They spoke about how heaven was a real place full of real joy, but they also spoke about the reality of Hell.
When Denzel Pierre Louis entered youth group, there was a lot he was struggling with on the inside, but he didn’t show it. He had a lot of questions that he needed answers for. It would be there that he would find a youth pastor who would show him the love of Christ in a multitude of ways.
His pastor and youth pastor lived all-in for the cause of Jesus Christ. Through them Denzel saw that a life serving Jesus Christ is the best life you could live. They were so joyful in everything that they did. And the love Denzel felt from them left a big mark.
It began to kindle a desire to do the same for teenagers as his youth pastor had done for him. He saw how his age group was being so strongly pulled to the world and he saw their need.
Wanting to be a pediatrician all of his life, he began to pray. He prayed that if God wanted him to serve in youth ministry, that God would change his desires. Slowly but surely, the plan he had all his life to pursue a medical profession, began to be turned on its head. He began to be unsettled at the sight of blood and became uneasy when people were even sick around him.
He also found he was at his happiest when he was not just at church, but serving in church. Because he couldn’t afford to visit Bible colleges in high school, his pastor and youth pastor purposefully saw to it that he could go.
Denzel remarks that he was so focused on someone’s physical health then, but spiritual health is so much more important. His youth pastor and senior pastor were instrumental in charting his path to youth ministry.
Over time, God changed his heart. The passion he had for the medical field had all but left. But a new passion took its place. The passion for a life of youth ministry, to help answer the hard questions for those struggling, and mend the brokenhearted.
And that God given passion persists to this day.
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