At Youth Unlimited summer camp, 16-year-old Bentley is a familiar face to younger kids, encouraging campers, supporting staff, and occasionally leading boxing activities.

It’s a role he never imagined for himself a few years ago.

At eight years old, another student pushed Bentley so hard that he needed stitches in his lip. He was bullied regularly for how he looked and often felt targeted by classmates who picked on him for being different. He remembers being made to feel like there was something wrong with him, while others joined in rather than step in.

Bentley felt like he was walking into school already bracing for what would happen next, whether it was being mocked, excluded, or hurt. Eventually, he didn’t want to go at all, and the idea of facing another day there felt unbearable.

Youth on the after School Program HangOut field trip to Fantasy
Farms.

 “We were basically just surviving the days,” Bentley’s mother Jenny recalls. “Get to school, get out of school, get home, and just exist.”

Life at home was difficult too. Bentley and his mother were doing their best to make it through each day, at one point even living out of someone else’s garage. Between instability at home and isolation at school, there were few places where Bentley felt like he truly belonged.

During that season, Bentley says finding Youth Unlimited was a turning point.

Bentley first got connected with YU at 11 years old, while wandering through the cafeteria at Chilliwack Middle School. Curious about the “HangOut” after-school program taking place there, he approached YU Chilliwack Area Director Ken and asked questions. He wanted to be part of something.

“For the first time, I actually had people to hang out with,” says Bentley. “I didn’t really have that before.”

Ken remembers meeting a pre-teen who struggled to connect with others and often pushed people away before they could reject him first. But YU staff and volunteers were not about to give up on him. They kept welcoming him back, week after week.

“We kept showing up, and he kept showing up,” says Ken.
Youth travelling to one of YU’s many trips and adventures.

KIND Confidence

Over time, those consistent relationships began to change something in Bentley. For the first time, he found people who genuinely wanted him around. Volunteers took time to talk with him, include him, and encourage him.

Jenny noticed the changes too. Slowly, Bentley became more willing to leave the house. He began to talk to people and to put himself out into the world. The confidence that had once been buried under hurt and defensiveness began to grow.

“Ken gave me something I’d never really had before — a father figure. He actually gave me a chance,” says Bentley. Ken sees a remarkable difference in the teen he first met years ago. The young person who once struggled with aggression and connecting with his peers has become someone who now naturally encourages
others and chooses kindness.

“The cool thing about Bentley’s confidence is that it’s not arrogance,” Ken says. “It’s a kind confidence.”

Bentley demonstrated that growth when he started aging out of the HangOut program and asked: “How can I keep coming?” The answer meant finding ways to give back.

giving back

Bentley now helps coach younger kids at YU summer camps, particularly through boxing activities. He enjoys being someone younger students can turn to when they need help or encouragement. The same kind of support that once helped him grow is now something he offers to others. For a teen who once struggled to find where he belonged, that opportunity means a lot.

“I like being in the position where I can teach younger kids,” he says. “I know what it feels like to be left out.”

For Jenny, watching her son’s growth has been emotional. She says YU gave Bentley opportunities and relationships she could not provide on her own.

“He’s out experiencing life, meeting new people,” Jenny says. Bentley
is learning how other people live, work, and interact with the world. “That’s something I couldn’t provide for him on my own. It’s exciting to watch him grow into himself.”

At 16, Bentley now no longer just attends Youth Unlimited programs, he is helping shape them. Through consistent relationships and a place to belong, he found more than a program to join; he found community. Now, he is encouraging younger youth and investing in others the same way YU once invested in him.

 

THE ELEVATION EXPERIENCE
PREPARES FOR TAKE OFF

From July 21–August 8, a team of 14 youth and staff will travel to Rwanda to grow, learn, and be challenged together. Please pray for the team’s safety and connectedness.

As one past participant shared: “The Elevation Experience taught me so much about friendship, kindness, forgiveness, poverty, international development, and God’s heart. Ultimately, it changed how I strive to live my life and who I want to be.” There’s still time to support! youthunlimited.com/elevationfundraising
 

 

Lifeteam’s next chapter

From Iona Snair, Lifeteams Associate Director:

“Each year at Lifeteams, we invite students to practice courageous faith—to trust God with their future. Now we’re going to practice what we preach!

As we complete our 25th year, Lifeteams School will pause for one year to refresh and prepare for the seasons ahead. This pause will create space to prayerfully discern next steps around stewardship of the School and succession planning—important questions that deserve our full attention and care.”

golf tournament recap

It was another incredible day at the 36th Annual GVYU Golf Tournament!

Thank you to our amazing partners and sponsors for continuing to show up for youth, one swing at a time, helping raise over $100,000 for vulnerable young people across our region.

And this year featured an incredible hole-in-one—and a $10,000 grand prize—from longtime YU friend and partner Wes Guiel. Congratulations, Wes!

 
 

 

 
 

  

 

Dear Friends,

In the early 1990s, I was a young outreach worker in Winnipeg, trying to connect with skateboard kids, whom many in the city had written off. Society saw them as punks just looking for trouble, I saw them as kids pushing back on a world that had pushed them away. Paul Hoffmann was my mentor in that work. He taught me how to love young people in the way of Jesus, how to build trust with a subculture the faith communities didn’t know how to reach, and how to discern what God was doing in the middle of it all.

On Good Friday, 1997, Paul collapsed and died right in front of his three-year-old son. Paul was 36. I was on a snowboard trip with our youth in Banff when I got the call. In the weeks that followed, I came to understand the gift Paul had given me. He hadn’t just prepared me for the short term, he had laid a foundation that would carry me for a lifetime.

That foundation is part of why I’m still here, over 30 years later. From running The Edge Skateboard Ministry in Winnipeg to leading a team of over 75 dedicated staff across Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley. Through every season, year and decade of this work, what Paul poured into me has continued to bear fruit far beyond what either of us could have imagined.

Our feature story is a picture of what faithful presence looks like between a mentor and a youth he refused to give up on. The relationship between Ken and Bentley speaks to me because I know what it is to have someone keep showing up. And I know how far that kind of faithfulness can travel.

“And the things you have heard from me, by way of numerous witnesses, commit these to faithful people who will be competent to teach others.” 2 Timothy 2:2

Thank you for making it possible.

Forward Together,

Mark Koop

Executive Director