In Severouralsk, a city in the Ural Mountains region, city administration has a department of culture. The department organized an association of teenagers’ and youth clubs in the city and its suburbs. The work is held in a way that a small group of activists is trying to somehow organize leisure of youth so it would benefit society and young people themselves. But most young people come to these clubs to hang out, to kill time, at best, playing a game of pool or table tennis.
In the past the One Year for Jesus team from Severouralsk Church tried to work with this association: they liked, when Christians talked about the dangers of using drugs, alcohol, tobacco, but when they heard them talking about Jesus, they would interrupt, sometimes in an aggressive manner. This past summer the team held a festival for families of the city. For this event, they have attracted different organizations, one way or another involved in the work with families and children. The team met with the new managers for teenagers’ and youth clubs associations. In the conversation, our team expressed their willingness to cooperate in this work. They emphasized that they knew how to instruct the younger generation to make right choices – through faith in Jesus Christ.
Praise God, they were given an opportunity to organize youth activities and talk with young people about God. They held two meetings in suburbs of Cheremuhovo and Kalia. They prepared a drug awareness program. With multimedia means they shared the videos on the subject; people, who in the past were dependent on drugs, shared their stories. This topic helped them to move to deep heart-felt needs of youth. Gradually the conversation turned to the Creator, the need of repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. As a result, many young people were made to think about the meaning of their existence and many of them wanted to reconcile with God.
After these meetings, the team was allowed to talk to youth at Severouralsk Polytechnical College. All students were gathered in the assembly hall, where the team also held a straight forward talk about every person’s need – to repent and believe in Jesus Christ. There were many who wanted to do it. Thank God for such an opportunity and for a harvest of souls!
On the photo: the One Year for Jesus team of the Evangelical Pentecostal Church, Severouralsk
The Russian Church of Christians of Evangelical Faith
