To The Christian School

Dear Administrator,

Thank you for your interest in bringing the Save America's Youth program into your school.  Save America's Youth is an outreach program of Freedom Village USA, a home for troubled teens located in Lakemont, New York. 

Save America's Youth teams travel to public and private schools across the United States and Canada with a presentation of powerful singing and real-life testimonies of former troubled teenagers.  These young people have found hope and freedom from substance abuse, violence, permissiveness, suicidal thoughts, and various other problems that led them down a path of self-destruction.

Because of their own experiences, the Save America’s Youth team members know the pain and hopelessness that many young people are facing today. Now they are able to share the answer for their lives with others that may very well be in the same situation that they once were in.  They share how Jesus Christ took their lives and completely transformed them into trophies of His grace! We have learned over the years that nothing is more effective than teens reaching out to teens. Their presentation is powerful, because it is real!

Even if it appears that these problems do not exist in your school, personal testimonies like these could be the very thing that prevents a student from making a tragic or fatal choice.  A recent USA Today study revealed that 67% of 2000 teenagers surveyed said, “I feel like my life is hopeless…I have nothing to live for.” Suicide is the second leading cause of death among teens 15 to 19 years of age.  Sadly enough, millions of teenagers admit to using marijuana, cocaine or alcohol regularly. We are all too familiar with the end results when a student’s anger, hatred and hopeless feelings erupt into violence. 

Freedom Village is a Christian based ministry and we make no apologies for what we believe.  We travel to Christian schools all over the country and have seen thousands of young people dedicate their lives to the Lord for His service and even for salvation.  God has been doing great things through these young people and the message that they bring.  We have a wide range of musical styles, so we want you to know we will stay within the boundaries you have set for your school.  We will also abide by any dress code you have in your school.

Our financial goal for an assembly is approximately $300 - $500 per school.  We realize that not every school is able to meet this goal, but we do ask that you help us with a donation, seeing that we are a non-profit organization.  If a donation is not possible, we do not let the lack of funds within a school deter us from coming.  Also, the length of an assembly is designed in accordance with each school’s time frame as well as their needs. 

Now is a difficult time in America to be a teenager.  Through the Save America's Youth assembly program, we want to remind every student that there is hope and an answer for any situation they find themselves in.  We want to do everything possible to help keep them from making wrong choices.

Thank you for your consideration in bringing this program into your school.  If I can answer any questions or be of any help, please feel free to call me at: 607-243-8126 ext. 357 or email at: saveateenfv@yahoo.com

Sincerely,

Mrs. Sarah Cope

Executive Director

Save America's Youth

This is an e-mail message from a young man at a Christian School we attended in Ohio.  This is just an example of the kind of response we receive after a tour to an area. 

God is really blessing in a big way this year!!!!

( I left it just the way he wrote it J)

 dear "say",

i dont know your name for which iam sorry. but you came to chapel feild today wensday feb. 2 2005. umm you sang stand and told people to stand if we werent saved. then you had the "unsaved" people go and pray with one of the people that came today from your group. Well i went up and prayed. if your going to visulize i was in the second row. the one in the green coat. and when the person (i think his name was either paul or mark) said the prayer if elt god. and that emptiness you spoke of went away and i have been so joyus since. i thank you soo much and wish to keep intuch with you. you sang so awsome today. i was wondering if ypu had a cd i could have. i guess i could dig up the money to send it to oyu if you wanted. i dont know how can repay you for the joy i feel because you came today. please email me bac. and i was wondering if you ha aol instant messanger name i could talk to you on. please emial me back. thank you soooooo much once again. bye

love,

dan

LOOK WHO’S TALKING!

  Jeannette- Feeling the effects of violence and divorce at home, I grew into a very rebellious and permissive young girl.  Having been thrown out of several different schools, I began to live a very permissive life filled with drugs, alcohol and unhealthy relationships.  I found myself pregnant at the age of 16; faced with the only option I thought I had…abortion. I became the person I said I would never be!  After leaving home, I had no life! I had come to “the end of myself” and decided to come to Freedom Village. Here I found God’s forgiveness and salvation.  I am now married to a wonderful Christian man who is an alumni of Freedom Village and have a beautiful daughter who God has blessed us with. I now travel with the Victory Singers and Precious In His Sight.  Most of all, I have found life in Christ.

  Brian- I was brought up in a good Christian home, but when I was 13 years old my parents separated very unexpectedly.  I took it pretty hard because I never saw it coming.  I began acting up in school, and started smoking marijuana and drinking alcohol in middle school.  To make a long story short my drug habit progressed to a $100 a day heroin addiction!  I soon found myself in many rehabs.  I had lost control of my life to drugs, and had hit rock bottom.  I finally admitted myself into a hospital and went through the most painful five days of my life.  Coming off a $100 a day heroin addiction was like being hit by a truck!  I began to cry thinking my life was over, but through my tears I saw a tract lying on the porch.  I read it and finally realized I could only change my life through Jesus Christ.  I came to Freedom Village soon after and my life has changed completely.  I praise God for giving me a second chance at life.  I will serve Him till the day I die.

