LAST Young Life until FEBRUARY!

Well Young Life fans, we've worked hard this semester, club has grown, more students and leaders are coming and our ministry is on the verge of taking over the whole high school. It's been an incredible semester and it had an incredible end with our All Area Young Life at Salem Alliance Church in their high school room! There were a couple hundred students from all over the city and there was SO much energy! We really have some incredible young people in this city, did you know that? They're pretty much the best! Anyway, tonight was definitely a collaborative event: West Salem MC'd, South Salem did the big group game, Vida Joven (our spanish speaking Young Life) did the up front game, and I spoke. Tonight I shared the story of the Great Banquet in Luke 14. I Shared that though some of us have felt like we are outsiders that aren't welcome around Jesus the opposite is true. Jesus is all about bringing in the smelliest, loneliest, most awkward, dirty people He can find. In fact, Jesus is about bringing everyone to Him because that's where we all belong. I showed the music video for, "I must Belong Somewhere" by Bright Eyes and asked the group to consider joining Jesus and realizing He's where they've always belonged. All in all tonight was amazing. In fact, I got choked up thinking about where we've come in such a short time. This time last year, a couple Sprague Young Life leaders invited a couple students to check out this thing called Young Life at the All City event. There were only a handful and this year we probably had 25 of our own students there (we were competing with a choir concert! what a bummer!) and had 8 of our leaders there. Goodness, we are blessed and God is good! We'll be back in February and our leaders will be very present in the school all throughout January rebuilding momentum to get the spring semester off on the right foot! Thank you all for your prayers and your support this past year and a half! You are a community that is an answer to prayer!! -Mat

December is here! WOW!

Well tonight was, once again, a huge blessing! I just can't believe how incredible our students are, and the leaders that surround Sprague Young Life. If you prayed for the dream team of Young Life leaders and God answered, well, you'd get this team! I am SO thankful for all they do and all they sacrifice to tell people about Jesus, it's just amazing! Young Life was great tonight! We had nearly 50 students in the room, and the energy was just incredible! I think we've finally really created a culture of students that love to sing and yell and laugh and interact with everything going on. It has taken what we do on Monday nights from a show we put on to a party, and it's the best feeling in the world! Tonight, while singing "Only Exception" by Paramore, students we're singing so loudly and so well, that I didn't even need to lead! What a great blessing to be a part of this incredible ministry! Caitlin Marshall gave the talk tonight and told our students about the hope that the resurrection brings. She told us how even though sometimes it seems like God isn't there, when we feel like the early disciples after Good Friday, before Easter, well, we can still know that Easter is coming. That Jesus did rise and because He isn't in the ground some where we can put all of our hope in Him. She did a masterful job and reminded me that I definitely don't have to speak every week! With leaders as talented as this, it would be insane to not get them upfront more! Special thanks to the Gillette's for hosting us for dinner! And of course, to Mark and Rebecca Butler for hosting us and our rambunctious crew for Young Life once again! We couldn't do it without those named, and so many of you unnamed prayer warriors and financial donors. Thank you all SOOOO much for ALL that you do! I thank you from the bottom of my heart! Also, if you are reading this and thinking, "Gee, I'd love to get involved in meals or in financial support" please feel free to let me know!! Thanks again! -Mat

Is it really the end of November already!?

I can't believe this year is nearly over! It seems like just yesterday we were having a noodle war to kick off the school year!! Oh, how time flies! Tonight was great! Again, just around 40 high schoolers! What a great group we had! I love them all so much! Tonight we talked about the reality of our need, the consequences of our sin, and what Jesus did on the cross to make redeem everything. It was one heck of a night with a whole lot of information! But Jesus was present, and I think the Good News was heard! John and Macklin (the Bob brothers) were funny as ever! It was just a great night across the board! Special thanks to Charlie and Nancy Marshall for a delicious dinner! To Mark and Rebecca Butler for hosting Young Life week in and week out! And to Limeberry for serving us delicious frozen yogurt every week after Young Life! You are all such a blessing! And thank you to the countless numbers of you all that read this blog and pray for us and give financially! You all make this ministry work!

Thanksgiving Young Life!

