Jeff Bronner with his students from Northwest at YOKE camp in spring 2017.
Jeff grew up in an unstable home, the youngest child of a single mother raising four boys. As the family scattered, soon Jeff found himself searching for a place he would feel the love and acceptance he was missing when his brothers left home. Unfortunately, he found it by falling in with the wrong crowd.
Jeff explains a middle school experience that is all too common for our youth, “in middle school, I was impressionable and hungry for acceptance.”
Thankfully, Jeff found YOKE and a camp experience started him on the path to a different life.
“I remember breaking down in tears at my first YOKE camp, confronted with my own anger and hatred towards God,” explained Jeff. “YOKE was the first place that I found a positive influence in middle school. The YOKE Folk that I met there showed a genuine interest in my life and in my faith.”
Because people like you gave, Jeff heard about a God who loves him unconditionally and committed his life to following him. Now he’s sharing that message with the next generation of YOKE kids. Jeff, and his wife Paige, currently serve as team leaders at Northwest Middle, where Jeff can mentor middle schoolers searching for that same acceptance he was looking for at their age.
“Only in retrospect can I see his unrelenting faithfulness. In every dark corner of my life, God held me fast, guiding me closer and closer to exactly where he wanted me. I can’t imagine where I would have ended up without YOKE.”
YOKE camp can truly be a life-changing experience. It was for Jeff. “This ministry is so much more than a mentoring program; it is a vessel that God uses to mend broken hearts and find lost souls.”
Fall camp is just around the corner and many kids, like Jeff, will need financial assistance to attend. Would you consider a gift to change the life of a middle school student? The cost to send a kid to camp is approximately $125. Your gift could help in the following ways:
- $125 – sponsor one YOKE kid
- $250 – sponsor one YOKE and their YOKE Folk
- $500 – sponsor a cabin of YOKE kids
- $1,000 – sponsor the cost of a whole YOKE club
When you give to YOKE, you’re investing in the life-changing ministry of the gospel. Like most of the 300 students that attended YOKE camp last spring, Jeff would not have been able to attend camp without the generous support of partners like you. Thank you for your continued support and prayers.
Send your check to YOKE at P.O. Box 3492, Knoxville, TN 37927 or make a secure gift online anytime at yokeyouth.com/give. All gifts to YOKE are tax deductible.