A Letter to You

At the end of the first week of working with SLA, Sanele and Joe came up to me at a small group leader training that Claudia and I were attending at one of the local care points. Sanele shares with me that he led a prayer of repentance that morning and 50 of the kids attending decided to accept Christ into their hearts that morning. How incredible!

Joe then goes on to explain that as an organization, SLA wants to be better about partnering with local churches in the area. He asks me if I could help with this. Not really knowing how I would go about doing that or what that had to do with that morning, this is what he says…

“We really want to be better at partnering with churches and letting them know how much we appreciate the work they are doing in the community especially the youth leaders. We were thinking about writing a letter to the local youth leaders at the churches for the kids that accepted Christ this morning. We want to thank them for the work they are doing and how important it is. What do you think about that kind of letter? Would that be something that you would have wanted to receive as a local youth worker? Do you think you could help us write something like that at the office this week?”

Thinking about receiving such an encouraging letter like that made me want to straight up cry. I told him, yes, of course I would love to help write a letter like that. As I thought of my own life back in the States before the race, as a youth leader, I know receiving that kind of encouragement is incredible and helps you to continue the good work for the Kingdom of God. Going back to the office that week, I sat down and wrote this letter for the organization to share with the local youth leaders in their community.

Dear Local Youth Leader,

On behalf of the staff at SLA (Servant Leadership Academy), we wanted to thank you for the good work you are doing by investing in the lives of youth in this community. We wanted to let you know that we are seeing the fruit of your work reflected in the lives of local students.

Saturday, February 12th, SLA held an event for any students at our care points who are interested in leading small groups for the care point they attend. During this event, students learn and have discussions on how to lead other students to understand the love of Christ as well as many other areas of how to live a Christian life. They learn how to be disciples of Christ and help others their age to walk in that same way.

At the start of the event on Saturday, _______________ devoted his/her life to Christ during the time of prayer and devotion. We are excited to see lives like ___________ be transformed by the love of Christ in our community, and we know that part of that comes from youth leaders like you, who are devoted to sharing the love of Christ with their students. Just the fact that students like ______________ show up to these events to deepen their walk with God and lead others to do the same, show just how much what you are doing in their lives matter.

We just wanted to encourage you as a local youth leader to continue in the good work that you are doing for the kingdom of God. As you pour out Christ’s love to others, students lives are being radically transformed as they come to know Christ’s love for themselves. Thank you again for all that you do as you follow Christ and lead others to a relationship with Him.

Galations 6:9 “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”

Sincerely,

Your Brothers and Sisters in Christ at SLA

First, I want to thank all of you who have ever poured into me and encouraged me in my spiritual walk with the Lord. You guys have no idea how your words of encouragement, guidance, and support have helped me grow and deepen my relationship with the Father. I am beyond thankful to everyone that has ever encouraged me in my walk with God and in my role as a youth leader.

Second, I want to encourage all of you to reach out and thank those who have made an impact in your relationship with God. From Sunday school teachers to youth leaders, children directors, pastors, parents, grandparents, friends, aunts, uncles, cousins, mentors, anyone who took the time to encourage you in your faith, let those who help lead and grow you in that walk with God know how much you appreciate them for encouraging you in your faith journey. A thank you means so much more than you know and will encourage them in their own walk with the Lord.

Lastly, specifically to those working in ministry in all the areas of ministry, you are making an impact. You are doing good work for the Kingdom. You are making a difference in people’s lives whether you ever see the fruit of that or not. I want to encourage you to keep going, keep listening to God, and don’t give up. The Lord sees the fruit of your labor, and that’s all that matters anyway. Thank you for devoting your life to the work of the Lord. He sees you, and even if no-one tells you, so do we.