79 East Main Street, Babylon NY 11702

First Presbyterian Church of Babylon

631-587-5838     Email 1presbabylon@optonline.net

NEWS FROM THE WORLD OF OUR YOUTH

by Stephanie Eggers, Long Island Youth for Christ Staff

I wanted to share a special story with you this month. First I would like to rewind a little bit in order to communicate the full picture to you.

My high school campus life students seem to think of me as an expert - on talking about sex with them. Now I know what you are thinking, hang in there with me! They have found that I am very open and honest with them about sexual purity and the dangers of pre-marital sex. Of course they love to ask me as many questions as possible and try to embarrass me, but I always try to be as honest, yet modest, with what I share and don’t share with them.

Fast forward to November 24th, 2007; Jon’s and my wedding day. At our ceremony my dad honored Jon with a short yet poignant speech about the purity ring that my parents got me when I was in 6th grade. He went on to tell Jon that he was an honorable man and my dad then took my purity ring from me and “gave me away” to Jon. Some of my students attended the ceremony and where there to witness all of this.

Fast forward to January 2008, the first campus life meeting of the new year. One of my students, who attended our wedding ceremony with her mom, came down early with her mom. Her mom came over to me and asked if she could talk to me as she motioned to the other side of the room. She started to tell me how her daughter and her had exchanged letters on new years eve culminating in her daughters decision to get a promise (purity) ring. She went on to ask me questions on where they could get one and how I suggested to go about giving it to her.

What is so special about this story is that this student is a new Christian, and has been coming to campus life for just over a year now. She has been around enough to know how I feel about this topic, where I stand and where the other students stand. But this decision is something she has made on her own, without me telling her to or telling the students to do this. Between my honesty with the students on the topic, and my dad’s speech I truly believe that God tugged at her heart and she made this decision on her own.

Its amazing to see the affect YOUR LIFE can have on someone. Its not just about the words I use to teach the students each week, it actually is about how I life my life also. Now, I am definitely not perfect, I'm far from it! But I am always striving to live my life according to God’s standards. I just had no idea the affect my “living life” would have on the students around me!

We really do preach the gospel without words!

In God’s Love,           Steff