Tonight was our Thanksgiving themed Young Life, and let me just say, I am SO thankful. Tonight, for the first time since the start of Sprague Young Life nearly a year ago, I didn't give a talk. I have been blessed with incredible leaders at Sprague, one of which is Amanda Field. Amanda was my first leader at Sprague, and so it seems only right that she would be the first to give a talk. Amanda spoke on the story of the woman at the well in John 4, and did an artful job at making it come alive. In fact, during the question time after the talk, one student wrote, "It sure is nice to not always have Mat talk." The comment may have been in jest, but let me just agree wholeheartedly! It was so great to sit back and just pray for Amanda and watch students connect! It was a great night with fun games and lots of laughter! We even blindfolded a few students and told them they were going to drink a goldfish (don't worry, it was actually just a slice of peach). It was a great night with some big places that God stepped in! Special thanks to Perry and Sue Webb for hosting the team for a delicious dinner, to the Butlers for hosting our wild and crazy bunch of high schoolers, and especially to Amanda for putting so my time, prayer, and effort into a talk about Jesus! It is an honor to know people as incredible as those I've just named! Thank you all!! -Mat

Let's Talk About Storms!

Tonight was great! I sit here on my couch at 11 o'clock thinking that I am unworthy to be a part of something so great. God is doing so much through this little thing called Sprague Young Life and it's so cool to be a part of it! Tonight we had right about the same numbers as the past weeks, I would guess high 30's maybe low 40's. Regardless of number, we had such a great group of young people that are so fun to hang out with! John Marshall and Macklin Kelly did an absolutely hilarious run on with their trademark characters, the Bob Brothers, professional de-motivational speakers. This week teaching us how to focus less. We had a lot of laughs and got to have a blast and tell people about Jesus! I talked about Luke 8:22-25, Jesus calming the storm. I asked us to think about the storms going on in our lives and asked one simple question: Are you ready to trust Jesus to get you through that storm? Thank you all so much for the prayers, the funds, and the energy you put in to making this ministry what it is! We wouldn't be where we are without all of you! Special thanks once again to the Butler's for hosting us! To Brooklyn (Mark and Rebecca's little, adorable daughter) for making us laugh. And to Terry and Teresa Hancock for serving our team and absolutely delicious dinner! I am SO thankful for the community of people that lovingly surround Sprague!! Thank You ALL!!! -Mat

Halloween, Young Life Style!

Tonight we had our Day after Halloween Young Life. I would say out of the 39 students and 7 leaders we had about 25 people dress up in their Halloween costumes! Tonight had a ton of energy, and everything seemed to flow really well! We had new leaders tonight (Ried, Ellie, and Chandra) all step up and get involved in leading club, as well as corralling high schoolers around. John Marshall and Macklin Kelly came on as The Bob Brothers again tonight and did a hilarious little skit for everyone to see and it came to a climax of for students spitting water into one another's faces for the amusement of all! I spoke on John 8 with the woman caught in adultery, and shared a video of common misperceptions about Jesus. I claimed that Jesus is a God way more concerned with working on a relationship with us than he is about meticulously following the rules. I went as far as to say that a life with Jesus is actually more fun that a life without, and it might be worth considering getting to know him more so that can be experienced. I think everyone tracked pretty well and we had some good questions afterward! It was definitely an honor to lead Young Life tonight. Sprague is such an incredible high school to be a part of with an amazing community of supporters around it! Special thanks tonight to Mike and Joy Fargo for hosting us for dinner, to Mark and Rebecca Butler for allowing us to bring 40 high schoolers into their house, and to LimeBerry Frozen Yogurt for hosting our after Young Life party and even staying open late for us! Gosh, we are blessed people here at Sprague Young Life! Thank You to all the INCREDIBLE leaders! Amanda Field, Caitlin Marshall, Chandra Baskoro, Reid Zucati, Ellie Bartlow, and Scott Wurgler! You are all wonderful! Okay, enough for tonight! Thank you all for your on going prayers and financial support that make this ministry so great! -Mat

First Club of the Year!

