After nineteen years of hands-on investment in youth and families in Morden, Youth for Christ (YFC) Executive Director John Rempel is moving into a new role.

He will be with the organization as Associate Director of Chapter Development. This will be a role that supports new and developing YFC's across Canada by resourcing staff, documents, strategies, and establishing boards, policy and leadership teams as they navigate grow into full-fledged Chapters.

Looking back, Rempel sums up his 19 years saying, "it's been scary, it's been challenging, it's been wonderful, it's been messy, it's been amazing." And what his work entailed, "you can't unknow something, and it's just this brilliant place of journeying into the messier parts of people's lives, be it financial, be it relational, mentally. Just sort of this holistic approach to journeying with somebody."

Supporting kids and their families have varied over the years. 

"Some of the things that we've journeyed into would be very typical for any youth for Christ Center across Canada. You visit hospitals to connect with kids that maybe deliberately or accidentally overdosed, or (got) alcohol poisoning. Often (we are) called in crazy hours because somebody just lost their way, and they were at risk of taking their lives, and so you pop into the hospital to journey with them there, to a food shortage in the home, to 'we need new shoes', to providing first aid kits in a home, or the general hygiene packages that I take for granted. You get to talk with young moms who are so battling and trying to help their family to succeed. They have 1-2-3 part-time jobs, and wondering how they can do better with their kids and raising them and they're fighting hard every day."

Whether it has been through partnering in the child's journey directly with supports, financially donating to YFC or by providing food and services to the drop-in nights and regular programming, Rempel says the key to the success he has had come from working with so many community partners and interagency groups as well as business and individual supporters.

"People don't forget the people that journeyed into their mess and into their pain," Rempel added. "Sometimes people will say, 'hey, when somebody comes through the door, they should feel a complete release, and everything is good and tidy and clean,' and 'leave your troubles outside the door,' but we don't want that luxury. We want the kids to pop through the door with their troubles so that we get an opportunity to address them. We may not have the answers, but we got so many resources in our community that can help to navigate, whether it's counselling, whether it's mental health, school counsellors, they've got all kinds of advocacy they may just not be aware of."

Rempel recalls the words of Morden Police Chief Brad Neduzak, "when the Youth Centre is busy, we're not and that felt good."

Rempel leaves the team in place at Morden YFC with a word of advice.

"Something that I would encourage new staff, or even staff or volunteers considering taking a role at Youth for Christ, is come prepared to get messy and to get your hands dirty," he cautions. "Just remember you won't forget anyone. You don't. You almost don't have that luxury because once you've started journeying with them they just stay with you, your heart is just a little fuller, you've got another person you just fall in love with and you want to advocate for, you're on a journey with and they just don't go away, but you can't own it. You can't inappropriately enable. You have to remember that. You will only journey so far, and you can only journey so far, at a certain point, like your adult kids, you release them or they're popping out of the nest and they're going to be OK."

Rempel's final words on the 19 years of caring for kids.

"Mom is great, but the parent is supposed to say, "I love you' and 'I believe in you.' But to have other people speak those same words of life to you, and then to see their eyes just light up when you say 'man! You matter here.' I find it tough to put into words other than they're just so easy to love. I just want to advocate for them. I want to be in there, I want to take them all home."

 

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Written by Robyn Wiebe

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