INTERNATIONAL DAY OF

PRAYER AND FASTING

MONDAY 3rd August

From Adam Shepski, YFC Canada

“We have a gift for you! On the international YFC day of prayer and fasting we are giving YOU a gift and SNEAK PEAK of a project we are working on here in YFC Canada called the Praxis Journal. This journal features a YFC staff from Australia who by faith, prayer and boldness saw the Gospel forever change a youth detention centre. As you pray and fast today, pray from the finished work of Jesus who presents you perfect before the Father and puts His very Spirit within you.

When Jesus Entered a Youth Detention Facility

David Ridley YFC Australia

David Ridley lives in Darwin Australia with his wife Ruth and their two children Ezekiel and Grace. David works as the director of YFC in the Northern Territory of Australia. In David’s eyes the Gospel is simple…do what Jesus did and change the world.

“Amidst my weakness, I heard a thought gently pass through my mind ‘It’s not about you. How you feel doesn’t change the gospel.'”

I still remember the feeling of sleep deprivation as I drove to the Youth Detention Centre for the first time. My wife had given birth to our second child a week before and life was in a bit of a spin. I remember the feelings of inadequacy as I tried to scramble together ideas to share with these youth in lock up. Life had been so intense the last few weeks the full extent of my quite times with Jesus consisted reading a few quick verses on the toilet. I wasn’t feeling one bit spiritual. I felt like I had nothing to offer.

Amidst my weakness, I heard a thought gently pass through my mind ‘It’s not about you. How you feel doesn’t change the gospel.’

I never cease to be amazed how truth dismantles a barrage of lies and deceitful emotions. With that simple thought my perspective began to change. Does the reality and power of Jesus resurrection change just because I’m tired and don’t feel spiritual? The fact that I haven’t had my ‘quiet time’ with Jesus doesn’t change the truth that the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead lives in me.

As I pulled into the Youth Detention Centre I was now armed with an increasing strength as I regained a perspective that the gospel works, despite my weakness. I chose to believe that Jesus is alive and itching to set these young captives free irrespective of how I felt.

After signing in, I was escorted through steel doors into a concrete jungle where I was taken to the first room with six detainees. This was my first time in the Detention Centre so I wasn’t sure what to expect. I sat down at a table and introduced myself. I shared how as a chaplain I don’t want to just give information about God, but I want each of them to experience God for themselves.

Believing that God desired to encounter these youth, I began by asking if anyone had pain or injuries that I could pray for. To my surprise none of them needed any prayer. I looked up to the tough looking tattooed prison guard standing next to me. I asked him if he needed any physical healing. He chuckled condescendingly and told me he lives in constant pain. He explained how when he was younger he was accidentally shot in the face and shattered his eye socket. Even after surgery he lived in constant pain. I asked if I could release healing on his eye and believe Jesus to do a miracle. At this stage the youth were egging him on. They wanted to satisfy their curiosity and see if God would show up. The guard obliged and I lay my hand next to his eye and prayed a simple five-second prayer. ‘In Jesus name I command pain to leave this eye socket, that it would be fully healed.’ I immediately asked the guard how it felt. He prodded his eye with a slightly dazed look on his face. He said softly ‘all the pain has gone.’

The youth weren’t sure how to respond to witnessing a miracle. They asked the guard again and again, ‘Is the pain really gone?’ The guard assured them that the pain had completely gone. The atmosphere became thick with amazement as it sunk in what had just happened.

Now that there had been a demonstration of the gospel, I was able to provide a thorough explanation of the gospel. Every eye was fixed on me as I shared how Jesus not only has the power to heal our bodies, but also forgive our sins and make us brand new creations, restoring us back to relationship with himself.

As the guard escorted me to the other rooms, he became my walking testimony as he explained to the detainees what Jesus had done to his eye. In every room we visited every sick person or person with pain in their body who asked for prayer was healed immediately. The gospel was preached “not in persuasive words of wisdom but with demonstrations of the Spirit and of power.” (1 Corinthians 2:4)

I drove home from the Detention Centre in ecstatic joy and not one ounce of tiredness, humbled by the beauty of the Gospel. More than ever I realized that God is not looking for people who have it all together, but rather people who believe truth in spite of their weakness. As we believe truth about who God is and who we have become in Him, we will live as sons and daughters of God doing the works of Jesus – and even greater.

You can Download this story and see a peak of the Praxis journal just click here

Click here so you can sign up for future Praxis journal information.

In YFC Canada, Praxis is an initiative that equips believers in practical prayer evangelism with a vision of disciples who express Heaven on Earth. One of our resources called the Praxis Journal features the stories of YFC staff, their volunteers and other Christian Believers. Each story demonstrates God doing the impossible to reach youth with the Good News of Jesus Christ! The Journal itself will serve as a resource to inspire our staff and their volunteers to accomplish the impossible by embracing risk.