Tonight we had our first real Young Life of the year! After a noodle war two weeks ago and the banquet last week we finally got the opportunity to really have some Young Life fun! I honestly didn't count how many students came tonight, If i were to guess I would say between 40-50. The whole night was a whirlwind! We started off the evening a few leaders down and so much of the night was spent scrambling from thing to thing. But God was incredibly faithful and the whole club went smoothly! Caitlin Marshall was our saving grace tonight from leading a great mixer to being the driver for some of our new leaders stuck without cars at Corban University. John Marshall and Macklin Kelly (Two sophomore boys at Sprague did a hilarious "run-on" skit and introduced their characters, Rick and Dick, AKA the Richard Brothers. The Richard Brothers are professional, world famous De-motivational speakers. And they did GREAT! Tonight I shared from Genesis 1:1-31 about the creation of the world. I said that regardless of where you stand on creation/evolution/7 day/etc what we know for sure from Genesis 1 is first that in the beginning God created, and secondly, that when people were created everything went from good to VERY good. I made the claim that God sees us as beautifully as we see a sunset, or a mountain summit, that we are more beautiful than creation in His eyes. I asked the students that came to consider what that meant to them and to consider coming back this semester to explore the rest of the story. All in all it was a great night! Thank you all for your support and prayers! Thank you to the Butler's for hosting Young Life every week! One closing prayer request: We need leaders, Young/Old/Male/Female! Please be in prayer that they will be provided and maybe ask yourself the question, "Is this something God is calling me to?" And once again, thanks! -Mat

The Noodle War!

Well, Tonight was the first Young Life of the school year, and we decided to start off with a bang... NOODLE WAR! 336 packets of Top Ramen, which comes out to being around 150 pounds of cooked noodles, and what did we do with it? All out food fight! 50 high schoolers showed up and the fun and excitement lasted about an hour. We played a few games to get warmed up, and then, WAR. I could keep trying to explain, but instead I'll just urge you to watch the video! Thank you everyone for your prayers and support that make this ministry happen! Thank you to the Chin's for letting us trash their back yard with Noodles tonight! And thank you to the Marshall's for hosting the team for dinner! As usual, if you want to join in this ministry through dinner, or prayers, or leading, or financial support please don't hesitate to email me! SO thankful to be a part of this ministry with so many incredible people from the adults to the leaders to the high schoolers! What a great night!

One Quick Reminder Before We Go!

Well, It's been a long time since my last post! It's been a busy couple of months fundraising and working hard to get young people signed up for camp, and alas, we leave in 8 hours!! We are taking 16 students and leaders to Washington Family Ranch from tomorrow (July 3rd) to Friday (July 9th)! I can't believe it's here, and I'm so excited to get back and share our experiences with you all! While we are gone, please keep us in your prayers!! We're expecting God to do some pretty cool things and with your prayers our expectations can increase all the more! Thank you so much to all of you who have helped us fund raise for this ministry and this camp trip! We could not have done it without you! I attached a video from our last Young Life of this year edited by John Marshall that shows the epic Foursquare game that took place on that fateful night! I hope it brings you all as much joy as it brought me! Expect a video soon following our return from camp! And again, Thank you!

LAST YOUNG LIFE!

Well Tonight was the last Young Life of the 2009-2010 School year! I can't believe we made it through a whole year! Unbelievable!! Thank you all so so so so much, from the bottom of my heart for making all of this possible.
We decided that instead of doing a typical Young Life tonight we'd end on a bang! A big outdoor BBQ at the Marshall's, however because of weather we changed it to Trinity Covenant Church and an indoor BBQ! We had foursquare tournaments, played volleyball (with a fish, yes, I said it, a fish... and with a regular ball afterward) and raffled off money for camp! It was a great evening! So much fun, so many Young Life moments. Just all around. I am excited for the break but definitely going to miss the excitement of Monday's until we start back up again!
Special thanks to the Webb's for hosting the team for dinner tonight, and special thanks to The Marshalls, Webbs, Hancocks, Shaefers, Gilettes, Rawlings, Fargos, Bensinks, Butlers, Upchurchs, and Fields for serving tonight, bringing food, cleaning up, showing up, laughing with us, and just taking care of things in a way that truly served both leaders and kids!
Our camp trip is almost full and student's are working hard to fund raise the money the need to go, if you're interested in supporting a student, or covering their costs, let me know! It's going to be an amazing trip and I would hate to let money stand in the way!
Oh, and we had over 50 people! Gosh, it was a fun evening! The video absolutely doesn't do it justice! Oh, and did I say thank you yet? YOU are what makes this happen, along with the amazing God we serve, of course! -Mat

The Beginning of the End...