     Sarah- I have grown up at Freedom Village all of my life.  My parents have worked for Freedom Village since I was one year old, so my story is a bit different from most you hear.  I got saved at the age of 11 and dedicated my life to serve my Lord wherever He would lead.  I began to develop a burden for church kids.  I am a church kid and I can tell you it is rough.  So many people expect so much and a lot of kids crumble under the pressure bcause they have never really made a commitment to Jesus Christ. It is so important in this day and age to take a stand for Christ and come out from the world and be seperate.  I have been traveling and singing for a long time now and I believe with my whole heart that it is the church’es job to reach our nation.  Christ has given me a burden that I hope to pass on to many other Christians to take a stand and whole-heartedly follow Christ. 

   Joe- I was a homeless, hopeless drug addict who couldn’t hold a job.  I listened to heavy metal music, had tattoos and body piercing all over my body, and you can imagine what I dressed like.  I was a very bitter and angry boy.  These feelings were mainly because I never had a father, and I took my pain out on everyone else. That all changed though when I came to Freedom Village and met Jesus Christ.  He brought me out of the pit I was once in and set my feet upon a solid rock.  Now after a life of pain and suffering, I can go through life with a smile on my face knowing that when I die, I am going to heaven to be with my heavenly father, Jesus, the one who saved me!

  Kellie- As a “church kid” growing up I never thought that my life would end up in shambles.  I had everything a child could dream of having, but the “strict” rules, or so I thought, that were placed upon me only made me feel locked up with out a key.  I thought I knew all there was to know about God and still the hatred that I had inside me was so intense I could not bear it.  I turned to suicide, depression, anorexia, drugs, rock music, and Satanism all in search of an answer.  You might be asking the question “How could a church kid end up like that?”  The truth is that all over America and Canada “church kids” are not finding the answers in church, so they look elsewhere.  My message to church kids that it can happen to you.  If you go to church that won’t get you to Heaven, know Him in your heart and let Him have your life.

  Jason- I grew up a very angry child.  I hated my parents and everyone else who tried to help me.  My parents were married at a very young age, and never really had much, but they did their best to provide for us.  As I grew older they got saved and tried to teach me to do right, but my dad was gone a lot working and I just grew up so bitter, that I pushed them away and turned to the streets.  I ended up involved in drugs and gang violence, but for the most part I was just and angry kid who stole every thing I wanted, abused my mom and sister to the point that they would lock themselves in their rooms when I would come around.  I tried to stab my pastor just because he wanted me to go to school.  My life was going nowhere fast and I knew I needed to change.  I came to Freedom Village and heard the about the life changing power of Jesus Christ.  I fought it for a while, but God finally got a hold of my heart and changed my life forever.  I am now able to travel and share what He has done in my life.  He has restored my relationship with my family and blessed my life abundantly.  I would be nothing without Christ.

 Sheena- My life started with a pretty bad beginning.  Both of my parents were drug addicts, so I grew up in a crack house until I was four years old.  At that time I was abandoned and placed with an abusive aunt and uncle.  I grew up in this home until the age of thirteen.  During those years I was also being sexually abused.  I grew very angry and depressed so I began abusing drugs at ten years old.  I also became sexually active and had an eating disorder because of my low self-esteem.  The abuse grew as I got older and at thirteen years old I tried to commit suicide.  But God saved my life and took me out of that situation.  I was placed with a Christian family, but I rebelled against them and God.  At the age of fifteen it caught up with me, I had nowhere to live and nowhere to turn.  I came to Freedom Village with a very hard heart, but five months later God softened that heart of stone with His love and I gave my broken life to God.   He has given me more than I could ever dream of.  I now travel and share my story with other hurting kids out there just like me who need to know there is hope and it can only come from Jesus Christ!

STATEMENT OF FAITH

We believe that the Bible is the inspired and only infallible and authoritative written Word of God.

We believe there is one God, eternally existent in three persons:God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit

We believe in the diety of our Lord Jesus Christ, in His virgin birth, in his sinless life, in his miracles, in His substitutionary death, burial and resurrection, in His ascension to the right hand of the Father, in His personal future return to this earth in power and glory to rule a thousand years.

We believe in the Blessed Hope--the rapture of the Church at Christ's coming.

We believe that the only means of being cleansed from sin is through repentance and faith in the precious blood of Christ.

We believe that regeneration by the Holy Spirit is absolutely essential for personal salvation.

We believe that the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the believer will holy, righteous living, not an "experience." The Holy Spirit indwelling a believer will be evidenced by a presence of gifts of the Spirit, as outlined in Galatians 5:22,23.These gifts include: love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance. Also present will be God's power as outlined in I Corinthians 2:1-5.

We believe in the resurrection of both the saved and the lost, one to everlasting life, the other to everlasting damnation.