EVAN PETERS
LEAD TEAM / STAFF SUPERVISOR / YFCHL DIRECTOR
“Sharing sustainable hope through relational, discipleship communities.”
Evan Joined Saskatoon Youth for Christ in September of 2012 and currently spends most of his time directing and co-ordinating the Youth For Christ Hockey League.
Spending the first part of his life being raised by a single mother, a family friend stepped in and directed the young boy's energy toward the game of hockey! It was there that he fell in love with the game and began chasing that little rubber disc whenever given the chance. Having also played a lot of street hockey, he helped organize a road hockey league with his friends including a home made replica Stanley Cup, an 82 game schedule, all-star game and anything that could make it like the NHL games they watched so frequently.
In the spring 2009, he was contacted by Kim Worthington about the possibility of helping out at a floor hockey league he was trying to start. It would include many of the same things. Teams, jerseys, coaches, captains, stats, an official website, playoffs and even a legitimate one-third replica Stanley Cup! The idea enthralled him and he decided to check out this new ministry.
He would spend that summer at Redberry Bible Camp where he began to feel the call of God to go into ministry. After trying to run away from this, he made a deal with God. "I'll try out this lifestyle, I'll work with these kids and if it works out I'll do it for you Jesus."
Once YFCHL began, Evan fell in love with the kids and the ministry that it represents. Hockey is an incredibly expensive sport to play, and the ability to give these kids an opportunity to excel was an amazing thing. Appealing more to at-risk students, the league is comprised mainly of disenfranchised youth often from broken homes. These kids are talented hockey players, but without the resources to skate. YFCHL gives them that opportunity to excel, because anyone can run.
After that first year, Evan continued to volunteer with YFCHL while also attending Bethany College earning a Bachelor's degree in Biblical studies and Pastoral Ministry. As part of his internship he came on staff as an intern in the fall of 2012, shadowing Kim Worthington and learning everything he could from him. The next year he was given the reigns of the hockey league and continues to work with those youth, providing not just hockey, but relationship and support to the kids involved.
In the fall of 2016 Evan married his wife Rebecca and is thrilled to have her be a huge part of the ministry they now get to share. Having already worked to together consistently at Redberry Bible Camp, they were ready to do this together and have been able to love people even better together. They welcomed Marka Jaelle to their family in April 2022 and have never been more in love as they all work together with the students of Saskatoon.
Other responsibilities Evan has are, spending time at the local youth detention centre and supervising other staff. The detention centre allows him to speak into the young men, challenging them with a quote and pointing them to something other than themselves. Supervising staff allows him to work with other staff as they pursue Jesus and see His Kingdom come!
This job has enabled Evan to work out his passion for loving people and seeing them meet Jesus. Helping youth see their true potential and come in to seeing sustainable hope has given him a deeper love for at-risk youth and even more for the God that works within them.
“For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body. So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.”
