Experiences

Many people have had great experiences in the Youth Rush program, some are listed here. This is by no means all the stories but break out a do something different this summer and have experiences like these!

Reina Navarette

During the summer we have ten days that we spend specifically praying for the Holy Spirit and for God to work through us. During these ten days we always see God work in powerful ways. This past summer a student named Reina prayed that God would help her go to Gem State Academy. She knew she needed a bigger scholarship to go so she prayed for God to help. She prayed that morning and went to work that afternoon. Within an hour she met a gentleman that gave her a $500 donation for her schooling! It was amazing to see God provide. Within a couple hours she had her answer to prayer. Praise God!

Michael Roosenberg

Michael over the summer enjoyed working in the Spanish neighborhoods. He loved to get the books to the families there because they seemed to be so open to the truth. One day as he was at a home he showed a book called “Jesus Friend of Children.” He asked the little girl, “Have you ever heard of Jesus?” and she said, “No.” He was surprised but then he shared with the little girl for the next few minutes who Jesus was. After leaving that house he said, “That one experience made this whole summer worth it.” There truly is nothing better than sharing Jesus and that is what we do door to door.

Maria Echevarria

Maria was a great student. She had planned to work only the first half of the summer through and the second half to work in Phoenix in a youth program. She enjoyed the program so much that she wanted to stay for the second half but she prayed for God’s will. We both asked God to answer and answer clearly. One night she stayed up till 3:00 a.m. praying for God’s will to be revealed. At 3:00 a.m. she received a phone call. She answered and it was a guy named Kevin who had was helping run the Youth for Jesus program down in Phoenix. He shared with her that he was excited that she was coming and looking forward to seeing her. She praised God for answering being so clear. She took that as God answering her prayer so she decided to go to Phoenix for the rest of the summer. She arrived and quickly went over to Kevin. She told him what had happened just a week prior and how when he called her that she was praying to God for an answer. Kevin then strangely replied, “I didn’t call you...” As we all heard this story chills went from head to toe. God truly answered! Praise God!

Danielle Hagood

One night at 3:00 a.m. Danielle woke up and felt impressed to pray. She then felt a distinct impression to pray for a guy named Bob. She felt strange doing so but she prayed anyway and continued to pray for him. Two weeks later she was going door to door and she was feeling down and really needed some encouragement. She walked up to this house surrounded with cars. It appeared as though it was a house party. She walked up towards the house but a dog ran out of the garage to meet her and then followed the man of the house looking for his dog. Danielle then told him what she was doing and shows him some books. Then she asks him if he has any religious background and the guy says “no”. Strangely she feels impressed to show him the more straightforward religious books like Great Controversy, Desire of Ages, and Steps to Christ. Then she tells him that they are on donation basis the guy surprisingly says, "I’ll get them," and then went into the house. When he came back out he said that it was strange that his dog ran out of the garage because she would have knocked on the door she would have met his wife and she would have said no. Danielle then said, “What’s your name?” and he replied, “Bob.” Danielle left that house encouraged, but it didn’t end there. She went back to the group to share the testimony and one of the guys looked a little pale as she was sharing. He then piped up at the end of her testimony and said, “Two weeks ago I woke up in the middle of the night and felt impressed to pray for you.” It’s amazing how God knew that she’d be discouraged two weeks later and prepared an experience to encourage her labor. Praise God!

Michael Roosenberg

One day while driving through a neighborhood Michael looks out at the houses which is he is getting ready to be dropped off at. He sees this big tough white guy with tattoos and a muscle car. In his mind he thinks, “This guy definitely won’t be interested”. Later on he walks up to his house the man is standing there with a beer in his hand. He feels impressed to show him a Great Controversy. To his surprise the guy gets the book. So he goes to the next house and meets a Hispanic family. They wanted a book in Spanish that talked about Jesus but they only had a couple of dollars. Michael felt impressed to give the book to the family for the small donation. He then turns to leave the house and he sees the big tough guy that bought the Great Controversy walking over to him. With tears in his eyes the man hands him another donation big enough to cover for the book that the family couldn’t cover and then said that he was proud of Michael for what he was doing and wanted to learn more and was definitely going to read the book.