Many of you ask, “What is contact work”?  Well, Contact work for me is simply hanging out with teen moms outside church or school walls, meeting them where they are at. I don’t know if I would even count it as “work” It’s my pleasure and honor to get to hang out with these girls. They are strong, brave, independent, beautiful young moms and I love getting to hangout with them. Whether its just a texting conversation, or playing taxi driving them around or taking them and their babies to the park or beach. It is so fun for me, and it is one of my favorite parts of this ministry.

Recently, I was at Valley Vista High School helping with homework and it just happened to be the day Red Cross was at the school and people were giving blood. Some of the girls were signed up to do it but were terrified having never done it, so one looked at me and said “will you come and hold my hand”, I didn’t even hesitate to say “absolutely” (even though I hate needles) boy, did she have a grip on my hand! Just knowing that the girls feel comfort and peace with me there is amazing because I know that is Jesus shining through me to comfort them. We were there about two hours but I didn’t even care, I could have stood there holding hands all day because I knew that’s exactly where I was supposed to be. Jesus would be doing the exact same thing for me or you, because He is the ultimate comforter, and Prince of Peace.

Beach day with Valley Vista girls!

My hope and prayer is that these girls find Jesus (if they haven’t already), realize their worth and how much they are loved, graduate High school, get jobs and make a life of their own following God’s call on their lives. For me, getting to be even a small part of all that is worth a million bucks. As I look to the future and try to imagine where these girls will be, what they will be doing, and the lives they will impact brings tears to my eyes. I am so incredibly thankful and blessed by these young moms, they are incredible. I love every one of them and their babies, and I love getting to be apart of their lives, i’m pretty sure my heart has grown 60x bigger working wth YoungLives, haha!

I hope this helps you understand “contact work” a little bit more, I love sharing with you the stories of the way Jesus is working through “meeting them where they are” and getting to share my heart behind it all.

-Kylie Bradley