Youth Pastor's Cookbook Inspires Good Food and Missions
“God was stern and simple,” Ramirez says. “His message was clear that it started with me. If I, as a leader, only give 50% effort toward missions, as the youth follow me, they’ll instinctively give less. God was challenging me, showing me that I needed to be the one to put the emphasis on missions in my own life and lead by example.”
Ramirez, 31, who leads Victory Youth with his wife, Mara, 30, began to pray about a creative way he could lead the way in promoting and supporting Speed the Light, the Assemblies of God missions-giving program for youth. The thought that came to him and wouldn’t leave was a cookbook!
A cookbook — not your typical youth pastor’s first choice for generating interest in or funds for missions. Yet, God knew what He was doing — using a passion for His glory.
“I love cooking, more so, I love eating!” Ramirez says with a laugh. “I grew up in Miami and I appreciate culture and story.”
Connecting with families and friends who have served the Jasper, Indiana, church by providing meals or baked goods for others, Ramirez found seven willing to share their recipes through the cookbook. He also created a brief biography for each family to go along with their recipes, sharing a little bit of their story.
“I wanted people who had a heart outside of just their home for this,” he explains. “Every single chef in the cookbook has served our church through cooking or baking.”
The roughly 100-page, full-color cookbook featuring more than 50 family recipes with pictures come from a range of family lifestyles — from those who have children and are constantly on the go and need good, but fast options, to those who have more time to invest in a cooking experience. J.D. and Mara Ramirez, who are parents of a 2-year-old and a 1-year-old, also share some of their inherited family recipes.
In addition to cooking being something Ramirez enjoys, the fact that the Winning Flavors cookbook took about nine months from start to its first sale in early October has had the side benefit of being a journey of inspiration for the Victory Youth group throughout the year.
Currently, Victory Youth averages about 25 teens, with Ramirez noting that God has used the cookbook idea to help kids really think creatively about what they can do for missions.
“We had several kids who came to me and wanted to do a talent show,” Ramirez says. “But after talking it over with them, we landed on a dinner show. We worked with one of our guys from men’s ministries (who Ramirez also leads) to provide the food and raised $1,900 that we split between BGMC (Boys and Girls Missionary Challenge) and Speed the Light.”
Cody, a senior, is raising funds by carrying a large, wooden cross for 30 miles, with people donating support for every mile he walks. And Allison, who loves writing poetry, is creating personal, handwritten notes of inspiration, often poems or prayers, and laminating them to raise funds for Speed the Light.
Cody says it’s his love for missionaries and his calling to one day be a missionary that inspires him to raise funds for Speed the Light.
“I hope I can inspire others to stand up and walk for God,” he says, adding, “. . . we as Christians need to stop waiting on tomorrow and act upon what God has told us now, before it’s too late.”
“Perhaps one of our most creative fundraisers has been done by one of our youngest youth members,” Ramirez says. “Evanjaline wasn’t sure what she could do. At the time, it was getting close to Easter and someone joked that she could be the Easter bunny . . . the joke turned into reality! She offered to dress up as the Easter bunny and personally deliver Easter eggs to homes — she raised $600 for Speed the Light!”
“Raising money for Speed the Light has grown my faith,” says Evanjaline, who’s now in eighth grade, “because it has showed me that God can multiply and nothing is too small for God.”
Ramirez says that raising money for Speed the Light and “cultivating a heart of missional generosity” has not been on the front burner for the youth in the last 13 years or so. However, their last effort resulted in raising a respectable $4,300 — a record for the decade-plus — and this year, more students are catching the vision for missions.
“We’re already well on our way to breaking our previous record,” Ramirez says with some satisfaction. “In fact, I’m hoping that proceeds from cookbook sales alone will break that.”
And he may be right. The first week the cookbook was made available, which was at a local launch event, more than $1,200 was raised for Speed the Light. Ramirez notes that a vast majority of the funds raised came from purchasers outside of the church, and he anticipates a strong response from the congregation when it’s formally offered to them in the weeks to come.
“We have a lot of things going on right now at the church,” Ramirez explains. “We moved into our church’s new location this past Sunday — a warehouse building we’ve been renovating for two years — and there’s a lot of excitement surrounding that. So, next month, we’ll be ready for our next sale, and we’ll watch what God will do.”
