Gabe
Colston from YouthWorks-Detroit
(center) visits the North Coast
of Ireland with friends from
Youth Initiatives
Youth-Works Detroit and Youth Initiatives
Belfast
From
Detroit to Belfast – a summer
of personal growth and service
For many of the past 16
summers, Youth Initiatves (YI) has been sending
young people from Belfast to come and serve in
the city of Detroit as part of our Detroit
Summer Outreach internship program. These youth
have encountered the living Christ in powerful
and life‐changing ways while serving in the
city, and they have made a powerful impact in
the lives of Detroit youth. One of the first,
Tony Silcock, is a Program Director with YI, and
many others have returned to serve and lead and
become planted in our outreaches in Northern
Ireland.
This past summer, an
amazing first has occurred – YouthWorks‐Detroit
has sent our first young person to Belfast to
serve in their Summer Schemes program. Gabe
Colston came to us as an intellectual 8th grade
student just beginning to find his way as a
young man. Four years later, after serving as a
member of our StreetTeam Leadership Program and
our youth group, Gabe has grown tremendously,
graduated high school, and is preparing to enter
college at Grand Valley State University (GVSU)
in the fall.
However, he has also grown
tremendously in his relationship with Jesus, and
he has heard a call and invitation to service.
When the opportunity to give his summer to
service arose, he jumped at the chance to follow
Jesus in the adventure awaiting him with YI.
He dove in, spending his
time in Belfast living household life with the
Servants of the Word, in a common life of prayer
and service, and reaching out to youth who often
have never embraced much positive in their lives
or been encouraged that their lives could amount
to anything. We are grateful that Gabe is
choosing a life of service and sacrificial love,
and excited to see where the Lord will lead him
next. Please continue to pray for Gabe and all
our Detroit youth as God continues his work of
renewal and revival in the city of Detroit one
life at a time.
My amazing Experience
with Detroit Summer Outreach
by Chelsea Duff
“The time I spent serving with Detroit
Summer Outreach this past summer with was the best
of my entire life. I cannot in words do justice to
this summer, this city, and the Lord’s work here.
I have never experienced anything as amazing as
Detroit Summer Outreach. The blessings I have
experienced this summer I cannot count. Detroit,
the people in Detroit, YouthWorks‐Detroit, and
everybody I met will always have a very special
place in my heart. I have so much love and
admiration for the city of Detroit. Maybe someday
I will figure out how to express how amazing this
summer was. "
[Chelsea Duff is a member of
University Christian Outreach at the University of
Maryland, USA.]
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