Help Me in Supporting a Youth Retreat

Hello! My name is Ruby Kim, and I run a youth dance ministry called Audience of 1 in the greater NY/NJ area. (AO1 Introduction Video).

AO1 was founded back in 2019 to touch the hearts of the next generation and to nurture them in faith through community and dance. Through God’s favor, AO1 has been able to host summer camps, workshops, and worship nights.

While running AO1, I’ve become painfully aware of the financial difficulties small churches go through to keep their ministries alive and functioning. Being the densely populated area that it is, New York is especially brutal to these small churches, and I’ve witnessed a plethora of them unable to provide ideal resources and opportunities for their members.

Last year, AO1 noticed this communal struggle from many of the small churches we worked with and decided to do something about it. Teaming up with some great coworkers for God’s kingdom, AO1 organized and launched a retreat aimed specifically for youth and young adults in the NY/NJ area. Our initial goal was to provide a retreat for students whose home churches did not have the budget to host retreats for them. But as we planned this retreat, our targeted demographic grew. We also wanted to reach believers who were not currently plugged into a church, non-Christians who were curious about the faith, and young adults who hadn’t been to a retreat since their college years. We had little time to prepare for this event, but God miraculously provided, and we were able to have a hugely successful event. Here is a montage of our retreat from last year: AO1 '22 Retreat Footage

And now, in this current day, we want to continue this vision God planted in our hearts. However, because we are not backed by a church, we have no budget to rely on. We do collect registration fees from participants, but we would like that fee to be as low as it can be. Our goal is to reach as many people as possible and provide them with an opportunity to encounter God. We would hate for money to be what keeps somebody from coming to this event.

This is why we decided to start this GoFundMe campaign. Any donation given will be used to cover the expenses for this retreat (hotel reservations, church space rentals, vehicle/transportation costs, food, materials, etc.) and give ample financial support to everyone that needs it. We greatly appreciate you reading this long description, and we thank you so much if you are willing to donate! You can check out for more information and updates on our website here: AO1 Retreat Page