Testimonials
YMEN is my second home. My dad was never there for me, and my mom was killed 2 years ago. Mike is like a father to me. YMEN has helped me so much in school by giving me extra help. I manow in the CORE Program and one of YMEN’s leaders. Even though I am only in 8th grade, I will go to college and try to be a man of God.
– 8th Grade Student, Dvorak Academy
Before YMEN, I was running with the wrong group of guys. Many of my old friends have dropped out of school and some have been locked up. But I am now an honor student and headed to college in two years. This past Spring, YMEN took me to Californiat to visit some of the top colleges like UCLA and USC. I want to go to USC.
– 11th Grade Student, Kenwood High School
The night before I gave my life to Christ I was at home watching the movie “Coach Carter.” In one scene the question was asked, “Do you want more from life?” It felt as though the question was being asked directly of me and I began to think to myself, “Yeah, I really do want more from life,” because in the movie they were getting shot up and selling drugs and I thought to myself – I really don’t want to be like them.
I began to think about how I needed to change my life in order to be successful. I thought about how I should give myself to Christ and let Him deal with it and hope that I would eventually be an overcomer.
The next day I went to the youth program in Teen-Town in the 5th City. The guy was talking to us about changing our lives and saying he knew that we wanted God and that we were tired of what we were doing – and that we just didn’t know what to do. He said that we needed to show God that we wanted Him in our lives. They prayed for me and had me lift my hands in the air and tell the Lord that I wanted Him and say yes to Him and I did that over and over – then the tears began to come down my face and I could feel my heart really wanting Jesus; but at the same time a little piece of me wanted to stay back; but I think I overcame that little piece. They prayed for a good twenty minutes over me and after that I decided to just try and show improvement every day, like going to school every day, to stop smoking and drinking and partying and just stop doing all the things that I used to do.
It felt really good, as if nothing was holding me back anymore. It felt like I was a new person.
– 11th Grade Student, Manley High School
Recent Updates
- YMEN Africa Trip, Spring 2013
- “This is the greatest trip of my life…..” Four YMEN High School senior leaders spent 13 days this Spring traveling to Uganda to work with Partners in Mission. During this trip, we had the opportunity to spend time at the Kamwenge Secondary and Vocational School (KSVS) where YMEN has roofed buildings, sponsored students, and brought [...] Read More
- Building lifelong networks of support
- Sammie has been in the YMEN program for 4 years. He is one of the program’s most dedicated participants. YMEN has offered Sammie many opportunities through business and education programs. Sammie has been on about 90% of the YMEN trips and his favorite was South Dakota. The trips have been beneficial for Sammie because he [...] Read More
- The Gimp
- Our students have had a chance to learn about image manipulation. Seeing as how we are always in the mood to save money, we use the GNU Image Manipulation Program — otherwise known as the Gimp. For those who aren’t completely up on the Gimp, it’s a free version of Adobe Photoshop-like software. Not Photoshop, [...] Read More
