Young Life Capernaum

I am honored that Dave and Pam asked me to share a few words with you about my relationship with my friend Steve. They have also asked me to tell you a little bit about our ministry, Young Life Capernaum, that has been so much a part of Stephen’s life the last 8 years.

I first met Steve about 8 years ago. Dave and Pam and Steve live in North Central Phoenix near the Phoenix preserve area; they live just a few doors down from a very popular trailhead for climbing Shaw Butte. My wife and I would park at the trailhead quite often and one day I noticed a young man sitting on the curb watching the cars and people—well, it was Steve. As I passed by him in my car I rolled down the window and said hello. Of course, Steve ignored me—his parents had faithfully taught him ”stranger danger”. Over the course of a few weeks, I saw Steve sitting on the curb numerous times. Each time I would stop and say hello, and each time he would completely ignore me. One time during our comings and goings, his father Dave came by to get him to take him back to the house. I was fortunate to get to share with Dave about our ministry to teens and young adults with disabilities. Soon afterward, we were excited when Dave brought Steve to club, and he became one of our most faithful participants for 8 years.

The video that was shown at the beginning of the service [Phoenix Capernaum Club: Amazing Grace] was filmed at one of our Capernaum clubs. Our Capernaum group meets weekly on Thursday nights during the school year and a few times during the summer. We average 30 to 40 friends with disabilities every week, and Steve was one of our most faithful participants. In Young Life, we believe that “It is a sin to bore a kid with the Gospel,” so we have a lot of fun in our gatherings which we call “Club”. We sing songs, do crazy skits, play wacky games—but our primary goal is to share the Love of Jesus Christ with our friends. We emphasize to our friends that they are special, they are made in the image of God, that they all have special gifts from God, that Jesus Christ died on the Cross for all of us so that we might have a relationship with our Father in Heaven and have eternal salvation.

Steve loved to come to Young Life club. He had his favorite place to sit and would somehow squeeze into his spot if someone else were sitting there. He always wore a baseball cap and a t-shirt or sweatshirt with a team logo on it.

One of our favorite things to do at club is “Talent Night” where the kids can sing a song or do a dance or play a musical instrument. On several occasions Steve would bring his guitar and play one of his two favorite songs—I’ve Been Working on the Railroad or Santa Claus is Coming to town. His mom, Pam, told me she and Steve had been talking about what song he wanted to sing at our next talent night, and he was going to add Amazing Grace to his repertoire. As we heard at the beginning of the service, when our friends sing Amazing Grace, it is the voice of angels singing; and I am sure Steve is singing along today.

Usually once a year we have a “Show and tell” Club. I remember one year Steve brought a bag with about 100 toy Hot Wheels cars to share. When I was reminiscing with Dave and Pam this week and shared this with them, they told me how lucky I was that he only brought 100 cars. I went into his room, and now have a better understanding of what they meant—Steve loved cars!!

Steve loved and adored Santa Claus and Christmas—it didn’t matter what time of year it was. At our Capernaum Christmas Clubs, I would dress up as Santa and have the joy of sharing the “magic” of Christmas with our friends. Every year Steve would faithfully bring his list to share with Santa. It always included cars.

Young Life Capernaum is a specialty ministry within our parent ministry, Young Life. Young Life was founded 69 years ago in Texas and is now present in every state and in over 100 countries internationally. We are currently reaching over 1 million teens around the world. The majority of Young Life reaches out to un-churched and disinterested high school teenagers. One of the beliefs of Young Life is “Every Kid everywhere for eternity”. So as the ministry grew over the years, the focus expanded to include Junior High kids (which is call WyldLife), College students, teens on military bases, teenage mothers (Young Lives), and people with disabilities (Capernaum).

Capernaum was founded 23 years ago in San Jose, CA. The ministry was small for a number of years. Our Phoenix group started 13 years ago in Northeast Phoenix. Over the last six or seven years the ministry has grown to over 140 locations, and in the last three years in Arizona we are now reaching over 100 friends in four active groups here in the valley and growing groups in Flagstaff, Prescott and Tucson. We now have over 30 volunteer leaders serving our young friends in Arizona. If you would like to be a part of our ministry, come and see!!

Dave and Pam have asked that we play a short video with you about our ministry and the friends we serve. There is a sweet shot of Steve in a red t-shirt about five minutes into the video.

[The video Capernaum: Village of Comfort was shown.]

Many of us are uncomfortable with people like Stephen who has a disability. The gentleman at the end of the video encourages us to take a chance and seek out a person with a disability and try to connect with them—be comfortable with being uncomfortable, take the time to get to know them.

In Matthew 25:40, Jesus reminds us that “whatever we do for the least of these” we do for Him. The Message bible translates this as “whatever we do for someone overlooked and ignored” we do for Him. Our friends with disabilities are overlooked and ignored every day and unfortunately many of them are “ignored” by their own families.

Dave and Pam, I am so thankful that God chose you to be Stephen’s parents because you have loved him unconditionally, you shared the Love of Christ with him, and you gave other people like me and the people here today a chance to know Stephen and to love him.

[The videos are available at http://phoenixcapernaum.younglife.org/]

Presented by David Thames at Stephen’s funeral, February 1 2010 in Tempe, Arizona.