Jaidyn started coming to YFC in middle school with his twin brother.
Jaidyn was quiet and pretty shy when we first met him, and seemed to not want to do a lot but look at cars on the computer and spend time on his phone. Over time though, he became one of our regulars and would come almost every day we were open. We slowly got to know him, his twin brother, two of their older brothers, and their aunt who raised them and who housed all of them at the time. We learned that their aunt is a strong Christian and had taught Jaidyn about the Bible and Jesus. But at the Center, Jaidyn didn’t seem very interested in Jesus. He would say that he believed in God but from outward appearances his faith didn’t seem to go much past that.
After becoming more comfortable at the TenTen Center, Jaidyn was still quiet, but started to find ways to test the rules and the patience of our leaders. We could tell that he was looking for attention, and was beginning to like staff, so he wanted to test how we would respond if he did something wrong. There were challenging times with Jaidyn, but he never gave up on us and we didn’t give up on him. He continued to come to the Center as he finished Middle School and began High School.
After a while of coming to the Center some of the leaders encouraged Jaidyn to utilize the weight room, so Jaidyn began lifting weights. He quickly took to working out and became obsessed. He would work out at the Center almost every day and quickly built muscle and increased the weight he was lifting. Through working out with Jaidyn, he began to really open up to staff. He would share his goals and also his insecurities that came with working out. Many of us got to talk with him about our own experiences with healthy and unhealthy diet, body image, and motivation.
At the time we had some volunteer High School leaders from a local church who would come to serve and hang out with the YFC students on a regular basis. One of these youth leaders was Kaedyn, and he started working out with and getting to know Jaidyn. They quickly became friends and Kaedyn would often talk to Jaidyn about faith and share about his own faith in Jesus. There would be times I would walk by and hear them talking about God, looking at a Bible, or even praying together. Jaidyn would then open up about his faith with other leaders as well and would even share that he wasn’t sure how to follow God or how to pray. We encouraged him in how to pray and that he could thank God and also tell God the hard things in his life. And we also encouraged him in how to follow God and that believing and giving his life to God was the most important step. He believed in God when we met him and now he had grown to start to follow God.
We got to walk through a lot of life with Jaidyn over the years that he came to the TenTen Center, but eventually we had to say goodbye.
Jaidyn had asked us to pray with him and for him about moving to live with his mom. After a time of pray, he decided to move, promised to visit (which he has), and came to the Center for his last day at YFC before moving. He admitted to me that he didn’t want to let us leaders down by moving; but I told him how proud we were of him and that he certainly wasn’t letting us down. I encouraged him to keep pursuing God and that he should find a church where he was moving to. I prayed with him, cried, and told him how much we love him at YFC and how much we’ve seen him grow. Before he left, a group of us leaders prayed with him and were able to tell him how much we appreciate him.
Since then he has come back to visit a few times. He has told us about getting into wrestling, making friends in weight training, getting his driving permit, and his desire to continue to honor God. One of our leaders has gone to lunch with him and even got to watch one of his wrestling matches as well. The last time I saw him I was able to give him a hug and tell him that I love him and am proud of him. Because of the faith of another teenager, Jaidyn’s life has been shaped by the love of Christ and transformed as a disciple of Christ as he has stepped into spaces beyond YFC.