“Being a Christian is more than just an instantaneous conversion - it is a daily process whereby you grow to be more and more like Christ.”     - Billy Graham 

      Discipleship is a process. It’s a life-long pursuit following Jesus. When I look back on my life, I see how God has placed a great number of people in my path to help encourage me in my walk with God. My hope is that Journey Ministries serves as one of many avenues in a great number of young people’s lives, to encourage them, love them, and point them to Christ. 

The last two weeks have been very eventful. It seems that God is continuing to link Journey Ministries up with many opportunities to serve alongside other ministries (YoungLife, The Village, Santa Barbara Rescue Mission). I’m hoping that God is creating some long-lasting partnerships. 

As always, thank you for your continued prayers. I was reminded recently how God truly protects us. As I was on my way up the 5 freeway to lead a YoungLife crew on a mountain biking adventure, a window blew out of an RV in front of me and came crashing down on the hood of the van I was driving. It punched a hole right through the hood! I was so thankful that it didn’t come right through the windshield and hurt someone. God is good and definitely watching over us! The day ended up being one of the highlights of my month. None of the students had ever mountain biked before. I was able to lead them on an 8-mile ride with 3,000 of decline! All were safe, and all were stoked at the end. What was so great was that Journey was able to come alongside the YoungLife leaders and be another voice in the lives of the students, pointing them to a life surrendered to Jesus. 

Another highlight was our time at the Santa Barbara Rescue Mission. A small group of us served dinner, then led in a short chapel service. I know that God blessed many of the people that came to the service. They were encouraged to surrender to a God that loves them more than they could know. Many allowed us to pray for them one-on-one, and many were given Bibles. We pray that God continues to bear fruit through what took place that night. I know our group was blessed to hear the story of a man at the mission that is now on staff there. He shared in detail about his many years on the streets, in and out of prison, struggling with drug and alcohol abuse. But God grabbed a hold of him a few years ago and did a major transformation. He is now walking in freedom and leading others out of lives of addiction and into lives following Christ. 

Thank you for your continued love and support. 

           Serving Christ Together, Jon Bancroft

A few highlights:

- YoungLife mountain biking trip

- Westside guys mountain biking

- Westside guys adventure hike

- Homeschool discipleship group

- San Marcos High guys discipleship group

- Rescue Mission - served and led chapel