June 2025

Chicago XJ - Mission Trip

Experience Jesus (XJ) is a youth discipling and evangelism event hosted by SonLife at Moody Bible Institute in Chicago.  This is the second year of XJ as they started up again after Covid, but I knew the mission by its former name SEMP (Students Equipped to Minister to Peers) as I had attended SEMP in 2009 as a high school student.  When I was invited to come as a trainer to XJ, I felt I had come "full circle" as SEMP had been the catalyst for desiring to go on short-term mission trips to the Czech Republic.  I was excited to be a part of this mission again!

In the morning, the students participate in two training sessions about Foundational Christian Truth (Anchor Training) and Evangelism (Net Training).  I was a co-trainer for the Net Training as we taught the students how to cast "nets" in the relationships they have to share the gospel with their friends and family and then do some CPR - Cultivate the relationship, Plant seeds, and Reap the fruit of discipleship.  I had so much fun teaching and encouraging the students and youth pastors!  We shared many stories of our own ministry experiences, but mainly looked at Jesus's model of ministry and focused on how He reached the lost.  We looked at stories like Nicodemus, Zacchaeus, and the Woman at the Well along with others and then applied what we saw from Jesus's example to our own lives.  The students were phenomenal!

Neither my co-trainer nor I are very tech-savvy, but we managed with a few hiccups - the tech support staff was amazing and even awarded us a "Most Improved" certificate at the end of the week!

Between the stories, discussion questions, and video clips, we had multiple interactive games for the students to push them outside of their comfort zones in speaking and sharing while also giving sometimes a silly and fun atmosphere! There were about 200 students and youth pastors (about 15 youth groups) represented at this conference from all over the United States.  The larger youth groups were often divided into multiple classrooms to mix them in with other students.  It was fun to see the students try different seats in the classroom throughout the week to talk to new students as they became comfortable with one another.  On the final day of class, the students all wrote letters to a friend they had been praying for all week.  As they had learned much during the week, we challenged them to continue sharing their faith at home and ask their friends for a time to meet.  We are praying for God to continue to work in the hearts of these students as they return to their homes and have these conversations with friends and continue to share the gospel. 

In the afternoons, the students went with their youth groups out onto the streets of Chicago and shared their faith with people in the city.  On the first day, I reached out to one youth group I had connected with in my class and asked if I could join them for their outing and, since then, they became my "adopted youth group".  I joined them most of the days and had some really great conversations with people out on the streets of Chicago.  I rejoiced as students I was with said "that was the first time I prayed for a stranger aloud!" or "that was the first time I shared my testimony!" and "that was the first time I told someone about the gospel!"  It was clearly the Holy Spirit working and their hearts were passionately going deeper and deeper to seeing the lost people of Chicago each day.  There were many times we sat with people for an extended amount of time and just heard their stories.  We prayed for a homeless young man as he went to a job interview, prayed with a group of high school foster kids who were coming from their mom's funeral the day before, prayed with a couple as they asked Jesus to give them a sign to soften their hearts as they desire to make Him Lord but overthinking kept stopping them, prayed with a man whose brother has terminal cancer and only months to live, prayed with a fisherman who has anxiety and just wanted Jesus's forgiveness, and prayed with a young man as he desires to raise his three-week old baby to know Jesus as her Lord and Savior!

One afternoon, instead of joining the youth group out on the streets of Chicago, I joined the SonLife Team as we took to Chicago on bikes!  It was a wonderful time, and I really enjoyed the change of pace halfway through the week and getting to hear from many other stateside missionaries about their ministries.  It was a blessing to be able to connect with the other trainers and hear their encouragement also. 

Youth Group

As of June 1st, I am a co-discussion group leader for a group of 6th grade girls at church!  I am so excited for this upcoming journey with these young ladies and have been ecstatic getting to know them and jumping in with all their energy!  We took first place in our summer kick-off event against all the older grades (7th-12th), which really set the bar high for competitions in the future with this group.  What I loved about that first night was hearing the girls talk after the program.  As we looked into the wisdom of Proverbs, the speaker touched on many points and I watched as the girls frantically took notes in their Bible margins and whispered to each other "there's so much good information!"

I've been reminded of the little joys with this group as they engage in the activities and when the games are over, they are quick to make up a new game all on their own!  They invite upperclassmen to join them, and I'm learning so much as their leader.  Specifically, I've learned I should mic one of my students because she is nearly constantly saying something comical; I've learned how much sugar gives one of my girls a sugar-high (and it isn't a lot...); and I've learned some 6th graders don't have a concept of age as they've asked if I'm a teenager or 50.  Looking forward to this fun, wild, blessed ride with this group this year! 

Our first summer event outside of regular youth group time was a Nerf War with all 6th through 8th graders, and I had so much fun with these ladies!  They are tough and strategic - we filled the hoodie hoods and pockets with extra ammunition and regularly checked in with each other to leave no soldier behind.  (In the battle, I broke two nails, got two minor cuts, and had a bruise for a couple days, but it was all worth it!)

Student Link

Summer schedules bring new commitments, but these high schoolers and young adults are still focused on their Student Link commitments!  We are finding times that work to meet and trying new places, but are always so happy when it works to gather and encourage each other.  I am so proud of the ways these girls have grown in these five months as they desire to seek God more! 

We concluded our weekly morning prayer now that school is out for summer, and we celebrated by bringing donuts to a few high school students on their final day.  It has been a great reminder this season to focus on praying for teenagers in this community and in our churches.  I recently heard how one student focused ministry calls their ministry the 9 Month Mission as they work with high school students as they are lights in their schools during the school year.  I used this phrase to encourage a couple students this semester and pray God will continue to use them as they meet with their friends over the summer months too!

Toddler Tuesdays 

We are continuing in our theme about emotions with the toddlers.  Last month, we stated with the emotion "angry" and this month, we looked at "fear".  After reading a book about a character who was afraid and connecting it to our own worries, the toddlers listened to the story of Peter walking on the water.  As I got to the part when Peter started sinking, I asked the kids what they thought would be a good prayer to say when they feel afraid.  One child said, "maybe just 'help me.'"  I told them that is exactly what Peter told Jesus and Jesus did help him when he was afraid in the water.  We made floating Jesus and Peter crafts and the kids continually tried to sink Jesus and Peter, even making little waves to try to keep them under the water, but, without fail, the foam characters floated back to the surface despite the preschoolers' and toddlers' efforts.  They were all excited to have try out their new "bath toy" at home too!

Madison and Czech Teams

I am looking forward to two upcoming mission trips in July and September as I will be joining the high schoolers on a mission trip to Madison, WI, and helping lead a team of young adults back to Czech in September.  Our Madison team had a team serve day as we helped prepare VBS (Vacation Bible School) at one of the church campuses.  It was a great time to get to serve together and also help out the staff in their final days of preparation for the busy week ahead. 

I enjoyed chatting with a few members of the team as we completed tasks and learned lots about their strengths working together as a team throughout the serving day.

Little break by the campfire... 

With everyone back for summer, we were finally able to meet as a whole team in person for our Czech team meeting!  It was so fun to have everyone together around the table as we are often used to having a couple people call in online to join.  We made a quick promo-video to share with the students in Czech as we are all really looking forward to seeing everyone, and then did a team building activity.  I led the team through a leadership strengths team building activity as we looked at the importance of our strengths and how to use our strengths together.  We were all really happy to see that there is a very large and balance variety of strengths represented on our team, and we felt we could communicate well with each other in the story challenges that were given.  I am so excited to see how this team will share the love of Jesus with a community that is so close to my heart.