Issues and Answers (D2D)

Search and Rescue

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: Karen Thomas (Host), Richard Valenzuela

Home

Series Code: IAADD

Program Code: IAADD000005A


00:28 Welcome to Issues and Answers.
00:29 Today we're going to talk about issues and conflicts of youth
00:32 in today's society.
00:34 And what the church can do to rescue
00:36 and save our young people.
00:38 Our guest today is Richard Valenzuela.
00:40 Richard is President of Leadership Diversity Institute,
00:44 the former Education Director for Silicon Valley FACES,
00:47 former Executive Director and President of Anytown USA,
00:51 International Council of Christians and Jews.
00:53 Internationally recognized for as a diversity specialist.
00:57 He was an active participant in the Civil Rights Movement
01:00 and now consults regularly with schools,
01:02 colleges and universities across the US.
01:05 Richard is going to share his life experiences
01:07 and working with over 10,000 young people
01:10 across the country.
01:12 Welcome to the program, Richard.
01:13 My pleasure.
01:15 So glad that you could make it.
01:17 So what's happening today with our young people?
01:22 Well, you know, my experience comes from working with
01:26 what I call out of classroom education
01:28 which is doing camps and retreats and workshops
01:31 and we'll get more into that later.
01:32 But what I've observed and what I've learned from these kids,
01:36 thousands of kids are some of the major issues
01:39 that are constantly coming up,
01:41 constantly affecting their lives.
01:44 And one of the big ones is of course suicide.
01:48 Teen suicide is at epidemic proportions right now.
01:52 I was working with one school in California,
01:54 they had up to four suicides in one year.
01:57 And it made national news and it just keeps happening.
02:00 You know, when we take the kids up to camp,
02:02 they begin to reveal, many of them think about suicide.
02:07 A lot of them attempted and then thank God
02:09 only a few succeed but it still,
02:11 it's happening too much.
02:13 How did you get involved in working with young people?
02:15 Have you always,
02:17 has it's always been something that you've done,
02:19 do you have children of your own for example?
02:21 Oh, yeah.
02:22 I only have five children they're all boys except four,
02:25 four fantastic daughters and one son
02:28 and now have eight grandkids.
02:30 But I've always had a passion for youth,
02:32 I worked in student government high school and college
02:36 and it's just, it's just something
02:38 that I wanted to do.
02:39 You know, it kept directing me,
02:41 I keep being directed to human relations
02:43 and even though at one time I wanted to go into business,
02:46 I ended up in the nonprofit field and in education.
02:50 So that's basically the interest is just working
02:53 and changing and reaching these kids because they've got,
02:57 lot of them have a lot of problems.
02:59 So what were some of your first experiences
03:01 in working with young people?
03:05 You said right out of college you started
03:08 working with young people?
03:09 Even before I went to college
03:10 I got invited to this one camp program
03:14 and which was called Anytown.
03:16 And from there I thought, gee, this is fantastic,
03:19 we're educating,
03:21 we're not necessarily just marching or protesting,
03:23 this was in the middle of civil rights in 1965.
03:26 And so I thought this is an answer to some degree
03:31 of how to reach kids before it becomes promise,
03:34 especially when you're dealing with prejudice too and racism,
03:37 bias and all that.
03:39 It was a good time to work with them
03:41 and so I volunteered for seven years all way through college
03:44 and then I got into military when I was in the service.
03:47 I was one of the first race relations directors
03:49 or coordinators in the US Navy.
03:53 And then I did it in the reserves.
03:55 I was one of the first to do it in the reserve unit in Phoenix.
03:59 So it just kept leading me to this and so I went to work,
04:02 I got to finish my degree and went to work
04:04 for the National Conference of Christians and Jews
04:07 which at that time was a national organization
04:09 working in interfaith relations,
04:11 in a group relations and they had the camp going
04:14 so I helped expand it, took it nationwide,
04:17 you know, many years.