To start off, sorry this is getting out late, my computer was putting up quite a fight last night and I thought it best just to try again this morning. Anyway, last night was great! We were our usual size (about 30 kids) and had a blast! Everyone was high energy and we played some fun games! We played a game called musical baby food, everyone sits in a circle and while the music plays the baby food is passed around, when the music stops whoever is holding it eats it (Flavors included turkey and gravy, beef and gravy, and chicken and gravy....yum) and it was plenty of laughs! We sang some great songs (Sweet Home Alabama, Don't Stop Believin', and Still Haven't Found What I'm lookin' for. And played a game where students faces are coated and shaving cream and Cheetos Puffs are thrown at their face, whoever gets the most to stick wins! It was definitely funny to watch John throw too hard and Jazz throw soft enough and watch her and Kelsey totally defeat the boys!
Tonight I shared about the resurrection. I said that become Jesus rose it validates everything else he said and did, if he hadn't risen, he'd be just like all the other prophets that walked this earth, whose tombs we can visit. I claimed that Jesus was God, and he was distinctly different than any of the other religious leaders in history, and I asked the questions, "Do you believe it?" and "If so, what does that mean?" I think people tracked with the whole talk. It was a great night. Next week we'll be at All City Young Life, and I'll be on vacation, and the week after is our end of the year BBQ and Party! I can't believe it, but we've made it to the end of the semester! Unbelievable! Thank you all for the support! Special thanks to the Butlers for hosting us and the Schaefers for making us dinner! You are all HUGE blessings to this ministry! -Mat

Is April Already Over?!

Tonight was a good night! We are definitely experiencing the lower numbers of late Spring, as Spring sports kick into high gear, but we are still seeing over 25+ high schoolers descend on the Butler's basement every Monday evening and tonight was no exception! We played a game where students rubber band alka seltzer to their heads and have squirt guns and the goal is to dissolve the opponents alka seltzer before they dissolve yours! It's a pretty enjoyable thing to watch and a slightly less enjoyable thing to partake in! We sang some great songs and had a bunch of fun laughing together! We only have 5 spots left for camp! 1 girls spot and 4 boys spots! So, if you're a parent reading this and your student isn't signed up, get on them! Tonight we shared about the Cross, what it meant, and what Jesus did on it. I shared that because of the cross we can all be welcomed back into the arms of God, and can enter into right relationship with him. Everyone seemed to track well with the talk and I really believe God did some great things! Special thanks to Mark and Rebecca Butler, for not only hosting Young Life tonight, but also for hosting the leaders for dinner! Thank you everyone for all the support, for the prayer, and for the funds when we need it! You make this possible! -Mat

Oh the Egg Game...

Well tonight was a big night! We played some new songs, Caitlin helped sing (which DEFINITELY upped our sound quality) we used an auto-tuner for our voices (if you don't know what that is and really want to know, here's a link to an article about it http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autotune ) And we played one of the great games in all of Young Life, The Egg-in-a-Tube Game. The game is explained well in the video, so I won't waste your time here! We had just about 30 students tonight and the energy was great! It all went so smooth tonight that even though we finished right around the same time we always do everyone felt it went fast. I think we're finally hitting our stride!
Tonight I talked about the consequences of sin and read the story of the Prodigal Son from the son's perspective. I claimed that we all have put ourselves in this place of "working in the pig fields wishing we could eat pig food" and that Jesus plays a big role in why that's not necessarily the case. I told everyone that this next week we will finish that story by telling it from the father's perspective. It was a fun night. Unfortunately we had some technical problems with the camera so we only filmed that last few minutes of Young Life tonight. So that's why our video is so short this week!
Special thanks once again to the Butler's for letting us use there house, and a special things to Ryan and Holly Collier for hosting us with a delicious taco soup dinner! And to all of you faithful readers and those praying for us, thank you so much for your support! If you are interested in getting involved in anyway don't hesitate to email or call me! Thanks thanks thanks!! -Mat

Welcome to the Butler's!

Well, Tonight was our first night at Mark and Rebecca Butler's house! We grew to big for the Marshall's and boy did we find a great place to continue growing! We were a little smaller tonight (26 high school students) but I think we can chalk that up to being somewhere new and it just a busier than average night for some students. But all in all, we had high energy and fun games. I think everyone we talked to enjoyed Young Life tonight and it was at a size where our leaders were able to have valuable conversations with every student. Tonight I shared about our need, the fact that we are broken and we know it. I began the conversation that will be continued over the coming weeks. We are to the place in the semester where the talks ramp up in weightiness and we lay the ground work for thoughtful conversations to follow. On a SUPER positive note, Caitlin Marshall joined the Sprague Young Life Leadership team! We're so happy to have her with us! It is always nice to welcome more leaders into the family. It equips us to reach more students and change more lives! If you're interested in leading feel free to let us know! Any age is welcome (beyond high school of course!) Special thanks to Mike and Joy Fargo for hosting our team for dinner! Sorry this post is so short! I have a VERY early morning tomorrow (at least for me! 5am!) and need to be getting to bed soon on account of it's just about midnight! Thank you all for all of the support and prayers! None of this could be possible without you!

