How YOYO Began
Hi! I am Rachel. God planted the idea of YOYO into my heart September of 2013. Read below to hear how it had been in the works for many years.
SUBURBAN CHILDHOOD, drawn to the Inner City:
In 5th grade my father began to take me to the inner city of Minneapolis to feed people at street outreaches for a local church called ICCM. Their pastor would preach the Gospel and people off the streets would get saved, many would get set free of addiction and live transformed lives. It greatly moved me. My siblings did not really enjoy it, but for some reason, it made my heart come ALIVE.
I LOVED seeing people encounter Jesus. Especially those who were hurting, addicted or the down and out.
The IMPACT OF an amazing YOUTH LEADER in my life:
In Middle School and High School, I had an awesome Youth Group. My youth group was huge, so we had small groups within the youth group. My small group leader was INCREDIBLE and really made going deeper with God a fun, intimate and special experience. She would send me letters in the mail and was very intentional to speak life and destiny into me and the other girls. I was so moved by her that I promised myselfmonce I was older and out of college, I too would be a small group leader and pay it forward.
After 2 years leading small groups at my childhood church in my early 20’s, the church crumbled, I moved on to a new church and helped to lead a small group there. The 4th year, the Lord told me to take a break.
NEW DIRECTION:
I spent that year training intensely for bodybuilding shows and as He built a deep discipline in me, He said it was to be used for something Kingdom related and that by end of summer 2013 I would know what this “Kingdom thing” was.
Long story short, early September 2013 He told me I was to start a Youth Ministry in the inner city of Saint Paul and to just trust Him, that He would pave the way. A family friend of mine had just purchased an abandoned 100 year old church in the area with the intent to use it for ministry purposes to build up the local neighborhood.
HUMBLE AND ORGANIC BEGINNINGS:
Through many small steps of obedience and boldness, the Lord supernaturally brought people interested in the vision around me. We launched YOYO 10/30/13.
For the first 5 months, we met as leaders in the basement of this church and prayed. We would get visions and prophetic words and write them down. We did prayer walks, met people in the neighborhood, prayed for people etc. In the meantime we planned to do a LARGE launch party to attract teens. The more we planned the launch party, the harder it got.
Finally one day in my frustration I asked God why this party planning wasn’t coming together and He said to me, “I have already launched you!” That day happened to be the 1st warm day of Spring, so we all went outside. We saw a few kids tossing a football and joined them. The next week a ton of kids joined us to play soccer and thus YOYO began. We’ve since had consistently 8-12 sometimes even 20 kids a week.
YOYO molds and grows:
God has continued to mold and morph YOYO. It began with just games, then a story was added, then a snack…. now we have worship, a message, sports and snack.
YOYO has become a TIGHT KNIT family. God has show up in POWERFUL ways. He has really done a SUPERNATURAL work, especially in drawing our teens to us, considering my husband and I are rather quiet and reserved individuals. We often laugh and say he chose the least suspecting couple to lead a youth group in the hood.
There is NO greater joy than seeing our teens encounter Jesus. Our teens all come from fatherless homes of addiction and dysfunction with little to no stability. YOYO has become a safe place for them to be kids again. To be vulnerable. To laugh and to learn.
YOYO today & FUTURE:
Our teens have all felt God’s presence, seen Him heal and do miracles, many have heard His voice. They have all received accurate prophetic words from us and guest speakers. Most of our teens have gone with us on local mission trips and retreats and we’ve had PLENTY of sleepovers. Where we see the MOST impact is through discipleship where we do fun 1:1 or 1:2 dates such a horse back riding, bike rides, eating out, rock climbing etc.
We cannot wait to see all of our teens get set ablaze for Christ. A couple are, but most are not quite there. We are contending for them to FULFILL their God given destiny on this earth and to WALK in their true identity as a son or daughter of the King.