04:19 And so, now we're in about 20 different cities
04:21 across the country with about 100 different high schools
04:23 involved in it.
04:25 I like to do more of that or train more people to do it.
04:28 So you mentioned that suicide is a very big issue right now
04:32 with young people.
04:33 What are some of the other issues
04:35 that young people are facing?
04:36 Oh, well, you know, one of the other ones that's constant
04:39 is the idea of assault and abuse and date rape.
04:45 One of the segments that we do in our-- in many of my programs
04:48 or workshops in is dealing with male female relationships
04:53 and how can we improve them.
04:54 And how they have messages that they're receiving
04:59 that are negative messages.
05:00 And I'll get more into that later.
05:02 But it's just the constant idea that this is happening.
05:05 There are predators on every campus
05:07 and we need to be aware of what we can do to,
05:11 to cut that down.
05:12 Especially which is the 30 show I wanted to bring up,
05:15 especially when you involve drugs or alcohol.
05:17 Then that creates a lot of problems with abuse
05:21 and molestation et cetera and then date rape.
05:25 So those go hand in hand
05:26 and again a lot of kids are still thinking,
05:28 it's cool to smoke and drink and do all this.
05:31 And they just don't control it.
05:35 So we're going to be talking today about
05:37 what churches can do and some of the issues
05:40 that young people are facing
05:42 and how churches and other groups can help that.
05:45 What is the whole concept about out of the classroom
05:49 experiences, learning experiences?
05:52 There's one more issue I want to touch base
05:54 or can I do it now. Sure.
05:55 Okay, this is this fourth issue that I think is very important
05:58 especially where churches are involved.
06:00 And that is to the amount of students today that I see
06:04 at camp or these workshops that are turning away from faith,
06:08 turning away from religion, the growing number of atheist,
06:11 agnostic students.
06:13 I did a camp recently where we had the kids stand up
06:16 for the different faith groups
06:18 and there were a few Protestants,
06:19 a few Catholics, a few Jewish kids.
06:21 But all of a sudden about almost 50% of the camp
06:24 of 50 kids said they were agnostic or atheist.
06:27 So I think that's something
06:29 that really needs to be looked at and worked on too.
06:32 Because in, you know,
06:34 I think it has something to do with suicide.
06:36 Many of the great percentage of the kids
06:38 that they've analyzed or studied that have no faith.
06:42 And so it's an easier, you know,
06:46 way to just give up and so.
06:49 But you were telling me, you were asking about
06:51 the out of classroom education concept, correct.
06:53 Anything in particular is the idea.
06:56 So, is every-- Can all these issues be taken care
06:59 of inside of the regular classroom?
07:01 Well, that's it.
07:03 This is why this type of programming
07:04 is can be so effective because, you know, you've got classrooms
07:08 where the bell goes off in 45, 50 minutes
07:10 and you've got to move on.
07:12 At least when you have them away from the classroom
07:14 and that's what out of classroom education is,
07:16 is taking them away from the classroom
07:17 and having them to have time to work out their issues,
07:21 to discuss their issues.
07:23 You know, that's where the churches have been the leaders
07:25 in out of classroom education, maybe they weren't aware of it
07:27 but every time they did a camp, every time they had a retreat.
07:30 Right.
07:31 Out of classroom education also include sports,
07:35 especially if they're done right
07:36 and for the right reasons, totally effective.
07:40 After school programs are becoming more and more popular
07:43 because there's no one home to take care of the kids,
07:44 so after school programs are becoming more necessary
07:48 in many schools across the country.
07:50 So it really works very effectively
07:54 when you have those students in an isolated environment,
07:57 in a safe environment where they're,
07:59 where it's open for them to talk
08:00 about any issues or concerns.
08:03 So when you have these kind of a situations,
08:05 what are some of the staff that's helpful to have
08:08 to be able to support the young people?
08:11 Well, that's a real important ingredient in any of these
08:13 out of classroom education programs
08:15 is how qualified the staff are, how well trained they are
08:19 because you're dealing with all types of issues
08:21 that they can come up very, very freely
08:24 and very openly with.
