One of the things I have come to appreciate most about our Juvenile Justice Ministry is how much of it depends on relationship.
When our team walks into the Challenge Academy, we are entering a place where staff, case workers, probation officers, administrators, counselors, and others are already doing the daily work of caring for young people through difficult circumstances. They carry responsibilities and pressures most people outside the facility will never fully see.
We are not there to replace that work but rather to come alongside it. Over time, that partnership has become one of the most meaningful parts of this ministry.
Sometimes a case worker reaches out because a resident has asked for a Bible or a Bible study to help them understand. Sometimes a probation officer shares an update, or a staff member lets us know that something from a lesson stayed with a young person after we left. Those moments matter because they remind us that the conversation does not always end when our visit does. Questions are still being asked. Scripture is still being opened. Prayer requests are still being carried. And little by little, faith is becoming personal.
They’re Asking for Bibles
One of the clearest signs of that has been the Bibles.
Residents keep asking for them… and they are reading them. The questions they ask tell us the pages are being opened between visits, sometimes entire books. One resident received an “Action Bible” and finished it in less than two weeks. Then, without being asked, that young person shared it with a friend.
Now the friend is reading too, and also asking questions. Those are the stories that stay with us because that is exactly what we hope for. It’s not simply handing someone a Bible, but seeing Scripture become something they want to understand, come back to, and eventually share with someone else. Discipleship in action.
That is also why we feel led to provide more Bibles that young people can truly make their own: Action Bibles, study Bibles, Life Application Bibles, and other editions that help them understand what they are reading. We want to give them something they can study, write in, bring questions back to, carry with them, sit with, and keep using long after one of our visits is over. Something they can take with them when they return to familiar streets, familiar pressures, and some of the same situations they will have to face again — but this time with God’s Word in their hands.
“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” — Psalm 119:105
More Than a Visit
Our time inside the facility is becoming more intentional too.
Thanks to our partnership and support from JPD, we have been able to build a more consistent rhythm and schedule for our visits, which has helped us develop curriculum around things these young people are actually wrestling with in real time — identity, forgiveness, choices, fear, anger, consequences, hope, and what it looks like to trust God with the parts of our stories we cannot change.
There is worship.
There is prayer.
There is Scripture.
There are Q&A sessions.
There is surrender.
Every time we go, we invite prayer requests, and we have them fill out “My Name Is” labels so they know we know their names and are praying for them by name. We ask about their stories in a private manner so they know we are intentional and care about what they care about too: their families, their parents, their children. Yes, even their newborns. We listen because what matters to them matters to us. But we are also intentional about what we ask.
We are not asking, “What happened?” or “Why are you here?”
We want to know who they are.
What matters to them.
What they are carrying.
What they hope for.
What they are learning.
And what God may still be writing in their lives.
That matters to us and where we chose to put our focus, because these young people are more than the circumstances that brought them into a juvenile facility. They are sons and daughters. Friends. Artists. Athletes. Thinkers. Young people with gifts, humor, questions, fears, faith, and futures that are still being formed. There are generations connected to their choices, families that can be impacted by their healing, and stories God is still writing.
Showing Up for Milestones
Another part of the ministry that has grown recently is simply showing up for milestones. We have been granted access to start attending graduations at the residents’ request. A big part of that is wanting a young person to look around on an important day and know that people noticed the step they took and cared enough to show up.
And something unexpected has started happening at those graduations too… on multiple occasions, parents have come up to us and thanked us. Their sons or daughters had already told them about YFC — about the lessons, conversations, prayers, or the people who had been showing up. They have even talked about special visits from a local pastor whose own testimony carries particular weight with them. His testimony includes a season of incarceration himself, and God used that season of his life to transform him and eventually send him back to serve and minister in some of the very streets he once walked.For a young person sitting in that room, his story offers something more than a message. It gives them a picture of what redemption can look like. They can see someone whose past did not get the final word.
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation…” — 2 Corinthians 5:17
Those conversations with parents have meant a great deal to us because they remind us that the impact does not always stay inside the facility. As many of us know, sometimes it reaches home. A parent hears about a lesson we never knew their child would mention. Sometimes a young person talks about someone who listened. Sometimes we catch them waving to us as we leave while they are sitting with their families during visitation.
Sometimes they share that someone prayed with them and parents have learned that we have been praying for them too. And those moments remind us again that God may be doing far more than we can see during the time we are there.
We have also started giving residents shirts they can customize with words that mean something to them. It started one day when they explained that the color of the T-shirts they wear holds meaning. A different shade represents a different stage or milestone in the program. They noticed our black T-shirts and said they wished they could have black ones too.
So we made them a promise. When they successfully made their way through the program, we would have a black shirt waiting for them with a verse of their choice on the front and a phrase of their choice on the back.
One resident walked away wearing a shirt with words they had chosen for themselves: GOD SAVED _______.
It was their shirt.
Their message.
Their story.
That moment is engraved in our hearts too.
The Little Things Matter
And so… the longer we serve in this ministry, the more we are learning that the little things matter.
- A Bible someone asked for.
- A prayer request someone trusted us with.
- A graduation someone showed up to.
- A shirt with words someone chose.
- A parent saying thank you.
- A staff member letting us know a resident is still asking questions.
None of those moments are flashy, but together they tell the story of what this ministry is becoming.
Beyond the Facility
We are also grateful for the churches and pastors who have come alongside this work. Some have joined us inside to share a message, and others are praying regularly for the residents, staff, and ministry. Some are preparing to receive young people once they are released, so there can be a connection beyond their time in residence. That matters to us because we do not want the relationship to end at the door.
This is especially important to us because it gets to the heart of Youth for Christ’s mission. We don’t simply want to bring a message to a young person while they are inside. We want to help bring the Church to them… and, when the time comes, help build a bridge into a church community that can continue walking with them.
Our hope is that young people can step out knowing there are people ready to walk with them -pastors, churches, volunteers, and a community that sees more in them than where they have been.
There is still a lot we want to grow in.
We want to strengthen the curriculum and keep refining how we minister to both boys and girls. Better discipleship resources are part of that. So is placing meaningful Bibles into the hands of young people who are asking for them.
We hope to attend more graduations, support staff well, listen well, and continue earning the trust that makes all of this possible.
And we want to continue earning the trust that makes all of this possible.
Because none of this happens simply because YFC walks through the door. It happens because staff have made room for us, in every sense of the word. They have even prepared a room where we can meet and minister. It happens because case workers communicate, probation officers partner with us, parents share what their children are experiencing, churches pray, pastors show up, volunteers keep showing up, and young people continue giving us the privilege of hearing a little more of their story.
We don’t do this alone.
And we are deeply grateful that we don’t have to.
“He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion.” — Philippians 1:6