6 Legacy Peeps and What They’ve Been Up To This Year:
Jordan, who is 23 years old, became a full-time youth pastor this year after completing a 5-year combined undergrad-seminary program. Jordan grew up in the church and became a leader in high-school. He continued to lead throughout college and seminary (or cemetery, as he sometimes calls it). I met him when he was a Section Leader for young adults at Willow Creek. In the months he has been full-time, the youth program he leads has already grown by 20%!
Teddy is from Venezuela and is passionate about seeing college students grow in their faith. He is an energizing presence to be around. College students love him. He mentors numerous young men and is regularly involved at Lewis University and at a Willow Creek college group. I got to hear him give his first public talk ever to a Cru group at Harper College. Since then, he has spoken numerous times to college groups. From the picture you can see he’s spreading seeds in other ways too! (1st child coming in January!)
Todd got baptized! He also co-led a group called Lagers & Leaders aimed at helping local community leaders grow in leadership, and hopefully closer to God, over craft beers. Todd is very well connected with business and government leaders in his community. During the year, Lagers & Leaders was averaging 50 local leaders per event (including Mayors, State Reps, and Village admins – one way to improve our government). I’m not sure how many beers that adds up to!
Mike started a missional community offering an after-school program, introducing children to a God who loves them, at the grade school he attended as a boy and where his children now attend. Recently, four members of one family (Mom and three daughters), who they reached out to, got baptized! Mike also had the privilege of praying with a twenty-something year old man to receive Christ as his Lord and Savior. Mike oversees 90 volunteers at his church job and is also pursuing being a fire department chaplain for life-threatening emergencies.
Eric creates films that tell important stories we need to become aware of. It’s his way of using the gifts God has given him to impact lives. You can check out some of his films at newbranchfilms.com. He’s also known in some circles as “The Handsome Bandit”. Word on the street is that he and his bandmate are currently writing some new music. I’m wondering if any of the songs will be influenced by the journey he’s been on through Legacy Shepherding. Who knows, maybe he’ll write this ministry a theme song!
Adam found out just before his wedding four years ago that he had testicular cancer. This year, he wrote a mini-e-book about his experience of faith and survival, entitled “Why Not Me?”. Proceeds went to bringing clean water to people in under-resourced places through World Vision. He is a junior high youth pastor at Willow Creek. His parents are immigrants from Jordan. That crazy outfit he’s pictured in was a fund-raising tool. He agreed to wear the tutu and Mohawk/rooster top, when he ran the Chicago Marathon, if certain dollar amounts were raised. The fact that he wore them in public proves he has what it takes to be a junior high youth pastor!
4 Updates On People You’ve Heard About Before:
Louis Dooley wrote a book! “Prison Saved My Life: I recommend it for everyone.” Louis spent 15 1/2 years in prison, where he became a Christian. He now works for Set Free Ministries providing Bible study correspondence courses to prisoners. Sales of his book are: Buy one, Give one away – a second book is given away to someone in prison for every book purchased.
Andrea started her own Holy Yoga practice that is helping people connect to God while also bringing physical health and healing. She has begun specializing in doing trauma/body work for adults and children.
Gabe works for Alpha Chicago. Alpha is a worldwide course that provides space for people to explore life’s big questions around faith in a safe, non-judgmental environment. Historically, about 80% of non-Christians describe themselves as followers of Jesus after the course. Recently, Alpha has been embraced by the Catholic Church in Chicagoland! The Archdiocese wants all their parishes offering this amazing faith-building program. I love seeing Catholics and Protestants, in my circles, putting aside their differences and learning from the richness and strengths of each other’s faith traditions.
Dan has been leading his church in planting missional communities. A missional community is a “family (close-knit group) of missionary servants” who go out into their world to make disciples together, usually focused on a specific group that everyone in the community is passionate about, like after-school children or local community leaders (as mentioned previously in this update). It’s a lot like what Jesus did with his disciples, going into the world together and making disciples, and it’s something that many Christians are reluctant to do. I give Dan and his co-laborers props for taking on this monumental task. If people of their church catch the vision, it has potential to be very powerful. On a personal note, after a five year struggle with infertility, Dan and his wife, Grace, became pregnant and recently had a baby girl! Impossible prayers were answered! I’m very happy for them. And I’m sad for those who struggle with infertility, and who have to hear another story of someone else getting pregnant and having a baby.
3 Questions for You:
This is the start of my three month year-end support raising season (Oct-Dec).
As you can see, God has been very active again this year, pouring into 28 people who are doing some Spirit-filled kingdom work. I’m biased, but I think this high-impact ministry is a great investment of resources.
Will you partner with me and contribute financially and prayerfully this year to this life-changing ministry?
Would you be willing to commit to an on-going yearly contribution, payable in whatever frequency you desire (monthly, quarterly, semi-annually, or annually)?
Would you be willing to pray for this ministry on an on-going, regular basis?
Contributions are tax-deductible.
AmazonSmile:
Next time you’re buying online through Amazon, make your purchases through smile.amazon.com and Amazon will donate .5% of the price of your eligible purchases to the charitable organization of your choice, which would be Legacy Shepherding Ministries, Inc., of course! That only amounts to 50 cents per $100, which isn’t going to give a huge contribution to Legacy Shepherding, but if a lot of people do it, especially around Christmas time, it could add up. Come on Cyber-Monday!
AmazonSmile (smile.amazon.com) is a website operated by Amazon with the same products, prices, and shopping features as Amazon.com. The difference is that when you shop on AmazonSmile, the AmazonSmile Foundation donates .5% of the purchase price. I’ve been using it for years. It’s the same service and experience, with some compassion and generosity thrown in.
Amazon recommends that you not consider this a replacement of your charitable giving, but an add-on to what you are already giving to an organization. Thanks in advance for contributing!
In His Love,
Randy
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