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Military Community Youth Ministries

chastainfamily.jpg

Shannon & Steve Chastain
Joseph, Laurel, Caleb, and Zachary
serving with Military Community Youth Ministries

Military Community Youth Ministries (MCYM) and its associated field activity known as “Club Beyond,” was formed in 1980 with the mission of bringing the good news of Jesus Christ to American military dependent teens throughout the world. It is aligned in partnership with Young Life, Youth for Christ, and the National Federation for Catholic Youth Ministry, all well established, outreach focused youth ministries.

Mission Work

Steve was assigned as the MCYM Community Director at the Allied Joint Forces Command Brunssum (JFC HQ Brunssum) International School in Brunssum Netherlands, starting August of 2004. The school provides education for about 1,400 chidren of the NATO personnel assigned to JFC HQ Brunssum and is sponsored by: Canada, The United Kingdom, The United States of America, and The Federal Republic of Germany.

Approximately 300,000 teenaged youth of military families live on bases overseas or in the United States. They have the usual adolescent struggles, compounded by being uprooted from familiar settings, family and friends, and being in another culture with foreign language, culture and customs, or isolated on military bases and anticipating a move every two to three years. A military parent may be absent for as much as a third of every year due to work assignments, essentially making the family a single parent household much of the time. The desire of MCYM is to reach these young people, to build meaningful relationships with them, and to communicate the love of Jesus Christ in understandable terms.

The Chastains Prepared

In April 1999, while stationed with the Navy in Naples, Italy, Steve and Shannon volunteered with MCYM serving American high school students stationed there with their families. They accompanied the youth on a service project for a week in the Czech Republic, and experienced a call into full time youth ministries. Over the next three years, additional volunteer work was undertaken, including a year during which Shannon served as an MCYM intern.

Early in the summer of 2004, the Chastains were accepted to the staff of Young Life to serve with MCYM in Europe. They need to elicit and maintain enough financial support to pay their own salary and expenses. Pledges of $4000 per month plus $10,000.00 in the bank as a reserve were required before they departed. They continue to solicit support from churches and groups across the nation to raise the pledges and funds required to support their ministry.

If you would like to communicate directly with the Chastains, send an email to schastain@x994.younglife.org.

Northminster Participates by:

  1. Prayer support for specific needs as they arise. Current prayer needs are for safety, the continued success of their ministry, and for the middle and high school age youth at JFC HQ Brunssum they work with.
  2. Monthly monetary collection on the fourth Sunday of each Month in a wooden box in the Narthex
  3. Annual donation from the outreach budget

Direct Financial Support

Checks payable to “Young Life” may be sent to the address below. Please add “x994/Chastain/MCYM” to the memo line on your check. This will insure that the funds are credited to the proper account.

Young Life
PO Box 2920
Colorado Springs, CO 80901-2920

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