering business. She also cooks for our groups coming to Denver for CityConnexx). Around 11:15 we go around the room for quick introductions and welcome the new folks.  This month we had lots of donated gifts to hand out to everyone, including some wigs that we gave to all the bald guys. We had a blast. (Free donated gifts are part of every lunch).

After that we pray for our meal and have about 30 min of just great fellowship. This month I sat with a new guy Jared who has a business that cleans out homes that have been foreclosed. The bank says he can keep anything he finds and sometimes there's good useful stuff. So he welcomed our ministry partners who need stuff to come by their warehouse and grab it; tables, chairs, tools, clothes, even a working van that someone left in a garage. Plus he needs guys to work, so several of our leaders gave him names of folks that need work. That's how it works when God's people bring what they can offer to the table.

Then we invite a special speaker to share with us. Sometimes it's an expert in fundraising, sometimes a program person, sometimes a foundation representative, or like this month Dave Powers (second from the right) with HeavenFest, a mega Christian music festival in Denver. Dave inspired and challenged our network to be obedient to God's call and do what ever it takes to reach the lost. He then announced this year they have a goal to give 20,000 free tickets to all our urban partners. This is nearly $500,000 in GIK for our network.

So your gift this month already has multiplied into several thousand free tickets for urban youth to be surrounded by the word of God, prayer and hear groups like Third Day, Skillet, Kutless, Matthew West, Seventh Day Slumber, Disciple, Flame . . . 80 Artists on 8 Stages all day August 8th. Come join us if you're around or in town.  YPN will be hosting the Youth Leaders Tent. RSVP for a free VIP pass to our tent. Many of the artists will be dropping by during the day. We did this last year and it was awesome!

For Him and Them,

Dean Cowles
YouthPartnersNET
President

LIVE COMPASSION

Your Donations at Work:

Rehoboth Christian School was founded in 1903 as a ministry to the Native American peoples of the Four Corners region. When it opened, six Navajo children were its first students, and now Rehoboth continues its ministry by educating 443 students K-12. 

Rehoboth's student body is both ethnically and economically diverse - 69% are Native American students, 10% Hispanic, Asian or African American and 21% Anglo make it one of the most diverse, private Christian Schools in the US.  They serve children living in America’s 3rd poorest county, nearly 50% of the students come from low-income and poverty-level income families.

A Rehoboth education helps students develop confidence, competence, and compassion. Rehoboth is committed to building students up not only intellectually, but also spiritually and emotionally, helping them grow into mature Christians who approach the world with a healthy perspective and the skills necessary for living in it.  (Photo = middle school class at Bible Camp)

  
YPN is honored to provide another grant from our Native American/Rich Mullins Fund to Rehoboth Christian School for their Tuition Assistance Program which serves the students with the greatest financial needs. 

Prayer Request:

Liberty Kinsel is not your average 7th grade student.  She has more determination, and more willpower than most her age.  Coming from a single parent home, Liberty lives with her father who was paralyzed in an auto accident.  Beyond the stresses of being a pre-teen, Liberty must also carry out extra chores and responsibilities at home. 

Her dad always longed to be a teacher thus instilling a drive and instinctive nature in his daughter.  She also plans to be a teacher.  Thoroughly entrenched in Rehoboth activities, she was able to spend two weeks at New Mexico State University in their “Dream Makers” program.  This cemented her desire to go to college, become a teacher and serve her tribe as a leader in her community,

Please pray for continued strength and determination for this child of God.  She has a challenging road ahead of her with caring for her father, while also living out her dreams to serve God and her community as a teacher.