In Forward in Christ, we report the news but aren't always able to follow up. "Where are they now?" is our way of giving you the rest of the story.

Here's a recap

Five years ago, Pastor James Buske opened the doors to the Lighthouse Youth Center in the neighborhood around Redemption Lutheran Church, Milwaukee, Wis. Lighthouse opened as a full-time stand-alone ministry to serve as a beacon for Christ to the youth in the community.

So what's happening now?

Buske says he had three goals when he took the call as the director of the Lighthouse Youth Center in 2006. The first was to have the center open five day a week. This not only happened, but the center is also open a couple Saturdays a month. Second, he wanted a full-time staff member. Not only does he have a full-time staff member, but he also has a couple Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary students who help out part time.

His third goal was to open a second site. After five years and about 21,000 students through Lighthouse's doors, renovations began at a second location near Garden Homes Lutheran Church in Milwaukee.

In July Lighthouse had its own version of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, with about two hundred people from area congregations and the community helping to clean out an unused 13,000 sq. ft. school building Garden Homes is letting Lighthouse use rent-free. Buske says the plan is to open the second Lighthouse location by November.

"There's no one else doing it in Milwaukee—focusing on Jesus," says Buske. "There are places that provide kids a safe place to get together and to get help with their homework, but often those are fee-based and very few, if any, are sharing the love of Jesus. We are able to meet a community need; an individual need; and more important, a spiritual need."

Pastor Jeremy Mattek from Garden Homes is looking forward to this outreach opportunity in his neighborhood. "There are literally thousands of teenagers in our immediate community and not one youth center to serve them," he says. "The decision to create a center where the balm of the gospel is applied to the broken and hurting hearts of our community youth was an easy one. We simply needed a strong, gospel-minded partner like Lighthouse Youth Center to help make it happen."

Learn more about Lighthouse Youth Center at www.lighthouseyouthcenter.com.