By Tyler Braswell, Ramzi and Suzanne Yatim, & Mandi McKibbon

February 26, 2007

 

 

Tyler Braswell, teenager

Throughout my short life I have learned to love those moments when God moves in a miraculous and powerful way. So many times those moments are the things that keep us going when life gets difficult and things seem to be spiraling out of control. But I have learned the hard way that you cannot always depend on those moments to sustain you. There will come times in your life where you just cannot connect with God the way you want to.

In April of 2006, I attended Missouri’s annual Youth Convention. The speakers were powerfully anointed and the crowd shockingly responsive.  From the first service it was evident that this was going to be a life-changing and powerful event. Wednesday night I got a wonderful blessing at the altar; I was eager to see what else God had in store for that convention.  

Then the next service thoroughly confused me.  It seemed that everyone in the building was getting their blessing except me.  So, I made my way to the back of the auditorium to work things out with God in private.

My best friend Ramzi saw me heading to the back and decided to go with me.  While in the back of the auditorium he and I began to intercede for our church and for our youth group. (A word of advice: if you cannot seem to get your blessing, stop and pray for someone or something else--maybe they need it more than you do.)  While praying, I could not seem to get an idea out of my head.  I come from a small church in southeast Missouri that believes strongly in bus ministry. A vivid memory of my childhood is watching my grandfather pack kids into his brand-new Cadillac so they could go to church.  Images of that ministry and the kids it impacted kept running through my head. I finally gave in and stopped praying to talk to Ramzi.  I told him about the bus ministry I remembered from my childhood and how profound an impact it had on that church. Within minutes, Ramzi and I had decided that somehow, someway, we were going to start a bus ministry when we got back home.  There was no light from heaven and no amazing spiritual release.  Just a decision made in the privacy of an auditorium’s back row.

 

 

Ramzi Yatim, teenager

I've always been helping in my church, especially with the kids. Whenever we had a special kids summit, I always found myself working with kids--and I loved it!

That Thursday morning at Youth Convention '06, I saw Tyler going to the back of the church, so I went back to pray with him. We began praying for our youth group and our church. After we got done, he was just sitting there when he told me that he wanted to start a bus ministry.  I said, “Okay, let’s do it.” That next night while I was riding with my youth pastor in the van, I told him that Tyler and I wanted to start a bus ministry.  He was all for it and told us to start as soon as we got back to St. Louis. Mandi heard this and decided that she would help us out with this.

I was so excited about this that I went home and told my sister Suzanne. She wanted to get involved, and proposed the idea that we start in the neighborhood where my dad owns a store. We knew many of the families in that area by name--and I mean the whole family.

So, a few weeks later after a series of meetings at Waffle House, we got together on a Saturday and went to the neighborhood.  We went door-to-door asking people if they would like their kids to go to Sunday school at our church. It was stressful, hot, and sweaty, but I wouldn't trade one drop of sweat for what I did.

Now we average at least 20 people a week, which includes a family who comes every Sunday. This ministry has changed my life in so many ways.  I'm just thankful that God showed us that a bunch of young people with an idea can turn into one of the newest ministries at our church.

Suzanne Yatim, 20something

I was in my kitchen a couple of days after youth convention when my brother came to me and said that he and Tyler wanted to start a bus ministry. I looked up at him with this astonished and impressed look on my face. I immediately thought of my work.

I have had the same annoying job since I was 16. For the past five years I have worked at our local corner store cashing checks, selling convenience store items, and meeting the local neighborhood families, who have come to be our friends through the upbeat atmosphere of our store. When people come in, we talk to them about their lives. Because we know them all personally and know them all by name, it’s easy to strike up a conversation.

When Ramzi asked me where we could start this ministry, I immediately thought of the neighborhood I work in. Due to our depth of familiarization with the people in the neighborhood, we understood their deep need for Jesus. Most of the women who came in had several children and no husband or job to help support them. Many of the children live in unstable homes. This explains why we often caught kids stealing. They had not been taught the things that we take for granted. So it struck me that this would be the perfect place to begin an outreach program.

Surprisingly to me, we were soon bringing children by the van full. And what surprised me even more was when the children asked if we could pick up their cousins who lived in a different part of town. The ministry was spreading, and it was not by our hands! The children were spreading the word for us. 

