{"id":1632,"date":"2010-05-13T01:00:06","date_gmt":"2010-05-13T09:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/?p=1632"},"modified":"2010-05-10T10:55:39","modified_gmt":"2010-05-10T18:55:39","slug":"youth-ministry-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/2010\/05\/13\/youth-ministry-update\/","title":{"rendered":"Youth Ministry Update"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Pastor JR Cuevas<\/em><\/p>\n

We have had the great privilege this year of ministering to another incredible pair of high school seniors \u2013 Cole Short and Jenna Kim. As their youth pastor, it\u2019s been an interesting experience shepherding the both of them, as there could not be more distinct in their personalities. Cole \u2013 state-ranked high jumper \u2013 began attending LBC in the latter part of 2008 upon the encouragement of his older brother. Jenna \u2013 a skilled videographer \u2013 has been at LBC as long as (or longer than) anyone else in the church. It\u2019s hard to find a young man more energetic than Cole, and you\u2019ll be hard-pressed to find a young lady more initially reserved than Jenna. As in-coming college freshmen, Cole aspires a major in international studies. Jenna \u2013 home economics and communications. Cole grew as the younger of two brothers; Jenna \u2013 the oldest of four sisters. During his free time, Cole can be writing songs while picking his acoustic guitar; Jenna prefers reading and spending time taking care of her sisters.<\/p>\n

But what I\u2019ve found even more amazing is how \u2013 through the saving grace of God \u2013 these two Torrey Pines High School seniors are amazingly similar when it comes to their spiritual walks. Both have confessed \u2013 with both heart and life \u2013 Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. Both love to write \u2013 and journal \u2013 about their spiritual insights (and both are incredibly good writers!) Both are extremely teachable \u2013 spiritual sponges always ready and eager to soak in instruction and wisdom from the Word of God and their youth leaders. During Friday night sermons, both look at me with an intense glare for the entire time I\u2019m preaching without losing focus, indicating that they\u2019re both listening, learning. Both have shared the gospel with non-Christian classmates and friends far more than I have \u2013 easily putting me to shame in the realm of evangelism. Both \u2013 individually \u2013 have asked me for copies of all of the outlines of the Sunday School messages that I\u2019ve taught. Both hurled at me a flury of questions, as to how to make the most God-honoring decision concerning where to go to college. Both decided on their own volition to attend Christian colleges.<\/p>\n

Recently, we held the second of our college table talks with Cole and Jenna, where I and a few of the other staff members gave them an opportunity to ask as many questions as they had about college \u2013 whether it be concerns or just general inquiries. The staff and myself were simply amazed with their maturity indicated by the depth of insight that they both had in the questions that they asked. It was clear both had a greater goal in mind than just doing well in college; they were both genuinely seeking to do college to the glory of God, and were eager to glean wisdom from their older brothers and sisters as to how they could do that. Chris Tou, one of the staff members who helped run the table talk, said it well: \u201cThese kids are intense!\u201d Really, these two are anything but kids; they\u2019ve proven themselves to be young adults capable of making God-honoring decisions.<\/p>\n

I think it would be a fair conclusion to say that, aside from their parents, no one is more proud of these seniors than I am. To have had the opportunity to guide two college-bound seniors who have shown \u2013 through their daily growth and life decisions \u2013 a fear of the Lord is a privilege that I will always thank the Lord for. They\u2019ve brought so much joy to my heart, and I\u2019ll miss them both. Yet, I\u2019m confident that the Lord who started a good work in them will complete it until the day of Christ Jesus.<\/p>\n

Cole and Jenna, I\u2019m praying for you guys.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Pastor JR Cuevas We have had the great privilege this year of ministering to another incredible pair of high school seniors \u2013 Cole Short and Jenna Kim. As their youth pastor, it\u2019s been an interesting experience shepherding the both of them, as there could not be more distinct in their personalities. Cole \u2013 state-ranked […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":469,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1632","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ministry-profile"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/469"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1632"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1632\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1635,"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1632\/revisions\/1635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}