08:25 Once you create that safe environment,
08:27 kids become trusting and then they open up
08:30 and that's when we hear about these issues
08:31 over and over again, so definitely qualified staff.
08:35 Usually when we do a retreat with school,
08:39 we have, most of the staff come from the school
08:42 so they can go back and support the students
08:44 when they go back to school,
08:46 but we also get community people to participate.
08:49 Like who?
08:50 Like who?
08:52 Like yourself.
08:53 Yeah, remember that, when was that 5 years ago
08:55 when you came to one of-- to the camps in California.
08:58 Yeah. And it.
09:00 And I should say I'm a teacher in a school psychology as well,
09:02 right.
09:04 So you get like a psychologist, you get some of the counselors.
09:07 Counselors, we get high,
09:08 we get college students to be in the cabins with the students
09:11 especially if the faculty can't do that.
09:13 Right.
09:15 And we also have police officers
09:16 that sometimes come in
09:18 and that's another major prejudice or you know that,
09:21 that often happens.
09:23 So what about in a church setting
09:25 if you know they're not necessarily tied to a school,
09:29 what would be some of the church people,
09:31 of course, I guess you could have the professionals
09:32 that are in the church, right?
09:34 Sure, professionals in the church,
09:35 community people that have other jobs, have other thing,
09:38 but they have an interest in reducing prejudice
09:41 and helping kids.
09:43 It takes a whole group of diverse staff as well as,
09:48 as much as you can diverse student too.
09:50 Because basically what happens at these retreats is
09:52 they learn from each other
09:54 more than when they learn from the staff.
09:55 And they're not based on lecture, you know,
09:58 or necessarily extensive preaching
10:00 but it's based on them exchanging them
10:03 learning from one another.
10:06 You mention basically the four issues that you see,
10:08 the top issues are suicide,
10:12 the effects of drugs and alcohol on the young people,
10:18 effects of sexual molestation
10:20 and some of the other issues and assaults, date rape.
10:24 I mean, bullying is nationwide.
10:26 It's good to see that many schools have
10:28 instituted programs in bullying,
10:30 but now we're cyber bullying, it's a whole new area you see.
10:34 You hear kids committing suicide
10:36 every other week in newspaper
10:38 about because they were cyber bullied.
10:41 And that's where the cyber bullying is
10:43 where a person goes on Facebook or social media.
10:48 Social media. And what kinds of things.
10:50 Sadly to say, but what kinds of maybe explain to our audience
10:54 what is cyber bullying?
10:55 Well, basically if these kids are looking for friends
10:58 on the internet and or they are on Facebook or whatever
11:02 all these medias.
11:04 And somebody gets on their and invites them
11:07 and wants to be their friend,
11:08 it turns out that they want to do something more,
11:11 they do some harm to them or they tease them
11:14 or they harass them. From classmates.
11:16 Yes, classmates and so eventually, you know,
11:20 and this constant harassment and, you know,
11:22 there's been lots of cases like this
11:24 and so the kids can't handle it,
11:26 you know, no more so they say I'll give it up
11:29 and that's what suicide is about, just giving up.
11:33 One of the things that we try to teach up in the retreats
11:36 and I picked this up from a young counselor years ago
11:39 and that is to try to tell the students
11:41 that suicide is only-- it's a permanent solution
11:45 to a temporary problem. Right.
11:47 But, you know, when a child is going through this,
11:48 they don't think that way,
11:50 they have to really look at in the future.
11:53 And then you said the whole concept of
11:56 not having any concept about God.
11:59 What do you think that all comes from right now
12:00 in today's society?
12:02 You're saying that you're going to camps that years ago
12:04 that people had different faiths
12:06 and they would identify their faith
12:07 but now they're saying they don't even believe in God.
12:12 You know, I think there's a lot of things going against it.
