Whether it is making the cover of ESPN Magazine or garnering attention in local papers, rebelutionaries are helping make teens good news again. Joining those ranks are Kelsey Jurewicz and Liz Matthews from Pennsylvania — who raised $2,500 to provide clean water to third world countries. In the process they demonstrated care for others, effective collaboration, and perseverance in the face of discouragement. That breaks quite a few stereotypes about teens. Take that, low expectations!

Two teens toughing it out for a cause
By Brendan Purves • Wednesday, 11.18.09

Dinner for two. Two teens that want to do hard things.

Kelsey Jurewicz, 17, and Liz Matthews, 17, both of Harleysville, broke away from the typical teenage stereotypes and served up a fundraising spaghetti dinner at Zion Mennonite Church to raise money to help bring clean water to Third World villages.

“To know that people don’t have clean water is just horrifying,” Liz said about the two girl’s motivation to give back.

The two Souderton seniors held the Saturday, Nov. 14 dinner to raise money for World Vision’s Clean Water Fund, which uses the funding to provide 18-foot wells in villages that do not have clean water and can not afford to dig their own wells.

Liz and Kelsey held the dinner as part of their senior projects for Souderton High School, but said that they were originally inspired to run a charity event by the book “Do Hard Things: A Teenage Rebellion Against Low Expectation.”

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What do you think of Kelsey and Liz’s project? What is stopping you from doing something similar? Your cause might be clean water, or abortion, or slavery, or AIDS, or missions, or poverty, or Bible translation, or anything. Have you been involved in a fundraising project before? If so, share your story in the comment section.

Also, don’t miss an exciting opportunity this holiday season to help Josh Guthrie raise $24,000 to dig three wells in Africa. Other rebelutionaries and their families are giving away their Christmas money, organizing fundraisers, and spreading the word at church and at school. Check out the story here and consider getting involved.

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Photos courtesy of Montgomery Media • MontgomeryNews.com

We weren’t familiar with the Pocket Testament League until a few weeks ago when someone handed us a pocket-sized Gospel of John. In the back it included the challenging question: “What’s in your pocket? Keys? Wallet? Small change? Why not use your pocket to change someone’s life by filling it with the power of God’s Word?”

We discovered that the Pocket Testament League has been around for 116 years and has distributed over 100,000,000 Gospels around the world! All of this has been accomplished through the work of enthusiastic volunteer members. Moreover, all of this was started by a teenage girl from England named Helen Cadbury!

From their website: The ministry began in 1893 as the vision of a teenage girl named Helen Cadbury, daughter of the president of Cadbury Chocolates. She was so excited about sharing her faith that she organized a group of girls who sewed pockets onto their dresses to carry the small New Testaments her father had provided. The girls called their group “The Pocket Testament League.” Using small membership cards, they pledged to read a portion of the Bible every day, pray, and to share their faith as God provided opportunity.

God uses young people. Perhaps more accurately, God uses anyone who is willing to follow hard after Him — no matter their age. Helen (pictured above, far left) gave her life to Christ at the age of 12 and never looked back. She understood that the Great Commission applies just as much to 12-year-old Christians as it does to 45-year-old Christians — and millions have heard the Gospel because of it.

Our Savior Jesus Christ said, in Luke 10:2, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” Let us pray that many of those laborers will be young people — and then let us be some of the first to go forth.

Some questions for discussion:

• Were you already familiar with the Pocket Testament League and/or Helen Cadbury? Have you eaten Cadbury Chocolate?
• At your stage in life, how should you be involved in the Great Commission? Have you excused yourself because of your age?
• When was the last time you shared the Gospel with someone?

Ever since we started this blog, and especially after Do Hard Things was released, we’ve gotten tons of emails from parents who want to know what our parents did to raise us kids. Our response is always that we’re far from perfect, but by God’s grace — and largely through decisions our father and mother made before we were born — we’ve seen God use our family in ways we never could have dreamed.

Our dad is our hero. Nobody has influenced us more than he has — both in what we’re doing today, as well as how we think about life. So we’ve encourage him (for a long time) to put his best ideas and insights into a new conference for parents (and teens). It’s called Raising Kids to Do Hard Things, but it’s not your average seminar — it’s more like a strategy session with our dad, who brings a boatload of biblical wisdom and 35 years of practical experience raising us and our siblings.

For any of you who have attended one of our Do Hard Things conferences, you know what a powerful and paradigm-shifting speaker our dad is. For all of you, his new conference is a terrific opportunity to find out for yourself. There currently ten conferences scheduled in ten cities across the United States — beginning in Los Angeles, CA in February and ending in Orlando, FL in December 2010.

• Los Angeles, CA • February 12-13, 2010 (visit the website)
• Dothan, AL • February 26-27, 2010 (visit the website)
• Portland, OR • March 19-20, 2010 (visit the website)
• Chicago, IL • April 23-24, 2010 (visit the website)
• St. Louis, MO • May 14-15, 2010 (visit the website)
• Denver, CO • September 17-18, 2010 (visit the website)
• Dallas, TX • October 8-9, 2010 (visit the website)
• Atlanta, GA • October 29-30, 2010 (visit the website)
• Washington D.C. • November 12-13, 2010 (visit the website)
• Orlando, FL • December 3-4, 2010 (visit the website)

You probably noticed that this “parenting” seminar is for both parents and teens. There’s a reason for that — and it’s very similar to the reason why we encourage parents to attend our “teen” conferences every year. As young people you probably live with your family. And being a rebelutionary gets a lot easier when you’re doing hard things with your parents on board. They can give you wise advice, provide needed resources (and snacks), drive you around, and help you keep going.

We’re excited about how God will use our dad’s new conference to get parents and teens excited about doing hard things together. Your job is to let your parents know about it — and encourage them to make it a family event! You’ll be glad you did.

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