back in action!

Hi Folks!

Well, after a whirlwind of events like graduation and a wedding, I am back in the swing of things at work here in OKC! The past week has been a week where I have caught up on work, and starting to finish the planning for Impact Your City.

For those of you who don't know, Impact Your City is a week long mission experience that we plan for the students of OKC. We focus on investing in our students and also showing them ways in which they can serve this city not just on a missions trip, but year round as well. We believe that if we want to have an impact on the world, it must start with where we are and that is by, encountering the people around us. The whole purpose of IYC is to help push back darkness in our city with the help of our students. During this week, we will be serving at four different locations. We will be working with refugees at the Spero Project, homeless people as well as kids at City Rescue and also inner city students on the NE side of town! We are so excited about the different opportunities that we will have to serve OKC. This is a huge event for us at Youth for Christ and we would love for you to partner with us in prayer that we will make a lasting impression on these students lives, but also, that life change will happen and that OKC will be introduced to the light of Christ.

God is doing amazing things here and I am so blessed to be apart of it! My prayer is that I will allow God to use me to make a difference in students life this next year. My prayer is that we will line our hearts to God and know what it means to love, to serve and to live a life full of JOY!

Thank you so much for your support with Youth for Christ. I am blessed by you and this ministry would not be possible without your help!!

much love,

Chelsie Bowman.

"When we seek to encounter the presence of Christ in young people, we'll find ourselves better able to see them, hear them, feel compassion for them, and respond in kindness."

A blessing

I have been in Oklahoma City, interning with Youth for Christ since the beginning of the year. Now, it is almost May, and I leave in two short days to gradate from Warner University and then off to get married in June. However, I will be back in OKC June 20th to start working full time with YFC.

Since being here this semester, I have faced many things that have challenged me, that have encouraged me but most of all things that have bettered me. I have had a lot of stuff on my plate this semester with school work, a wedding, and making sure I get everything done with YFC before I leave. :) Each day, brought about something new in my life. I call these encounters. From these encounters, I have learned what God has called me to do. I have learned who it is I need to serve, to love, to share and who it is that i need to walk on this journey with. I have been challenged to live a life that with better the Kingdom and the ones I come in contact with. This is what I am learning... this is what I am called to do... to make a difference... to serve.. to love.. to see life-change happen in the midst of my students.

I have been given an amazing campus to serve on with Youth for Christ. It is called Hefner Middle School. This campus is full of wonderful yet broken students who are wanting nothing but love in their lives. From these students, I have been developing relationships with students that I come in contact with.. and from these relationships, I am playing on walking with them over the next few years on their journey to see how God shapes them so much more into who they are meant to be. I pray that God will allow me to have true organic, authentic relationships with these students. I pray that I will allow myself to be Jesus to them in their world, but I pray that they will see and experience Jesus in such a real way. It excites me that I get to be in "their" world... I don't invite them into my world, but I go into their world, and experience life with them.. and see where it is that I can be the best leader to these students. I am blessed to be on such a great journey with these students. I love them, and I barely know them. I love their stories, their hope and their courage to face the many things that they do. They are a blessing in my life.

I appreciate all that are on this journey with me. I couldn't ask for better mentors in my two bosses Todd and Kristi. I couldn't ask for a better husband to be who walks with me on this journey. I couldn't ask for a better support system in OKC and all over this country and I couldn't ask for better students in my life.

I am blessed. I am learning a lot. I am loving. I am seeing a Kingdom impact. I am trusting. I am serving. I am on a journey that will shape me more into the youth pastor, leader and follower i am called to be.

Thanks for being on this journey with me.

Greater things are yet to come.. I just know it. :)

Let YOUR will be done in me,

Chels.