12:15 You know, lot of parents have made the decision
12:17 not to take their children to church and so they say,
12:21 you know, I've heard said this several times, oh,
12:23 they will make up their minds eventually
12:25 or they'll make up their own choice.
12:26 But you've got to give them,
12:28 you've got to give them something to choose from
12:31 I think-- That's a good point.
12:32 Yeah, if you don't do-- Say that again.
12:35 I think you really got to give your children
12:37 just like me and my wife did.
12:39 We took them to church every Sunday and eventually we said
12:42 okay, now it's your choice to whatever religion or faith
12:45 you want to attend but at least you had a basis,
12:48 at least you had a foundation.
12:49 And that's what, you know,
12:51 this thinking that you don't give them a choice.
12:55 You know, that they will get your choice
12:57 even without nothing to work from.
13:00 I think another thing may be that we become very scientific.
13:05 You know, everything is scientific oriented
13:08 and so if you can't prove it
13:11 and that's what whole faith means you know,
13:13 is to have faith and believe it.
13:15 But so many people, young people today
13:17 are just into science and saying it's not working.
13:22 Or they see some of the-- And I've heard this argument,
13:27 I'm sure you have too over the years about
13:29 all the things have been done under the violent
13:33 or the worse things have been done
13:34 under the name of religion. Right.
13:36 Just like what's going on in the Middle East right now.
13:38 Under the name of religion, there's some terror going on,
13:41 there's some violence going on, killing going on
13:43 and you can look at that historically
13:45 but that was a misinterpretation,
13:48 a misguidance, a misused, misleaders I guess.
13:52 Right, the Bible doesn't teach violence with religion so.
13:57 You're right, people kind of take it on their own values,
14:01 groups of people and therefore, so you're saying that
14:04 youth today are looking at that seeing the violence
14:07 and the terrorism and the problems
14:09 that are associated with religion
14:11 and so they're walking away from religion.
14:12 Yes, some are.
14:13 Some are saying that they, there must not be a god
14:16 if all these problems are here.
14:18 But if they don't have that anchor in the word of God,
14:21 then like you said when they hit a problem,
14:25 where do they go with it. That's right.
14:27 They don't know where to go
14:29 and that's where the suicide and the other acting out
14:32 harmful things come into play.
14:37 Wow.
14:38 So what can churches do?
14:41 Because you said that churches were the leaders.
14:43 Church, it's true, churches were the leaders
14:45 in the Civil Rights Movement for example.
14:48 Maybe give us a little background on how
14:51 some of the churches help to be able to make things
14:54 better in society and how you think it can help here
14:57 with the young people today?
14:59 Well, let me give several areas,
15:00 one I think is they do they need to do more camps,
15:04 they need to do more retreats.
15:06 But not only for their own members of their-- Children,
15:09 you know, children of other members
15:11 but also reach out to nonmembers' children.
15:15 I really enjoy when I see these churches that bring buses
15:19 into the inner city and bring kids into their church
15:22 because these kids are not getting any direction,
15:24 their parents don't want to or can't go to a church
15:27 for some reason, but if we got those non then I think
15:31 that would make a big difference.
15:33 I think the other thing too I think churches need to expand
15:35 their missionary work.
15:37 The idea of providing more opportunities
15:41 for young people to go on a mission
15:43 on one or two year commitment where they have to sacrifice,
15:46 so they can mature where they can have that time to think
15:51 as well as support the church and support God etcetera.
15:55 So you think mission trips may be even I know,
15:58 I've heard of some that go like maybe during their spring break
16:01 or during the summer or even if they can--
16:02 Even though it's short term ones
16:05 but one of things that I've always admired is
16:06 what the Mormon Church has done is that
16:09 they've got extensive missionary program
16:11 and so does your church--
16:12 Seventh-Day Adventist they can go and serve for whole year
16:15 as a missionary worker.
16:17 But I think it needs to be made because a lot of young people
16:20 are coming out of high school not knowing
16:23 what they're going to do.
16:24 Some are not ready for college,
16:25 some don't want to go to college.
