Each year after a busy summer of ministry, I take time to reflect back over June and July. I think of the hundreds of at-risk teenagers that Leverage Ministries had the opportunity to point to Jesus this past summer.

I think of the little conversations we had with kids each week at the runaway shelter. I think of the conversation I had with a kid named Caleb one hot summer afternoon at camp when he didn’t want to go swimming with the rest of the boys. I think of the short prayers we prayed with the kids throughout the summer—for their brothers, sisters, moms and everything they face each day. I think of the short conversations before meal time about how God provided our meals. I think about taking the teens for ice cream or stopping to get them cold drinks on a very hot summer day. Many times, the teens didn’t know how to respond to all of the love we showed them or why we were doing it.

Was all this work and money really worth it? Are we making a difference? These are the questions I asked myself this past Sunday morning. As church was about to start, a man came up and asked how our summer ministries were going. Before I had a chance to answer, he said, “Scott, don’t ever stop doing what you are doing. I’m old now—at the end of my life and bound to this wheelchair. I was an at-risk youth just like the kids you reach daily. I was headed for a hard life, making bad decisions, and a ministry just like yours pointed me to Jesus. I am living proof that your ministry is effective and changing lives, and you are reaching kids nobody else sees.”

After he left, I realized that he told me exactly what I needed to hear—that God is continuing to change lives even today and that all the little conversations we had this summer would become big things. What might seem insignificant to us is truly significant. What most people would overlook, God is going to use.

Thank you for your continued support of Leverage Ministries. Your prayers and generous financial gifts allow us to continue reaching the forgotten and mislabeled youth in our community.

In His Service,

Scott Hirdes

Director, Leverage Ministries

A few days after Easter, I was sitting around the table doing morning devotions with our Breakfast Club boys. Al spoke up right away—not at all unusual for him—and said something that caught everyone’s attention right away:

“Pastor Scott, Easter was different this year for me.”

I asked Al what he meant, thinking that maybe he would talk about how he ate different food or went to someone else’s house. I asked if he went to church and got an Easter basket. 

But he said, “No, none of that was different. But it was different because of the decision I made at camp last summer.”

That got my attention! I asked him to explain, which can sometimes be very risky, but Al surprised me again.

“Pastor Scott, I now know the true meaning of Easter and celebrated the real meaning for the first time in my life. At camp I was told the true meaning of Easter—that Christ came, lived and died, and rose again. He is now alive, and He did that all for me because I believe. I started believing that last summer at camp and this was my first Easter I could celebrate and tell my family.”

Wow.  I had no idea he made that decision at camp, and I have no idea how many others like Al have made the same decision.  

Our week-long summer camp is one of the most important parts of our ministry each year. We’re able to get these at-risk teenagers away from their normal lives and share Christ with them. 

But these kids have no way to pay their own away to camp. That’s where you come in.

Would you be willing to help us take as many kids just like Al to camp as we can this summer? You can choose to sponsor one or more kids at $400 each or you can give a general gift to our camp scholarship fund. 

You can give online at www.leverageministries.org/give-now or send a check to Leverage Ministries, PO Box 1533, Auburndale, FL 33823.

Thank you so much for your support—both financial and through prayer—of Leverage Ministries. 

“Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner [just like Al] who repents than over  ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.” Luke 15:7 ESV 

In His Service,

Scott Hirdes

A couple days ago at Breakfast Club, I was talking with a young man named Jay about his life goals, future plans and his relationship with Jesus. Jay looked at me and said, “Pastor Scott, life has robbed me of most of my choices and opportunities.” That caught my attention, so I asked him to explain what he meant.

Jay said to me, “I would have liked to have grown up with a mom and dad in the same house. But my dad is dead, and my mom is in jail. You see, Pastor Scott…life has robbed me of living in a nice house with hot water and food I want to eat and clothes I want to wear. I would like to do well in school and be able to go to college some day, but to be completely honest with you, I will probably end up in prison like the rest of my family and people I know.”

Unfortunately, that is the story I hear way too often. Each story is a little different than Jay’s, but so many of the kids we worked with feel they have no choice and no hope.

This year, as you sit around your Christmas tree to share gifts and gather around your dinner table with your family and friends, would you remember those who do not have that same opportunities? Teenagers like Jay who who need the one true Hope that comes from having a relationship with Christ?

Luke 2:10 says, “And the angel said to them, ‘Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all people.’” That good news is salvation.

Titus 2:11 says, “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people.” That includes Jay, who feels like he was robbed of some of life’s opportunities. But no one has been robbed of the opportunity to trust In the Saving Grace of Jesus.

Would you prayerfully consider a year-end gift to Leverage Ministries that will enable us to continue sharing this Hope with the at-risk youth of Polk County through our Breakfast Club ministries, at the Runaway Shelter, at summer camps and at the various sports camps throughout the year?

You can give online at www.leverageministries.org/give-now or send a check to Leverage Ministries, PO Box 1533, Auburndale, FL 33823.

From our family to yours, we wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

In His Service,

Scott Hirdes