On the 22nd of November, with Thanksgiving only a few days away, a group of Christian college students gathered in front of a local juvenile camp in Pomona, California with the purpose of bringing the good news of Jesus Christ to the minors. The students are members of KCCC (Korea Campus Crusade for Christ), one of the largest Korean-American Christian ministries in the U.S. The team was originally planning to carry out their ministry earlier in October, but because of some logistical difficulties, it had to be delayed.
This was the first time KCCC had organized a team of student missionaries to reach out to the youth in the local juvenile camps. Normally it was the local churches that would send their leaders and workers to preach and serve the teenagers, but unfortunately they do not visit enough to impact the minors’ lives or to follow up with them.
The KCCC students were allowed only around 3 hours inside the camp. After they had finished setting up all the equipment, around 60 minors who wanted to see the performances and listen to the message were brought into the gym. After being asked to maintain their best behavior, the camp’s staff turned it over to the students who, after introducing themselves, started off the program with a performance by “Impact”, KCCC’s hip-hop dance team to lighten the atmosphere a little bit.
After the performance, the actual worship began with the KCCC praise band. Following the praise was a message by David Kim, a full-time KCCC staff. Kim began with sharing a little bit about his experiences growing up as the youngest in the family, how he had to eat all his food fast so his older brother could not take it away from him. He shared how life was very similar in school, where so many people would always want to take things away from him.
After sharing, he asked the minors, and even the volunteers who were listening with them the question – Where does your confidence come from? The answer was simple. People are confident from many things like intelligence, money, background and even strength. But what about for people that did not have any of these things? Kim declared to the minors that if one’s confidence was from God and God’s love, then there is no need to be afraid of anything, for the love of God was something that no one could ever take away from you, and that when he himself learned that his life was never the same. After the message, Kim had a time to challenge the minors.
Since they could not stand, he asked that anyone who wanted to accept Christ into their lives to lift up their hands and pray along with him. After the prayer, another team of students came to the front to perform the “Everything Skit” and through their motions and music delivered to the minors the Gospel message.
After 20 minutes of handing out snacks and briefly interacting with the minors, the college students had to clean up and be ready to depart. Before they left however, they gathered around to pray one last time for the boys, and that their small service would be an important turning point for their lives.
The camp’s chaplain shared with the KCCC students how grateful he was to have them, and even shared that many of the boys who were at the performances told him that they wanted to come out to service and Bible study on Sunday. He explained that many of the minors often return to the camp after they get released, and that it was important, as for any mission field, to keep these boys in their prayers.
KCCC is currently hoping to expand its ministry from the college campus to the local communities in their regions, and visits to juvenile camps are likely to become more frequent, for all Christians are called to serve their community.
