A Youth For Christ Tea Party in a city school is beautiful to watch. The room is filled with smiling faces. Young ladies (and gentlemen!) dressed in their best sit around elegantly decorated tables. They greet guests with confidence, hold thoughtful conversations, and practice the etiquette they have spent the past few weeks learning. For many of them, it is their first experience at a formal event.
What we see at a Tea Party is only the final chapter of a much larger story. All year God’s Girls Program Director Lakeysha Evans has been walking the hallways, entering classrooms, building relationships, and investing in the lives of students at Rochester city schools. Week after week, she teaches a school-approved social-emotional curriculum while weaving in timeless biblical principles about respect, identity, family, responsibility, and wise decision-making.
Real ministry is happening throughout the year, and we are reaching students who might never have walked through our doors on their own. Most of the young people Lakeysha serves have never attended a Youth For Christ program. Many have never been to church. Some come from difficult circumstances and face challenges at home that we can barely imagine.
Yet every week, they are sitting in a classroom where someone knows their name, believes in them, and consistently points them toward truth. As trust grows, students begin opening up about struggles they may not share anywhere else.
“Once they feel like they can trust you,” Lakeysha said, “they pull me to the side for personal things that they are going through.”
You can see the results on the faces of a room full of young people who are eager to learn, eager to grow, and eager to be seen.
“If the only perspective you have about kids in the city is what we get from the news, then you would be absolutely shocked to go to a Tea Party,” says YFC Executive Director Mike Hennessy. “They look you in the eye, shake your hand, smile and introduce themselves, and ask, ‘How are you?'”
While Youth For Christ honors the guidelines of the schools we serve, biblical truth is never far from the conversation. Lessons about self-respect naturally lead to discussions about identity. Conversations about relationships open doors to talk about character and wisdom. Discussions about family responsibilities point toward honoring others and making good choices.
The principles of Scripture are woven throughout the curriculum because they address the very questions students are already asking. Who am I? What is my value? How should I treat others?
For Lakeysha, one of the most important messages she communicates is that every student has worth. She regularly reminds students, “I believe in you. You’re intelligent. You’re wise. You’re smart.”
For many young people, those simple words are more powerful than we realize.
The annual Tea Party gives students an opportunity to put everything they have learned into practice. They learn etiquette, communication skills, confidence, and respect for themselves and others. More importantly, they experience what it feels like to be honored.
Lakeysha often refers to her students as kings and queens, reminding them that they were created for a purpose and a future. The event becomes a visible reminder that they are capable of far more than the world often expects from them.
But the Tea Party is not the finish line, it is a bridge. Every relationship built in the classroom creates an opportunity to invite students into the broader ministry of Youth For Christ.
Our Saturday God’s Girls program provides opportunities for Bible study, mentoring, service projects, leadership development, career exploration, and deeper conversations about faith. It is where many students can move from hearing biblical principles to actively exploring what it means to follow Christ.
The school ministry allows us to meet students where they already are. The God’s Girls program gives us an opportunity to walk with them further.
Lakeysha’s hope for her students is simple and powerful.
“I really would love for them to understand that God loves them, that there are adults who love them and who care about them and who have their best interests at heart.”
The dream that drives her work every day: “I want them to dream and dream big.”
Thanks to faithful supporters, those dreams are beginning to take root in classrooms all across our city.