16:27 So why not go on a one or two year mission.
16:29 I mean, I even support the-- I mean,
16:31 I'm not even but I've always supported military service too.
16:35 Get away for a while,
16:37 learn I mean I spent two years of active duty
16:39 in the US Navy and it was such an experience
16:42 but it made me think and then I was ready to
16:44 because I wasn't going anywhere in college,
16:46 I was changing majors every semester.
16:48 So I figured out, okay, maybe I need to get away for a while
16:52 and think about what direction I want to go
16:54 and the military service gave me that.
16:56 And it also gave me the other reason
16:58 why I went in the service and it's still available
17:00 is the GI Bill go on school.
17:03 So, there's a lot of avenues to just for children to grow.
17:09 I also have found that some churches are taking on working
17:13 with foster care programs supporting foster care parents.
17:18 How do they do that?
17:20 Well, basically the one church I was attending
17:22 in the East Valley in Phoenix,
17:24 basically they got involved with the foster care program
17:29 with the state and they brought in speakers
17:32 and lectures and they have people,
17:33 some parents in the church became foster care parents
17:36 but not everybody can do that.
17:38 But they can sure support them.
17:40 They can mentor the students etcetera.
17:42 So the church took this on as a mission project.
17:45 They're actually having people come in from the state
17:48 or the county explain the foster program,
17:50 get their training and then actually go
17:52 and this is what you see is the missionary work
17:54 that the church can do-- That's another major.
17:56 Beyond the children of their immediate congregation.
17:59 It's a beautiful idea.
18:01 Let me tell you, foster care is one of the biggest social areas
18:05 today in the social area or support area
18:08 I guess you call it.
18:10 And I learned that 20 years ago when I was working with
18:13 one of the private foster care programs
18:15 that were sending students to our program
18:16 because here's what they found.
18:19 Many, this is 20 years ago
18:20 and I'm sure it's still pretty much the truth.
18:23 They found that many of their parents were of white
18:25 or European background they were foster cared
18:27 but many of their students were minority
18:30 so they had a cultural conflict,
18:31 they had a racial conflict in some families.
18:33 So they started sending their kids to our program
18:35 because we talk about race and about,
18:37 you know, all those issues.
18:39 But anyway it is a growing phenomenon
18:41 and another reason why it's growing.
18:43 Well, there's more and more foster care kids out there.
18:45 They used to support the idea of keeping them
18:47 with their families no matter what,
18:49 but then they found there was more violence,
18:51 there was more problems later on and it was better,
18:55 you know, not to keep in with certain family.
18:57 Certain families are not capable of raising kids.
19:00 So now they're pulling more and more of them out,
19:02 so now the foster care program has just mushroomed.
19:06 There's many more in every state.
19:09 And I know in Phoenix or in Arizona it's quite big
19:12 because a lot of people come from other states
19:14 and they come with their problems
19:15 and they don't always solve them.
19:18 So that, their area would be a good area to expand it.
19:23 The churches to be able to--
19:24 And just, you know,
19:26 nothing without even getting into foster care.
19:28 I think there's a lot of adults in churches
19:30 that could be mentors to students
19:32 that could help just guide them
19:34 like big brothers and big sisters do.
19:36 You know, play that role
19:38 because there are so many families today
19:40 that are dysfunctional or that are missing a parent
19:44 especially fathers.
19:46 And so, if somebody could supplement a father,
19:49 you know, it would be fantastic.
19:51 So those are some of the areas
19:54 and let me real quickly check it.
19:56 You have a nice little list of things that we're looking at.
19:58 Yeah, I just don't want to miss any of the areas.
20:03 Oh, you know, one of the biggest things
20:04 that I've missed here is that.
20:06 Encourage the students in your church,
20:10 the young people that are role models of the faith
20:13 to participate in workshops like ours
20:16 because here's a problem I have found over the years
20:18 is some of the religious groups
20:20 did not want to send their kids there
20:21 because they had their own camps.
