The Workers Are Standing By

I know it is early for my April newsletter, but I wanted to get this out.  This has been a rough week and the Coronavirus played only a small part.  Tuesday, I went into a pod and saw a young man sitting with a very distant face.  I went up and asked him what was going on.  He said his brother had been shot in the face.  He was in the hospital on life support.  I prayed with him.  I could hear in his voice that another layer of hardness was starting to cover his heart.  He was fighting the pain.
Thursday, I received word that all the facilities were closing their doors to volunteers.  This was not unexpected, but the uncertainty of when the doors will be reopened and not knowing what has happened to the youth, we have been working with makes it tough.
Saturday, afternoon I received a text that a youth that I had worked with was shot and killed.  I had worked with him about a year.  He was a great kid willing to learn and wanting a better life.  We did at least 15 Life Skills lessons.  He was the only kid that wrote out the answers to the questions at the end of each lesson and was ready to discuss them each week.  I signed him out of the facility and picked him up from the step-down house and took him to church and to my men’s group.  We had an authentic Christ sharing relationship right up to the point he went on the run.  Another volunteer in Pueblo talked to him when he got picked up down there.  He was able to remove rocks and weeds from the still rough ground.  He was 19 years old and now he is gone.  I pray there was at least a shoot of wheat rowing up out of his heart among the many tares and that God’s mercy and love reached him.  Please pray for his mother.
Our volunteer workers are standing by.  Please keep them in prayer as God fixes their plows, restocks their seed, and fills their watering cans.  Long after the virus has passed, and the doors reopen these men and women will be ready to back into the fields.  They will not question their call or the cost…of time and the reality that their hearts will be broken.

Blessings, 

Andrew LaValley 
Executive Director Southern Colorado Youth for Christ 
719-471-0333 office 
719-510-9923 cell
2120 Academy Circle, Bldg. G Colorado Springs CO 80909
www.socoyfc.org

​P.S. If you would like to help support us during this difficult time, please check out the link below. Thank you!