CPUnk I write right. Right? Aye.

YG — A Mission to Stand Apart

So, as some of you know, I’m now Youth Min­is­ter for my church. It’s pretty cool, but it’s also pretty heavy (any­body actu­ally in YG with me, if you’re expect­ing a lot of “I’ve got this nailed” here on my own blog, pre­pare to be baf­fled).
Any­way, what I’ve walked into is a crew of awe­some kids who really want a liv­ing rela­tion­ship with God and a place to come and hang out with­out judge­ment. The YG is small, the bud­get is non-existent, and the whole thing is vol­un­teer.
I’m cur­rently in the YG office, sift­ing through years of paper, throw­ing most of it out. This is a do-over at this point. There’s a hand­ful of things we’re keep­ing, but most every­thing else is out the door and gonna be replaced by what the kids want first.
First mis­sion from Christ accom­plished — grab the wheel of the plane dur­ing tran­si­tion and keep it off the ground. We’re sta­ble and level, Praise Jesus (He really knows what He’s doing, He rocks).
So what’s up next? Well, this crew of mis­fits and trou­ble­mak­ers, with me as the lead trou­ble­mak­ing mis­fit, are gonna start look­ing into mis­sions of sub­stance.
Already we’re talk­ing about:

• Min­istry to incar­cer­ated youth for Xmas
• Doing some­thing with the mil­i­tary or something
• The ubiq­ui­tous old-folks home Xmas visit

But what I want to see is more — some edge-walking, down and dirty, in your face Jesus crew stuff. Folks want to stand apart, with­out nec­es­sar­ily draw­ing fire — we wear freak hats, dif­fer­ent clothes, etc. etc. — but what sets you apart more than a love of Christ?
Being an active, full-contact Chris­t­ian, is the bright­est purple-haired, in your face state­ment any­one can make these days.
But to do it, you gotta really know the Man … you gotta be able to reach out to Him at the drop of a hat, hear His voice, know His desires for you.
So right now — it’s all about the basics. Can you pray, do you know how to pray — why even pray — what about prayer any­way — does it work? Basic hand-to-hand stuff — basic work on the day-in-day-out liv­ing with God stuff.
Next week it’s about Fel­low­ship — we’re not alone, we don’t ever do this alone, and aside from fel­low­ship with each other, here’s my backup — have you met Him? He calls Him­self God — I think He can take you.
Any­way — it’s an uphill climb — kids are com­ing and things are chang­ing — but I’m run­ning as fast as I can, and I’m really grate­ful that there’s a crew of folks help­ing out too.
Well, that’s where I am …

Phiona — September 12, 2005

Here is what Phiona wrote in her last let­ter to SCYG.
Dear Friends of Saint Charles Youth Group,
Praise God!
How are you over there? Let me hope you are doing weill and how is your atmos­phere over those ends? Mine is not all that fair because of the seri­ous dis­eases in our coun­try, Uganda, most espe­cially headache due to much sun­shine which is some­times not good to our lives and other dis­eases like Malaria caused by mos­qui­toes just dis­turb­ing our nation. Please friends am request­ing for your prayers as am also pray­ing to the Almighty God to bless our coun­try.
Back to school times, it was really an enjoy­able one where by I enjoyed stud­ies mostly Chris­t­ian Reli­gious Edu­ca­tion (CRE) where we talk about God, how kind is God to man, Jus­tices in the African Tra­di­tional soci­ety and very many oth­ers. I really want to thank you very much for the amount of school years you spend on me am so glad and am still with Jesus pray­ing for you every now and then such that he rewards you the more and given an end­ing life. [I think she means an eter­nal life — ed.]
Am at a school called East High School Niinda in Kam­pala, where by Kam­pala is a very good place full of enjoy­able things. And I like my school very much am in a board­ing school and am also glad that am in a board­ing school and that am spon­sored. Even that I thank God of what I am to be spon­sored is not a sim­ple game. And so many friends of mine and other chil­dren in Uganda are suf­fer­ing alot in get­ting school does and some may end up drop­ping out of schools because of money which is a com­mon prob­lem mostly every where result­ing in people’s weak­nesses.
Am in my hol­i­days and am soon going back to school because the hol­i­day are over and some chil­dren have already gone back to their schools toady on the 12th of Sep­tem­ber, 2005.
May God Bless You
Psalms 116:1–2
I love the lord for he heard my voice I will call on him as long as I live
Kisakye Phiona