An
Amazing Fact: Cynthia Ann Parker, an 8-year-old girl, was taken
on May 19, 1836, by Comanche Indians during a raid on Fort Parker near Waco,
Texas. For the following 25 years, she lived as a member of the tribe, married a
chieftain, and had three children. In 1860, she was found and returned to her biological
family. But by then, Parker had forgotten English and longed to be back with
the tribe. She died in 1871 with a broken heart.
When Ethan was just a child, his innocence
was violated. As a teen, still hurting from that trauma, he turned away from
God—and he was quickly taken captive by Satan.
I am deeply concerned that so many young
people today are quitting church. The exit of our youth is accelerating—but God
loves them deeply. Through the apostle Paul, the Lord told one
young believer, “Let no one despise your youth” (1 Timothy 4:12). We
must never, by word or act, devalue young people. Like Ethan, many have been
wounded by abuse, neglect, and hypocrisy, and we drive them further away from
God with such scorn.
Satan wants to kidnap our youth, take them
into his twisted family, and forever separate them from God. One of his methods
is surrounding them with a depraved culture that offers up immoral entertainment,
addictive drugs, debased social media, and secular philosophies. These lure
them in with the promise of lasting satisfaction, but they are only cheap substitutes
for the eternal joys offered by heaven.
I believe God is calling you and me to redeem
them from Satan’s clutches. Yes! You can extend His love to youth and others seeking
healing from pain and loneliness. That’s what you did for Ethan …
A Perfect
Life Shattered
You might think that Ethan had the perfect
life. “I was born into a supportive family,” he says. “We were a quiet,
Christ-centered family and attended church every week. I was growing stronger
in my faith.”
Yet real evil invaded Ethan’s idyllic life. “The
thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy” (John 10:10). Inspired by
Satan, someone the family trusted violated his innocence. That traumatic abuse
left a hole in his heart and pulled him away from God.
Many other young people have endured hurts like
Ethan, causing them to question their faith. I believe their only hope is encountering
the real Jesus, the source of healing and truth. That is why, with your help,
Amazing Facts works hard to put on events and create resources that bring real hope
to young people.
A
New Chance
For years, Ethan struggled alone with the pain
of his hurt, falling into sin after sin, before the Holy Spirit convinced him
to share his struggles with his mom. “She lifted me up,” he remembers. “She
didn’t condone the wrong choices I had made to deal with my pain, but she
promised that there could be something new and better.”
Soon, Ethan began counseling and the
difficult process of healing. “I realized I had to rely on something stronger
than myself,” he says. Then Ethan received an invitation to attend an
Amazing Facts Youth (AFY) conference. It was a life-changing experience that
you helped make possible!
Ethan and a friend drove across the country
to attend the AFY conference. He says, “I will never forget that experience. I
met many people who had been through so much themselves.”
There, Ethan learned about the Amazing Facts
Center of Evangelism (AFCOE), our evangelistic discipleship program. He felt
God calling him to attend. Today, he shares enthusiastically, “Attending AFCOE
was an amazing experience. It opened my eyes to so many practical things and
reminded me about spiritual truth. The staff has a real passion for sharing
what God has done in their lives and how God can use us. It’s contagious!”
Studying at AFCOE continued the healing
process that God had begun in Ethan’s life!
The Light of Hope
So, how do we reach more young people like
Ethan? A key place to begin is by helping them find answers to life’s most important
questions—Who am I? Where did I come from? Where am I going? That’s why I’m
inviting you to help us create a new set of Most Important Questions Bible
lessons that directly answer youth’s biggest questions—lessons we aim to have ready
for our upcoming AFY conference called “Stand: Unshakeable Faith,” starting
June 12! (Learn more by visiting afyouth.com.)
Your compassionate gifts make it possible for
Amazing Facts to host these annual youth conferences that help build up the
faith of teens and young adults. AFY is free to attend (meals included) only because
of your generosity.
There are many other ways you can help youth have
an everlasting relationship with Christ. For instance, your gifts support our AFCOE
program, which is primarily attended by youth and young adults not only in the
United States, but also in Indonesia, Australia, Sweden, the Philippines,
Uganda, and Brazil.
When you are involved with our lifesaving
work, you also provide social media resources, including our MIQ blog for teens
dealing with the severe, destructive temptations of our sin-filled world.
The devil is using a twisted culture to draw
our youth into his snares. But you can give them a foundation built upon Bible truth
that leads them to eternal life.
So will you please prayerfully ask God what
He would have you give this month to help youth and many others for the kingdom
of heaven? Your loving gift of $50 will provide 45 Bible lessons to
outstretched hands. A generous gift of $100 will share life-changing resources
25,000 times to searching hearts on social media platforms like YouTube. And a
“ransomed-sized” gift of $1,000 can help sponsor students to attend an Amazing
Facts event or participate in the AFCOE missionary training program.
Whatever size gift you’re able to send to
support any or all of Amazing Facts’ evangelism programs, I know God will
multiply the difference it makes in people’s lives!
Ethan summarizes his experience with Amazing
Facts like this: “This second chance at life is something anyone can have if
they want it!” Will you help provide a second chance to all who are searching
for freedom from the deceptive culture of the world?
Redeeming sons and daughters for God,
Pastor Doug Batchelor
President, Amazing Facts International