It was an unforgettable experience. We had just recently started attending Covenant Community Fellowship after moving to Lansdale. Ken Rutt, one of the elders, invited me to go with him to 252 Underground, a ministry run by his friend, Rob Cook. The storefront was packed with teens – tough teens in black heavy metal t-shirts. I should have felt uncomfortable and nervous, but because of their obvious respect for Rob I felt accepted and welcomed.
We sat down and I began reading Rob’s writing. “Wow! This needs to be published,” I told him. “You’ve got a real gift with words.”
An hour later, when Rob turned off the music that had been blaring, it was immediately evident that he knew how to communicate verbally as well as in writing. The teens quieted down and listened intently. He knew his “audience.” He spoke to their needs without judging or condemning them. He powerfully presented biblical truth without turning them off.
Two and a half years and three GPCWC’s later, Rob’s first book, Regener8: Straight Talk to Street Smart Teens, is in print thanks to Eddie Jones of Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolinas who he met at GPCWC.
In the Introduction Rob writes:
Although this book is for young people from all walks of life, my heart resonates with young people from broken homes and dysfunctional families.
If you live in either group, or both of them, my heart goes out to you. I came from a broken home and lived with a physically abusive, alcoholic father.
I didn’t fit in with the “in” crowd. My friends and I hid on the fringes of society. We were labeled outcasts, troubled kids, and my personal favorite, juvenile delinquents.
We were not jocks. We were not popular. The streets felt like home.
Adults disapproved of everything we loved: the way we dressed, the way we talked, the music we listened to. The list was endless. They wrote us off, and we didn’t care. Or at least we acted like we didn’t care. We felt unloved and unwanted.
We did what we wanted, when we wanted. Unfortunately, when you live life by your own rules, you tend to break others.
This led to multiple run-ins with authoritative types who usually wore blue uniforms and had pretty shiny matching bracelets that they were all too happy to let us wear.
Some of my friends were not as lucky as I was. Their stories ended in long prison sentences, death from drug or alcohol overdoses, shootings, or suicide.
It’s only by the grace of God I sit here and write to you. God had a purpose for me, although I didn’t know it or care about it back then. I had my reasons.
My mom forced me to go to church, and I heard all about how God loved me and how we need to love each other and not judge people. But those same people at that church did not seem to love me. And they judged me. I didn’t fit into the mold of what they thought a “Christian” should look like.
I figured if that was the God they served, they could keep Him to themselves.
They had too many rules anyway. And their rules and my rules didn’t get along.
I was shocked when, years later, I found out that God was nothing like they made him out to be. God called people like them hypocrites. He wasn’t pleased with them or their self-righteous attitudes.
What I learned about the real God of the Bible radically changed my life.
That life-changing discovery is the foundation of this book.*
As I’ve gotten to know Rob over the past two and a half years, I have been impressed with the genuineness of his faith in Jesus Christ and his passion to invest himself in the lives of teens who, sadly, most churches would not welcome.
I’ve read almost half of Rob’s Regener8, and I am convinced that God is going to use this book and the ministry of 252 Underground to, literally, save lives.
At 252 we reach out to young people
from broken homes and broken pasts.
They come hopeless – We give them hope
They come angry – We give them peace
They come scared – We give them courage
They feel unwanted – We show them love
They feel alone – We become family
They feel ignored – We listen
They feel like giving up – We help them go on
We show them a life without drugs, and alcohol
We give them hope in a future – Hope in Jesus
I’m praying that you will want to join me in expanding Rob’s ministry to hurting teens. 252 Underground has outgrown the storefront they were renting. A church has agreed to let Rob use their social hall on Saturday nights, but 252 Underground needs a building of their own where teens can come in off the streets and encounter the love of Jesus Christ.
How can you help?
~ Click here for a news release with more info about Regener8. Pass it and this email on to your church, family, and friends.
~ Invite Rob to speak. You’ll find a contact form and more info at http://robcookunderground.com.
~ Provide financial support. In addition to the needs of 252 Underground, Rob is unable to work (he’s a painter – of houses inside and out) for the next three months he injured his back running wiht a fire extinguisher to put out a car fire.
~ And most important of all, please pray, fervently. Rob has other books in progress including Going Underground, the story of 252 Underground Youth Ministry and a how-to guide for reaching the teens in your community that his agent, Diana Flegal (who he also met at GPCWC) is shopping. I’m praying and believing that Father will use Rob’s books and work with teens as a prototype to reach hurting teens throughout America with the love of Jesus Christ.
*Regener8: Straight Talk for Street Smart Teens by Robert Cook, published by Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolinas. Used by permission.
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