January 27, 2006
PRESS RELEASE: Orthodox Youth Outreach Hires New Program Director
Orinda, California

Orthodox Youth Outreach (OYO) has hired Jordan Henderson to serve as its new Program Director. OYO is a ministry of NAC Teen SOYO which has been designed to provide local parishes and youth workers with the resources necessary to involve junior and senior high students in local community service and short-term missions projects.

The purpose of the program is to encourage our youth to live out their faith through service to others. OYO provides opportunities for youth to get involved with outreach at different levels and help them grow into positions of student leadership.

Henderson comes to OYO after serving over three and a half years as the Associate Mission Teams Director and Health Care Coordinator at the Orthodox Christian Mission Center (OCMC).

“It has truly been a blessing to serve at the Mission Center,” says new director Henderson. “I hope to take the experience and knowledge I’ve gained over the last few years to build up a program that will instill a heart for proclaiming the Gospel and reaching out to the poor in today’s Orthodox youth.”

“Mr. Henderson brings a wealth of experience to OYO,” adds Father Kevin Scherer, Executive Director of Orthodox Youth Outreach. “We hope through his involvement to create amongst Orthodox youth a passion for reaching out to others, so that in the future, groups like the Orthodox Christian Mission Center, International Orthodox Christian Charities, and the Orthodox Christian Prison Ministry will have a pool of workers to draw from, whose hearts and minds have been shaped, from their youth, to live out their faith through service to others.”

Henderson’s work at the Mission Center has involved coordinating short-term mission teams and developing the health care ministries of the Mission Center. Since 2002, he has helped train and coordinate over 25 mission teams, sending over 200 people to work on short-term projects in various countries throughout the world. He has also participated on numerous mission teams to Guatemala and rural Alaska, as well as OYO trips to South Central Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Houston.

A graduate of the University of Memphis holding an undergraduate degree in History, Henderson is currently enrolled in the St. Stephen’s Course in Orthodox Theology, hoping to attain a Master’s of Arts degree in Applied Orthodox Theology from Balamand University in Lebanon in the spring of 2008.