The Beautiful Adventure of Life: Young Life- God is moving!

I promised to write about Young Life and I have not had the time I wanted to dedicate to this post. Being that it is Friday afternoon at the end of a long week, I am excited to sit down and share with you what the Lord is doing in Young Life at Parkside High.

Here is some background info- There are three highschools in Salisbury: Parkside, Bennett, and WiHi. I went to Bennett- so the fact that I am leading at Parkside is...kinda weird. We go to the games and it just feels odd rooting for the "wrong" highschool. But, I have learned and put that minor fact behind me. haha

Bryan and I started leading Young Life together at Parkside last year. Yes. Right after we got married. Talk about a commitment, when you are first learning what marriage is and just the basics of living with another person of the opposite sex. To say the least- it was hard to be devoted when we just wanted to spend all of our time together. We didn't spend the time we do now with our PHS friends, because we wanted to spend all of our time- just the two of us! Can you blame us?

The whole idea of Young Life is to meet the kids where they are. Honestly, that rarely happened last year. Yeah we went to the occasional play-off game or track meet, but devoting time every week? It just didn't happen. Bryan and I talked alot this summer about what we wanted Young Life to be this year. That is the great thing about leading with your spouse- you have a lot of time to share ideas, pray together about the ministry, and help each other with Bible studies, talks, etc. So, Bryan and I decided that we had been married for a year and there was no reason why we couldn't commit to the ministry the way we really wanted.

This year's Club started and we saw the same faces. For those of you reading that don't know what Club is, let me describe it. It is held in the home of one of the highschoolers, we play games, sing songs, and share the love of Christ with all who come. This is where God stepped in and did something awesome this semester. We have been having it at Mike's. The great thing about Mike is that he is completely committed and excited about Young Life and learning more about the Bible. His parents love the ministry and love to serve the kids when we come. They own two Chick-Fil-A's so almost every week there are platters of nuggets and the kids get so excited.

This year one of our goals was to have campaigners every week. Campaigners is a Bible study and is also what we call our core Christian student leaders. Mike came to campaigners and brought a friend. That week they decided to set a goal about how many kids they thought they could get to come to Club. Since then- BOOM! New faces every week!

This is just to give you an idea.

Here is Club last year:

Here is Club this year:

The girl with the brown hair is Meghan and I have been meeting her for breakfast every Friday morning. She is a great girl that really takes God seriously and desires to have a relationship with Him. She sees the difference between Young Life and her Catholic church but it is still hard for her to make a connection that Christ wants to come into her life and have a personal relationship with her. The girl next to her is Blair and she came to breakfast this morning. She goes to Bennett and did all of the extracurriculars I did- so it is easy to talk to her. She sings in Concert Choir and Rock and Roll Revival-so conversation is fun! I am excited to get to know her better!

Like I was saying before, God is adding numbers to our club, every week. In Young Life leadership we have been studying Acts 2:42-47. This passage shows what the early church looked like and how they met together fellowship daily. Our prayer for this semester was that we look more like the early church and that the Lord would "add to [our] number daily those who [are] being saved." That is what the Lord is doing. The kids just keep coming back for more. Bryan and I are each doing a guy and girls breakfast Bible Study. We are committing to the ministry and devoting our time and the Lord is faithful.
I ask that you pray with us for our highschool friends- that they would know the Lord deeply and intimately and that we are able to openly share Christ's love with them. We pray that the Lord would continue bringing Parkside and Bennett kids to our club that they can hear the Word. The Parkside team is made up of me, Bryan, Erin, and Reid and because Bennett doesn't have YL, they come to our club. I just pray that as we share our lives with the kids, they would see Christ in everything we do.

I think that is enough writing for now! But here are a few more pictures:

This is Karly- She is one of our campaigners. She is fearless and full of life! She came to camp with us and I got a chance to pray with her and really hear her heart. I wish there were more moments like that in Young Life. They are few and far between but so sweet when you get that chance to sit down and you just get to listen.

This game was hilarious! Each person got a chocolate covered apple and had to eat as much as they could in 30 seconds. We were surprised by how long Gary lasted considering his was a raw onion!!! He is such a good sport and highly competitive so he gets picked a lot to do stuff where trick him! This is Megan on the left- she is a leader at WiHi and Carin who is in leadership and a freshmen at Salisbury University. We are excited for when she gets put onto a team!
These are the highschoolers who went to camp with us. We had a great time- although I have never been more tired in my life!