When a YoungLife leader shared at Jane Barnett’s church about the need for more volunteers to work with middle schoolers in nearby Chattanooga, Jane thought to herself, “Well, my life is kind of boring. I can do that!”
As Jane got to know the kids, her world widened. “They didn’t have Christmas trees. Their families were often quite uninvolved. Some of the kids knew nothing at all about Jesus, not even that he was considered to be God.”
Jane struggled to find materials that both covered basic truth about Christianity and got students engaged. When a fellow YoungLife staff member suggested that she check out seeJesus’ Person of Jesus study, she jumped on it. “It took me a little while to get the hang of it and sort of ‘translate’ the lessons to their world, but once I did we started having these great conversations. Months later, I thought briefly about trying something else again for a time, but the kids pushed back – ‘No, we want to do the one with the questions!’”
When Jane heard seeJesus was going to be offering a workshop on leading the Person of Jesus study in Chattanooga, she signed up as a trainee. “The mini-lesson I led the first night was a disaster!” she recounts. “Jon Hori was helping with that training, and he sat with me to give me feedback and encouragement. I went home and read through the lesson several times and prayed a lot! The next day I went through my lesson again and this time it went beautifully! A few weeks later, I got a letter from seeJesus asking if I wanted to become an apprentice, and that began a wonderful journey.”
Sisters-in-law (and in-Christ): Jane (left) and Ellen Barnett
She was still working through the apprenticeship last January, when her sister-in-law Ellen Barnett, a missionary in Acapulco, Mexico, came to stay with Jane and her husband on Home Ministry Assignment. Jane was helping with a See Jesus Workshop nearby and invited Ellen to join her. Ellen was excited to discover the Person of Jesus study, and when she spoke with the workshop organizer, she was thrilled to hear about the Spanish version, La Persona de Jesús.
As Ellen explored the lessons, two projects came to mind immediately. First, she thought about the neighbors she’d met the previous fall in the aftermath of a major hurricane. The material “fit the bill” for a neighborhood Bible study she would begin when she returned to the field.
She was also eager to share the material with students at the seminary she coordinates within the presbytery in Acapulco. The seeJesus team connected Ellen to Debora Ramirez, seeJesus’ Spanish World Coordinator, and the two designed a class that Debora would teach via Zoom that Spring. As a result, several are using the materials in Acapulco now.
If I’m teaching up front it is harder to draw students in. With this material, there’s no problem getting students to interact!
“One of the things I love about the study is how the questions facilitate conversation,” shares Ellen. “If I’m teaching up front it is harder to draw students in. With this material, there’s no problem getting students to interact!”
From seminary students and neighbors in Acapulco, Mexico, to middle school students in Chattanooga, to sisters-in-law following Jesus together, there’s something about seeing Jesus more clearly – together and in the midst of our real life context – that is transformative. A seminary student told Ellen recently, “This has turned my life upside down!”
Jane sums it up: “I love studying these stories of Jesus and slowing down to take it all in. The study has enriched my life and taught me how to be more fully human.”
You can check out a sample Person of Jesus lesson here, or sign up for an upcoming online See Jesus Workshop here!
