From Silent to Seen
How David Urquhart is helping high school students in Compton find their voice and their identity in Christ
David Urquhart and his family have called Compton home for 16 years. He is not a visitor to the community he serves. He is a neighbor. Through his work with the Parable team, David spends his days with high school students on their own campuses, leading lunch clubs and Bible clubs where teenagers can hear about Jesus and find a place to belong.
It is work David loves. Week after week, he shows up for students who are still working out who they are, where they fit, and whether anyone notices them at all. And as the stories below show, sometimes the simplest act of noticing can change everything.
Growing Beyond One Campus
Even as he poured himself into his work with Parable, David knew he wanted to keep growing as a leader. He wanted to meet other youth workers: people serving on different campuses, in different youth groups, and in different parts of the city. He wanted to widen his circle and learn from leaders whose experiences looked different from his own.
"I love working in teams," David said. "I love learning from other people who have different experiences, different stories, and who work in different parts of the city that I can appreciate and learn from."
That desire to learn alongside others brought David to UYWI, where he found a community of leaders who share his calling and a framework that has reshaped how he cares for the students in front of him.
Asking Better Questions
If you walked into one of David's clubs today, you might notice that his conversations with students go deeper than they used to. Through UYWI's Whole Life Discipleship program, David has learned to ask better questions, ones that reach every part of a young person's life.
He now asks about their physical well-being and even how they are sleeping. He asks about their mental health. He asks about their relationships at home, including how things are going with their parents. These are not questions on a checklist. They are a way of telling a student that their whole life matters to God, and that it matters to the people walking alongside them.
For David, discipleship is no longer only about what happens during a Bible club. It is about caring for the whole person.
Stephanie's Story
When Stephanie first attended the Parable club, she kept completely to herself. She was silent, and it was clear she was very alone.
The second time she attended, David remembered her name. It was a small thing, but Stephanie lit up. Someone had recognized her. "That was a point that she needed to be seen," David said.
From that moment, Stephanie began to grow. Her relationship with the Lord deepened to the point that she can now share her testimony in front of her peers. She has come to understand that she is not alone in her walk with God. And the healing has reached beyond her own heart: she has forgiven her dad and the friends she once had a lot of tension with.
"It's incredible to see her growth," David said.
Angel's Story
David first met Angel last year during a missions outreach. Angel and two other students were hanging out after school, and David started a spiritual conversation with them. Using Solarium cards, picture cards that help students tell their own story and connect it to God's story of redemption, David listened as each of them shared. After hearing the Gospel, two of the students indicated that they wanted to follow the Lord. Angel began coming to the Bible club, and David has stayed in contact with him ever since.
Recently, Angel stood in front of the Bible club at Dominguez High School and shared his testimony.
He told the students that he grew up very shy, always trying to please everyone around him and to live up to the "perfect" person he thought he should be. But in all his effort to fit in, he ended up in the wrong crowd, spending time with guys in a gang. One day, a rival gang pulled up next to them, and its members jumped out of their car with their guns aimed at Angel and the group he was with. By God's grace, no shots were fired that day. But the moment shook Angel enough to see that all his effort to fit in could have cost him his life. It became a wake-up call to stand up for what is right instead of simply trying to fit in.
Why am I trying to seek man's approval if they killed a perfect man?
Angel
"Why am I trying to seek man's approval if they killed a perfect man?" Angel asked his classmates, speaking of Jesus. He also wondered aloud what he could have done and accomplished if he had not spent so much of his life afraid, working to win everyone's approval.
More than 70 students filled the room, and they were quiet and attentive, captivated by his story. Angel closed with Galatians 1:10 and challenged the club to speak up for what they know is right:
"Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ." (Galatians 1:10)
His courage was contagious. Afterward, a student came up to David full of energy. It was only his fourth day on campus, and a friend had just invited him to the club. After hearing Angel's testimony, he wanted to share his own.
The young man who once stayed quiet just to fit in is now giving others the courage to speak.
His courage was contagious. Afterward, a student came up to David full of energy. It was only his fourth day on campus, and a friend had just invited him to the club. After hearing Angel's testimony, he wanted to share his own.
The young man who once stayed quiet just to fit in is now giving others the courage to speak.
I’ve seen so many leaders who aren’t supported and feel isolated have to stop after a short time. But when a leader is equipped and supported, they can be here for the long haul.
David Urquhart
In it for the Long Haul
When David considers what becomes possible when a leader is equipped and supported, he speaks from what he has witnessed. "I've seen so many leaders who aren't supported and feel isolated have to stop after a short time," he said. "But when a leader is equipped and supported, they can be here for the long haul."
For David, the difference is not having to do it alone. When leaders can run together, as part of a body of people working toward the same goal of youth development and building one another up, they can see themselves serving for the long haul.
Being equipped changes the questions a leader asks, too. Instead of wondering, How can I just survive on my own? a supported leader begins to ask, How can I build others up?
"The training and the equipping that Urban Youth Workers does is so crucial for that," David said.
That is what makes stories like Stephanie's and Angel's possible. A leader who stays is a leader who is still there the second time a quiet student walks into the room, ready to remember her name. And when a young person is truly seen, they can begin to discover who God created them to be.