 

Since then, the kids have asked questions about this Jesus person whom they do not know well. Some of them beg their parents to come with them someday. They have been involved in the Christmas play and have made their parents proud. It surprises me to see what a blessing has come out of a job that I so hated. Now when I’m at work, some of our bus kids run up to me and ask me if we are picking them up this week. It’s in these moments I see that God has a plan for everything. He took a job that I couldn’t wait to get rid of and gave us a ministry that reaches out to children who need Jesus.

Mandi McKibbon, 20something

Like Tyler, I grew up in a church that had a bus ministry.  I remember riding along with my grandma as she visited the families on Saturdays.  Our church had about 100 people in it, so I did not understood why my current church of 400+ did not have a bus ministry.  It never occurred to me that I could help start one. 

When I found out our youth were starting a bus ministry, I was excited, but I did not originally plan on being involved with it. Still, Tyler is one of my Bible quizzers, so I wanted to show support for his ministry endeavors. I would show up for Saturday outreach and give ideas here and there, and pretty soon the guys asked me to help with the organization part of the ministry.

We have learned a lot by trial and error, but we have also been blessed with the wisdom of several people who have been involved in bus ministry before.  We have also been blessed by the vision of our church leadership for this ministry.  Our youth pastor said, “Whatever it takes, whatever you need, we are going to make this ministry happen.”  He talked with our pastor, who gave us the go-ahead, then promoted and pushed the vision to the church.  And our children’s pastor, who just happens to be Tyler’s dad, has also been valuable in this endeavor.  Having previously worked with bus ministry, he was able to give us ideas and share his wisdom.  He has had teacher training sessions to better prepare and equip our Sunday school department for the changes that have come with this ministry.  (We’re trying a new Sunday school format that will be more evangelistic and allow church youth the chance to minister to the bus kids.)

There have been many ups and downs.  We’ve had our weeks where the kids have been out of control, ran through the sanctuary, cussed, kicked the walls, and refused to go to classes.  Then, there are the weeks where the van won’t start, or you don’t have enough people to help or people are negative.  Yet you learn to pray for patience, a positive attitude, and lots of love and compassion.  You remember that all the positives outweigh the negatives, and we have so many memories to remind us that this ministry is worth every bit of time and sacrifice, like:

• Kids with tears pouring down their face during a crusade and prayer summit who had never experienced Pentecost. 
• Parents who come to the altar with hands lifted. 
• Lots of hugs and smiles every week. 
• Parents who thank you for trying to give their child a better chance. 
• The kid who starts singing “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” during the pastor’s sermon or starts yelling during the sermon (after all, the pastor is yelling!). 
• The Sunday school teacher who is so excited because a kid gave them a hug for the first time. 
• The lady that smiled for the first time when we went Christmas caroling to their house. 
• The church people who say, “Thank you, I was a bus kid once.”  They give hope and remind us that our work is not in vain.

 

 
This ministry is a team effort, and it is primarily run and operated by the youth group.  They have taken ownership of this ministry and are faithful week after week. We have kids who were not involved in anything who now show up to help with the kids every week.  They have adopted these kids as their own, and they shower them with love and compassion no matter what the child looks, acts, or smells like.  When someone makes the mistake of saying something negative about a bus kid in front of our youth group, you hear a 14-year-old saying, “Don’t they know this is a ministry?”

 

God has blessed us tremendously in our 8+ months of existence.  We have had over 60 people come on the bus route.  About 30 of those are regulars, and our average weekly attendance is around 20 children. 

In 2007, we hope to start a Home Friendship Group in our bus ministry neighborhood, as well as get Bible studies going with some of the parents and teens.  We are working on a mentorship program and have new neighborhoods targeted for outreach.  We’ve started an adopt-a-bus kid prayer program. 

We are anticipating a year of unprecedented revival, and it all started with the vision of a 17-year-old kid who took one small step for God.

ninetyandnine.com

© 2007, Tyler Braswell, Ramzi and Suzanne Yatim, and Mandi McKibbon

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Tyler Braswell, Ramzi and Suzanne Yatim, and Mandi McKibbon all live in the St. Louis metropolitan area.