The Power of Perseverance

It was ten years ago when April and I moved into Langley.  We didn’t know a single young person.  We were apart from our closest friends and family.  We didn’t know the neighborhoods. We just had a dream to see youth have the means to live a healthy life: Physically, Emotionally, Intellectually, Socially and Spiritually. We wondered if there was a place for us and for Youth Unlimited in this community.

At first things looked bright, but eventually it seemed like the dream was turning into a nightmare.  Our bus broke down, our relationships at the schools changed, the youth turned back to their old ways, our funding tanked, our programs were canceled, our family struggled, and even my health deteriorated.  It was then that we realized that God had not called us to be successful, but to be faithful. I felt a bit like Noah – spending his whole life working on a lifelong project that in the end only saved eight people.  At times it would have been easy to walk away, to admit failure and move on, but instead we decided to persevere.

It hasn’t been easy by any means, but in the midst of working through these struggles we found God using us in unexpected ways, and showing us that through faithfulness in the midst of our failures he has brought more success than we could have imagined through the messiness of our lives. 

We went from experimenting with Youth Unlimited launching in Langley to leading a multi-staffed team.  In my time here I have led fourteen different staff. There are currently seven staff in Langley and we are in process of hiring up to three more.  We have four interns lined up for this fall and large numbers of volunteers helping in various roles. We have signed partnerships with schools, community agencies, local churches, and our staff are being asked to share our experiences all around the globe.  We are connecting with hundreds of kids from all across the community and are witnessing many young people experience significant transformation in their lives each week. 

There are still trials, difficulties and things to iron out, but God has proven his faithfulness when we were willing to extend faithfulness to him.  Last week I was talking with a woman in her 80’s who recounted to me with a huge smile on her face of the impact Youth Unlimited had made on her in the 1940’s.  What we see happening here in 2015 may well be just the start of what God has in mind to do.

- Danny Ferguson