Pastor Leonel sharing at the youth conference on Saturday.
Over the weekend this past Saturday, we had the privilege of going to a youth conference that happens every three months in different locations throughout the state of Jalisco. This conference took place here in Autlán at a local park. The ones in charge of this time asked Jessie if she would lead worship. If you haven’t checked our photo page we have now starting posting videos from YouTube. There is one of Jessie leading worship with some others as well. Check it out. The leaders also asked me to share in one of the workshops. All together there was probably close to 100 kids who attend. In my workshop, to clarify were about 20. I shared from the passage of scripture that Jesus says “If anyone wants to be my disciple, he must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me”. It was a little tough getting these kids to answer any questions I asked them. After the workshop, we played games. On my team was one kid who had come from a town over who was in my workshop. I found out that he was Catholic and that he never really goes to church. He was invited by another young guy. It was clear to me, just how important these events are for doing evangelism. We were singing worship songs and listening to a message from a different pastor in the park that all these kids come to. This kid may never set foot in a Christian church, but here he was listening to a gospel message where he may never have heard before. Another aspect that is really beneficial for these events is just the friendships that these kids get to have. We live in a catholic country, in a majority catholic family and friends. There is less than one percent Christian in this town. So the amount of Christian friend these kids have is very few. They get to see for a moment that they are not alone. There others who have given the lives to Christ. Oh, how much these youth need friends in a society that has no problems with underage drinking. I have even seen picture on facebook of the youth in this city who have posted pictures with beer and tequila all over the place with no problem at all. It is such a norm. We need more youth who will follow Jesus instead of follow the way of the world.
