We Serve Hilltop
Posted on Monday, September 19, 2016 by
Faced with incredible challenges and obstacles, many of Hilltop’s youth will never have the opportunity to get out of a life of gangs, poverty, abuse and drugs....
We refuse to accept that.
In order to reach the kids here, we need the most unique people who are willing to give up their time and energy to make a difference. We are committed because we know that Jesus loves these young people and wants them to know His love for them. No matter our backgrounds, we believe we are sent to give life to their stories because God has given life to ours, regardless of how different those stories might be. Jesus unites us under His name and it’s under His name that we desire to serve these kids.
We are the people the Lord has assembled to do life with and reach kids who live in Hilltop.
A single black mother who grew up in Tacoma, a Japanese college student who just became a Christian, a Korean girl who grew up in Tacoma and graduated from University of Washington, a blue collared boy from Kansas with a heart for youth, a mother of two whose story starts with her being a teen parent, an ex-gang member getting his life back on track, a middle class white girl who chose reaching girls on Hilltop over med school, a Russian boy who has found purpose and a different side of Jesus through tutoring and doing life with kids from the neighborhood, a girl from Puyallup who just graduated from UPS and answered the call to reach youth and me, a tall black man from Texas.
We are a diverse, powerful, fun, passionate and gifted team of people that Jesus has died for and has called to be a part of his kingdom and the movement of YFC here in Tacoma.
Yes the Lord is doing amazing things in the kids that we reach. Kids who feel abandoned and like no one cares or understands them now feel the love of Jesus because of this awesome team. Not only do they get to feel the love but they get to see what Jesus and the kingdom of heaven looks like. A kingdom filled with diversity. Different backgrounds, race, class systems and even states. The kids on the hilltop don’t just get to hear the message of Jesus but they get to see how Jesus calls people with nothing in common on the outside and puts them on the same team. And not only does he put them on the same team but he gives them so much unity, joy, and just love for one another that it has to only come from this Jesus that they preach about every week.
Again great things are happening in the teens from the hilltop that get to come to sozo but I believe that comes from great things being done in the adults who are leading and doing life with them.
Story by Josh Chambers, Hilltop Ministry Coordinator at Tacoma Area YFC.