Youth Resources is interested in your opinion.
GETTING AN EDUCATION –
Youth Resources will be awarding a scholarship of up to $20,000
($5,000 a year renewable for up to four years)
Please write at least 500 words or more and answer the questions
- Why you need a scholarship
- What you will study
- How will the youth of the community benefit from your education
- How will you gain from the education
Entries are due by Tuesday, February 1, 2011
We will be giving away a gift certificate for this question. Each certificate will be worth at least $40.00 towards food, or gas, or coffee, or a paid registration to Reload
Youth Resources exists for the advancement of urban youth and organizations that serve them to reduce illiteracy, poverty, crime and fatherlessness.
2 comments:
Getting an Education
By Annette Bittner
January 13, 2011
Getting an Education
The year is 1997; I’ve just graduated from Bethel University. Stepping into the real world, everything seemed new, exciting, and uncertain but I knew that the future was bright and that there was so much potential in me to do great things.
Fast forward now to 2011. Since college, I have married, lost a son to a miscarriage, and continue to carry a heart condition that burdens me down with doubt and fear. Three years ago, I was desperate for a change in my life. I needed to find greater direction, uncover my purpose, and become the leader I was destined to be. DeVos Urban Leadership was an answer to prayer because the program helped me discover my potential. I am an influential leader; I am anointed to make a difference. Most importantly, through DeVos, I learned that I must take ownership for failures and disappointments in life, instead of blaming others. I have the ability to learn and grow from past mistakes if I am willing to be honest with myself and allow the LORD to help me move forward.
Today, I am making significant changes in my life. Family is one of my core values; we have a purpose to fulfill and I would like to be a mother someday too. In the time that I wait on the LORD to bring these dreams to pass, I have to live life and stop slipping into hopelessness and fear. Currently, I hold a bachelor’s degree and would like to go after a master’s degree. I desire to step forward in pursuing higher education to equip me further in my life purpose and family goals.
I know that a master’s degree would be beneficial to the community that I live and serve in. Young people need to be empowered to take a similar journey that I have been blessed to take. There is life to be lived and just because one experiences setbacks, it does not mean that life is over or dreams are unachievable. Young people and others in the community need opportunities that will stretch them and pull the inner gifting and talent the LORD has placed in them out. One of the ways that this can happen is through the Arts. It’s a marketplace that has huge capabilities of shining the light and hope of Jesus into many lives. Financing an education is the only obstacle I face now because I am done running from being a success.
Just because life has not always gone the way that I thought it would go, it does not mean that I cannot start now to see my dreams fulfilled. The LORD gave me a life to live and it’s about time I do that. Two verses that guide me in this season are Proverbs 13:12, 19 “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life. A longing fulfilled is sweet to the soul.” There are many people that support me and it’s about time that I let them know that their words and prayers have not gone unheard – with your help, I can be a tree of life that brings life to a community that desperately needs it.
There are institutions of higher education that are waiting for me to make up my mind. I would like to begin a program in the fall of 2011. This is a great time for me to begin the process of application to a few select programs. How this opportunity to write for a scholarship opened up to me now, only the LORD knows, but this is an answer to prayer. I look forward to hearing if I am selected and what I need to do next in this process. Thank you for considering me for this scholarship opportunity.
God called me into full time ministry when I was in 7th grade. I attended a camp called Lake Geneva Christian Center that summer. On one of the nights Nate Rusch was speaking. When he finished I found myself at the altar on the left side kneeling before God. God spoke to me that night and told me that I would be going to North Central University for Youth Ministry for little or no money. After some time spent in prayer and meditation on the Lord I proceeded back to my seat and wrote what God spoke to me down. God has been faithful in keeping his promise to me. Even though I still have multiple loans out for school I know that God will take care of me. If this scholarship is something he uses to help me pay for my education then God is good. However, if this scholarship was meant for someone else then He is still good and I know He will take care of all my needs according to His riches and glory. God has also brought me the woman who will be helping further His kingdom. Her name is Casey Mack and she also has a youth ministry minor. We are engaged and are getting married August 7th, 2011. This scholarship would also be beneficial to help us pay for college.
Here at North Central I am studying Youth Development with an Emphasis in Ministry. I believe that God has called me to be a youth pastor. I have already done one internship and it was one of the best times of my life. God has definitely put a burden on my heart for the youth of this generation.
I plan on pouring my life out to whatever community God brings me too after I graduate. However, I am pouring out my life into the youth right now as I go to school. I am in charge of the Jr High youth at Columbia Heights Assemblies of God. My friend and I hold a small group for them here at North Central and God is doing wonderful things in their lives. I can do nothing on my own but through my God I can do anything. I am so thankful that he is using us in leading these youth closer to God. The education that I am receiving is helping me understand youth to a greater degree and I know that God is going to use that for good.
I believe that God wants us to be wise both in the things of God but to also be knowledgeable in education. This education here at North Central is really expanding both of those two areas in many ways. God has anointed and called these professors to teach at North Central. One of the classes that is really making an impact this hear is Homiletics 1 class with David Watson. Everyday God speaks to me and challenges me. I’m learning about youth and their process of change that they go through in adolescence. God us using this school to mold me to be the man that he wants to be. The man that I want to be, a man after the King’s heart.
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