20:22 And they want to reinforce their own beliefs.
20:24 But I always ask, well, send me your role models,
20:26 send me the kids that know your faith so they can teach others
20:30 and that's how we can overcome the issue of so many kids
20:33 I would think, I mean they could reach out
20:35 as peers to those nonbelievers.
20:38 So if you can send your kids,
20:40 don't just keep them all to yourself.
20:42 Just, you know,
20:45 let them be little missionaries in other workshops.
20:50 And so that would, that would be real helpful.
20:54 Yeah, I think that sounds really good so the foster care,
20:58 the attending workshops that churches could have more camps
21:02 you're saying where they can invite
21:04 beyond just their regular environments.
21:07 I know that Seventh-day Adventists
21:09 they have Sabbath school, they have pathfinders
21:11 which is kind of like boy scouts and girl scouts.
21:14 So you're saying don't just focus
21:17 on just the kids in the church,
21:19 go beyond the walls of the church
21:21 and reach out into the community
21:24 and try to make a difference.
21:26 There's one other area that I want to mention
21:29 if we have the time.
21:30 Sure. Okay.
21:31 And that is, you know, one of the things I think
21:33 the churches need to reinforce again
21:35 which I was told as a young man.
21:39 I was in the Catholic Church at the time and this priest,
21:42 older man, and he taught me
21:46 the concept of sacred mind and sacred body.
21:49 And I know that your church is very much involved with that,
21:52 that, but for young people, they don't see it that way.
21:54 They don't see their body or their mind as sacred
21:56 until years later most of us and that's where all the drugs
22:00 and the alcohol and negative behaviors sometimes come,
22:04 you know, the smoking.
22:05 I mean, I've heard some stories where, you know,
22:08 I've not only-- See one of the areas
22:12 that we touch on at camp is disabilities
22:14 and I'll cover that more later
22:16 but the idea that sometimes we cause our own disabilities,
22:19 you know.
22:20 What do you mean?
22:22 Disabilities can happen to us by chance by fate
22:23 what have you.
22:25 But if we cause our own disability by drugs or alcohol
22:28 like my uncle.
22:30 He started smoking cigarette at the age of 16 or 14
22:34 I can't remember for sure but anyway by the time he was 20,
22:37 he was smoking a pack a day.
22:39 Time he was 30, he was smoking two packs a day
22:41 and about the age of 35 he was diagnosed with emphysema.
22:45 And so all you know having the disease of the lungs.
22:49 And let me tell you that they gave him
22:51 a small little container of oxygen
22:53 to breathe in every once in awhile.
22:55 Well, the last 25 years of his life,
22:57 he had a tank that he had to roll around with him
23:00 wherever he went
23:01 and so he lost out being with his grandchildren,
23:05 he couldn't go outside, it was just this tank followed him,
23:08 this oxygen tank.
23:10 But he caused it,
23:11 he could have prevented that and, you know,
23:13 you hear of other things and accidents
23:15 that happen is a result of being intoxicated
23:18 can result in being disabled.
23:23 So we need to teach more of that sacred body
23:25 and sacred mind concept I think.
23:27 Yeah.
23:28 How about parents or extended family?
23:31 What do you see their role in being able to help
23:33 some of the young people?
23:34 Well, I, you know, I wish that we had more parenting workshops
23:38 that's for sure.
23:40 I like one of the concepts I heard about LA
23:42 about 15 years ago or so they were, they were.
23:46 Whenever they arrested a young person,
23:48 they would go after the parents and say okay,
23:50 now you have to go to a workshop
23:52 or a seminar on parenting
23:54 because this child is out of control
23:55 or making too many mistakes etcetera.
23:57 And I think we need to look at those type of training
23:59 workshops too.
24:02 I think there's a lot of single parent families,
24:04 it's becoming a phenomena
24:05 that how many children are being born
24:07 out of wedlock today.
24:09 So here's kids that need support they need, you know,
24:12 somebody to mentor them as I was saying before.
