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Seattle, Wash.
Canadian YMI team encounters rumours of riots in Seattle


For 80 Christian youth and sponsors of a Youth Mission International SOAR team, a day of urban encounters and prayer ended in news coverage amid rumours of riots in Seattle, Wash.

This Sold Out And Radical team from Western Canada was in Seattle March 15-25 with an assignment that included creative evangelism in high schools and assisting inner-city ministries. On March 17, the youth divided into groups of 10-15 and spread out in the city’s downtown, praying for healing of unrest in the community.

Two weeks earlier, a young man had been beaten to death while attempting to defend his girlfriend during an angry Mardi Gras riot, an event captured on video and broadcast across North America.

SOAR director Philip Serez said the city’s downtown showed evidence of earlier unrest. “Some windows were boarded up. A flower memorial lay on the sidewalk. We could sense the city’s feelings still ran close to the surface.”

Serez and several other leaders stayed in a central spot, waiting for the teams to return. When news reporters and camera crews began arriving, the leaders were told of rumours of another riot, an intentional response to the violence during Mardi Gras. YMI leaders realized it was too late to recall the teams, which were spread out throughout the city.

“My first response was fear – we had just sent 80 kids into the streets,” Serez said. “My second was faith, because we had just sent 80 prayer warriors into the streets.”

The leaders gathered to intercede for the wandering teams and for the city’s residents. Gradually, the teams returned. None had encountered violence or unrest. The collected group then began a time of spontaneous singing and prayer, concluding with a time of intercessory prayer on the cobblestones of Pioneer’s Square.

The riot did not come to pass. Serez credits the work of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of Seattle residents. “For me, it is hilarious – the image of the news truck packing up, the reporter and videographer wandering the Square looking for a sensational story and interviewing us in its place,” he recalled. “One thing is for sure. I walked away changed, along with 80 of my friends.”

Lloyd Letkeman, a teacher at Mennonite Collegiate Institute in Gretna, Man., led a group of students from his school. He pointed to the downtown experience as a transforming event in his students’ lives.

“God took a group of conservative, shy prairie kids and transformed them into worshippers of the Almighty God,” said Letkeman. “In the process, Jesus met me and gave me vision and hope for my community and this generation. I am humbled as their leader – to see God do a work in each life.”

Letkeman believes the experience of the Soar participants will have a long-term effect on their lives. “The presence of Jesus has been so evident in the teens’ prayers, concerns (and) worship,” he said. “God fed our team and I know this team will bring food back to the hungry at (our) school.”

Youth Mission International is the short-term youth discipleship ministry of MBMS International, the global mission agency of Mennonite Brethren churches in Canada and the US.

 – MBMS International release

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Last modified May 17, 2001.

© 2001 Mennonite Brethren Herald.
Published by the Canadian Conference of MB Churches.
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