This week we heard the news that next month, after 51 years of ministry, Youth Encounter will be closing down operations.

Hearing this news rendered me speechless.

Not because I was shocked or because I couldn’t believe it, but because what are you supposed to say when a 51 year old ministry has no other option but to stop operations because of finances?

What do you say to a scared 22 year old driving 12 hours from Indiana to Minnesota with her best friend to embark on a year of unknown growth, tears, laughter, challenges, pain, and joy?

What do you say to a group of 5 young adults who nervously set foot in an airport to journey across 3 continents to end up in East Africa for 3 of the most difficult months of their lives?

What do you say to that group of 5 who survive a could-have-been-fatal car accident and yet decide that the ministry they had been called to was too important to give up?

What do you say this 23 year old woman who, after a year like that, inexplicably followed God’s call to serve yet another year of unknown growth, tears, laughter, challenges, pain, and joy?

What do you say to the group of 5 young adults who traveled together, living together, challenging each other, loving each other immensely, growing in ways they never thought possible, taking on more than they could chew and coming out on top because they were faithful to God’s call?

What do you say to a 24 year old woman who, after ending her 2 years of ministry, couldn’t imagine what could be next, but had the chance to give back and work for that same ministry for almost 2 and a half years?

What do you say to her after she thought she was done growing, but was introduced to even more of God’s children who taught her more than she could ever hope for or imagine and who gave her a community and pushed her to be the best person that she could be and gave her opportunities that few 26 year old women have?

What do you say to the 27 year old crying while writing a blog about a ministry that forever changed her life and her relationship with Christ?

I’ll tell you what I know God is saying to me, to you, to all of those who made the ministry of Youth Encounter possible the past 51 years…

He says, “Well done my good and faithful servants. Go now and take what Youth Encounter has given you to the rest of my creation.”

Only a chapter has ended my dear friends. God’s work is not done. He has given us an amazing gift through Youth Encounter and is calling us to take our changed lives to new horizons.

Will you join me in carrying on the legacy with which God has so graciously entrusted us? It’s not goodbye, it’s not an end, it’s a chance for us to do new things in the name of Christ!

Forget the former things;
    do not dwell on the past.
See, I am doing a new thing!
    Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness
    and streams in the wasteland. — Isaiah 43:18-19