Last Week at the Marshall's

Well I'm sure you guessed by the title, we are no longer going to be at the Marshall's for Young Life.... because we have grown too big!!!!! We had 45 high schoolers last night, and let me tell you, that room was FULL! After having just over 30 students last week 45 blew me away! It was much more full than I thought we could comfortably fit and I was right!! Such a joy to see that many young people crammed in a room to sing songs and hear about Jesus! We played two games involving clothespins, one in which every starts with three clothespins pinned to their sleeve and has two minutes to see if they can get all of theirs off and on to someone else's shirt. They second game we had two girls and two boys, the girls objective was to see how many clothespins on the boys faces as possible. The winner had 18 clothespins! Last night I talked about blind Bartimaeus on the road to Jericho crying out to God. I posed the question, "who do you cry out too?" I feel like students really responded well to this message and asked some equally good questions. It was such a good night and such a privilege to be a part of. I want to, once again, thank the Marshall's for 8 weeks of hospitality in opening their doors for 20-45 high school guys and gals to invade their home! Thanks to the Chins for hosting us for a delicious spaghetti dinner last night! And thanks for Mark and Rebecca Butler for agreeing to host Sprague Young Life in this next phase of our ministry growth! It's going to be a good end of the year with so much to talk about and so much fun to be had!! Thank you all for your prayers, it's only because of you that 45 high schoolers would show up to sing songs and play games on a Monday night! Thank You!

Well, That's a Wrap on Number 7!!

We finished our 7th Young Life of the year tonight! (I can't believe we've been through that many already!!) Any let me tell you, tonight was a blast! We had 31 highschoolers, 36 of us there all together! It was a full, full room! So, as a quick aside, if you know of anyone in the Sprague area that would like to open there doors to 40 high schoolers every week (I anticipate growth!) give them my number! We are looking for a new place. Anyway, back to tonight! It was such a high energy evening. We sang some great songs (You Belong with Me- Taylor Swift, Ring of Fire- Johnny Cash, and I still Haven't Found- U2) and played a very fun game, two people slap each other in the face with a hot dog and the first one to laugh (or break the hot dog) loses. I talked about the story of Nicodemus and him coming to ask Jesus questions in the night, and how we often feel like we can ask people questions, but not God. I made the point that God is big enough for us to ask him questions and even be mad at him if we need to. We played the song "Jesus, Jesus" by Noah Gunderson (I censored it in a few places) that really is just a dialogue with Jesus put to music. I think this was out best Young Life yet, energy wise, honesty wise, and relationally. We are really starting to see fruit! Thank you all so much for helping this to happen, through prayer and funds and everything else! Thanks again to the Marshall's for giving us there house for the night and for the Schaefer's for hosting us for dinner! If any of you read this and want to get involved, just give me a call and we've got plenty of roles for you! (Leaders, dinner hosts, donors, prayer partners, offering up your house, the list goes on and on!) Thanks again! -Mat

Have we really done six already?!?

This was a big week. It was our first week with more than 30 HIGH SCHOOLERS!!!! Boy, I know I've said we had a lot of energy every week, but this one topped them all. We had a bunch of new faces, and all the usual's. We sang some of our group favorites (including Don't Stop Believin' by Journey, and Hero by Enrique Iglesias) and played some great games (we sculpted spam) and drank some "fitness shakes" (which included bananas, banana flavored 'muscle milk' v8 juice, chocolate soy milk, and some soda). Tonight was our question and answer night. We encouraged students to be thinking about any God/Jesus/Christianity/Religion based questions they've always wanted to ask and we told them we would answer them to the best of our ability. It was a tough night, let me know you, these guys and gals of some serious and difficult questions. I feel honored to be in a place where we are able to speak to those question! We had a panel of question answers (made up of leaders, Jeremy Joseph, Ben Martin, and myself) and answered questions for about 18 minutes. We had six questions we didn't get to that we will be answering a few of each week to come. The question dealt with suffering, violence in the bible, homosexuality, forgiveness, atonement (or how God deals with our sin through Jesus), and questions about why Jesus came) It was a good time, and after wards Dairy Queen was a welcomed breath of energy and a place to unwind after some serious thinking! All in all, such a good week! Also, this was our first week with our NEW SOUND SYSTEM!!!! Thank you so much to all of you who helped with donations to make that possible! It was such a blessing to our leadership team not to have to piece together a giant system, and to be able to leave a lot of it at the Marshall's house to store there. Thank you from the bottom of my heart, your donations literally freed up hours out of my Monday getting sound system stuff ready!! God is good, we are seeing growth and fruit, I'm so excited for camp this summer and for God to take us to the next level! -Mat