24:15 Hopefully that, yeah parents can do more there's no doubt.
24:20 And we can reach out to other students or the kids.
24:24 So are you available to travel and to be able to do trainings
24:28 for people?
24:29 Yes, I'm kind of semi retired right now
24:31 but what I've come down to the conclusion.
24:34 And I think God has been involved in this decision,
24:36 He just said, you know, you need to train other people.
24:41 You need to make a difference now
24:42 in getting other younger individuals to do the work
24:46 that I've been doing for years
24:47 and I've trained others I've got mentees
24:50 and I've been a mentor to several
24:52 that have become you know national speakers etcetera.
24:57 But I need to do more of that,
24:59 I like to initiate programs in churches
25:03 and schools wherever, school districts
25:07 and teach them how to do it themselves
25:09 so then I can walk away and it continues.
25:12 In fact I have several school districts in Phoenix
25:15 that are now doing these workshops all in their own,
25:17 and it works out just great.
25:19 So what kind of, how would you set that up as far as,
25:23 what could a person expect
25:24 if they're going to be having a training,
25:25 is it like a one day or two day or,
25:29 you know, how many?
25:30 What kind of people should be pulled together
25:32 to be able to do that?
25:35 Well, what I like to do the best is,
25:38 the best I think method would be to have
25:41 bring him to a workshop,
25:43 a three or four day workshop that we do.
25:45 And then have him go through the activity.
25:49 Because the first time around, let me tell you,
25:52 our workshops not only work effectively on young people,
25:56 adults, teachers have all said
25:59 this is one of the best experiences
26:01 or in service trainings I've ever attended
26:04 and they get to go through some of their issues.
26:06 And I think they have to do that.
26:08 And then the second time they come around,
26:10 they go through experience, then they start looking at the,
26:12 at the way it's done and the dynamics and the process
26:17 that makes it successful.
26:19 And so you need to have him there.
26:21 I can do a one or two day workshop
26:23 and show them some of the exercises and go over
26:25 because here's the other thing I've found
26:26 is many of these exercises are out there,
26:28 they've been out there for years.
26:30 But if you don't know how to process or debrief from
26:33 and get the maximum out of these activities,
26:35 you know, sometimes you can work to the negative side
26:39 rather than the positive side. Right, right.
26:42 Well, I certainly appreciate you coming to the program today
26:45 and explaining to us about the youth issues
26:49 and how churches and other community groups
26:52 can get involved in helping and making a big difference.
26:56 And certainly, you know,
26:58 you can attest to the work that's been done over the years
27:01 that has reached so many people.
27:04 Again I just want to thank you so much
27:06 for watching this program today.
27:08 And before we leave, I would like to be able to just take
27:11 a moment right now to have prayer for those
27:14 that are watching the youth leaders, the pastor,
27:17 the parents and even some of the young people
27:19 that may be involved in some of the challenges that we face.
27:23 So let's have a prayer right now
27:25 and ask God's help for that.
27:28 Thank You heavenly Father for all that You've done for us.
27:31 Thank You for Your Son Jesus Christ,
27:34 Who died on the cross to save us and most importantly
27:37 He came down on this earth and lived the life.
27:39 He was a young person at one time and Lord,
27:42 it's Your power to the presence of the Holy Spirit
27:45 and the angels dear God that are going to come to search
27:48 and rescue your young people,
27:50 so we just want to ask for Your help
27:52 in anyway that we can especially as church
27:54 is to intervene and make a big difference
27:56 in the lives of young people today,
27:58 and we thank you the name of Jesus, amen.
28:00 Amen.
28:01 Again thank you so much for coming--
28:03 My pleasure.
28:04 And wish you well as you go back to Phoenix
28:06 and to your family and continue to do these wonderful camps.
28:09 And again thank you so much for joining us
28:12 on Issues and Answers today,
28:13 we hope that it was helpful and I will see you next time.
28:17 God bless.


Home

Revised 2016-04-14