The Every

I have been thinking about the “Every” recently. The vision statement of Youth for Christ is, “As part of the body of Christ, to see that every young person in every people group in every nation has the opportunity to make an informed decision to be a follower of Jesus Christ and become a part of a local church.”

I found this vision compelling when I began working with Youth for Christ over ten years ago. I thought about every young person in the LA Basin. It seemed like an impossible, but engaging vision when I considered all the young people outside the reach of the church in Southern California.

Now I am thinking about this vision as I consider the almost 2 billion young people living in Asia Pacific. The ministry, up to this point, has been focused on national students. In India, the national staff is ministering to many Indian student populations. In Singapore, the Singaporean staff is looking to reach every Singaporean student. In Australia, the Australian staff enters the world of every Australian young person. These are monumental tasks in each nation.

Yet with our world growing smaller all the time, there are more and more students growing up outside their passport country. There is the Filipino student who is growing up in Hong Kong. In Japan, there are young people from the UAE. There are British students growing up in Thailand. The world is cross-pollinated and these Third Culture Kids have unique needs. At the core, however, their needs remain the same as every other young person. They are part of the “every” who we are called to give the opportunity to become a follower of Jesus. It will take an international team of people entering their world alongside the local churches to reach these “every.” “So everywhere we go, we tell everyone about Christ. We warn them and teach them with all the wisdom God has given us, for we want to present them to God, perfect in their relationship to Christ” (Colossians 1:28). This is a vision that compels me to depend on Jesus as I join the work in Asia Pacific.