Tonight is Young Life Club. Over the last five years, Andy and I have been volunteer leaders for Young Life at Waynesboro Area Senior High School in PA.
It all started when Kelly Hills started making posts on Facebook about needing help with this thing called Young Life. She sounded kinda desperate. I never even heard of Young Life before, so I called her. We talked for almost an hour. We decided to meet for dinner. Dallas and Kelly came to dinner, explained the ministry in detail and well, the rest is history.
From replying to a status on Facebook, I now have a best friend (Kelly) and the privilege of serving in YL. Today, I took some time to look back on what's happened. What God has done. Tears come to my eyes as I look at pictures.
Saranac 2010
Saranac was my first YL camp trip. I was seven months pregnant with Nate! Kelly tried to prepare me for what was to come, but nothing can really get you ready for YL camp. I was so incredibly nervous. I knew two of eleven girls in my cabin before camp. After one week, I had eleven teenage friends that I still keep in contact with to this day.
Lake Champion 2011
This was my first week of camp without Kelly Hills. It was a bit rough to say the least. Girl drama happens when you have 24 girls to keep track of! In the end, it was a fantastic week. The highlight was making one girl in particular eat pickles. Blake, you know what I'm talking about (;
Rockbridge 2012
I was so discouraged going into this week of camp. No one would sign up to go! I remember BEGGING girls to come to camp that year. However, God knew that this small group of girls was exactly who needed to go. The strongest relationships I've ever had with YL girls happened from this group.
Saranac 2013
I went into this week of camp worried about the drama, fights, and ridiculousness that could happen from putting this group of girls together. I knew their back stories. Remarkably, this cabin of girls became BEST FRIENDS. I look at this picture and I'm still amazed thinking about how they bonded and came together over the week. At 7 1/2 months pregnant with Micah, my ankles grew sizes I never saw before!!! Good times.
Lake Champion 2014
Last year was a great year. Girls came that I'd been praying for for years. We had an amazing week! A few girls still post pictures from camp as their #tbt or #fbf, so I know that camp was something they will never forget. Each one took time to process what the camp speaker was saying and what they were feeling.
During YL season, I often feel stretched beyond my limits and worn out ALL THE TIME. I feel like there has to be someone else who could do better than me. I feel like no one is hearing the good news. I feel like girls reject me and Christ's love frequently. I get discouraged, feel worthless, and want to quit.
Then I take the time to look at pictures. I let the tears flow. I remember that God is not done his work in me, in this ministry, or in my teenage friends. Young Life says it so well in their slogan,
Yes, I am.
No comments:
Post a Comment