Young Life, Chapter 5

Tonight was a good night! We started off with a wonderful dinner by some of our even more wonderful Sprague Young Life supporters (every week before Young Life we have a team dinner hosted by different families in the community, so far we have been blessed to eat at the Marshall's, the Schaefer's, the Rawlings', the Hancock's, and the Chin's. If you read this and think, "Gee Wiz, I'd love to host dinner for them" let us know!) After a great meal we headed for set up, and boy, what a night! I'm always amazed by the amount of energy and noise high schoolers make, and how much they make me laugh. We had our characters come out again tonight and teach us how to work out while we eat (attach 25 pound weights to our forks) and had Brad and John demonstrate the technique in a race. We sang some current songs (and one not-so-current, brown eyed girl anyone?) And then onto the talk. Tonight I shared from Luke 5:17-26, which is the story of the paralyzed man lowered through the roof. I shared how he could not get out of that situation without Jesus' help, and posed the question, "Are there places in our life where we are stuck, and would there be any of these places we could ask for Jesus' help in?" All in all, it was a good night. We have finally raised enough money for our base sound system (now for getting necessary additions like microphone stands, cables, etc...) and our donuts have built up quite the reserve (of course, we could always use funds if you are interested in helping support this mission). We had just over 20 high schoolers again tonight. I am encouraged to say that each week we have new people join us, and each week some can't make it because of outside commitments. That said, I believe we have over 40 people that come to Young Life, so please pray that they all show up next week, and that they each bring a friend. Next week is our last Young Life before Spring Break, I'd love to have to spend Spring Break looking for a new (larger) space to have our Young Life club! Thank you from the bottom of my heart for the support you have all showed us, whether it's prayer, or meals, or funds, or all of the above, we couldn't do this without each and every one of you (and of course, the Holy Spirit). Thank you, thank you, thank you. -Mat

*on one final note, dear Austin, sorry I didn't get this uploaded by 10:30, there were some very important things that came up that I had to get done first, I hope you forgive me ; )

The Fourth Go Around

Well It's once again Monday which means we had another Young Life tonight! It was a great night tonight. There is so much energy in that room, the video just doesn't do it justice! We borrowed a sound system tonight (Trinity Covenant Church, the second part of my job, has part of a spare sound system so with that and taking another part of our current sound system we have enough for a working system for now, that said, it is a lot of work and not really right for us, it'll do for now, but we're only $200 away from the sound system of our dreams, well not our dreams, but a very affordable sound system that would meet our needs, so if you're interested in helping us reach that goal feel free to let me know!) and having the system made all the difference, we were able to lead songs well, keep students attention, and really add energy with louder songs and a better sounding camp video. It was incredible to be able to push ourselves technologically, and student's commented on the positive change! Tonight we had our first encounter with our "Run-on Characters" (Two characters that come on and talk about their "fitness camp" at Washington Family Ranch July 3-9th (the dates of our Young Life camp at Washington Family Ranch) Our leaders Julie and Ben were Pectorals Major, and Gluteus Maxine, two work out instructors featured in the video, they'll be back in weeks to come! We played a full body version of rock paper scissors tonight and sang some great songs (which we received multiple compliments about) and ended the evening with a talk. I started by playing the song "Nobody Knows Me at All" by The Weepies (if you haven't heard it give it a listen! The song includes so many good lines including "I've got lots of friends, yes, but then again, nobody knows me at all" I stated that I feel like all of us felt that way sometimes. I shared a personal story about an occasion when I felt completely unknown and alone, and from their transitioned into the story from John 4 of the Samaritan Woman at the Well. I talked about how she certainly felt the way that song described and then pointed out how Jesus knew "everything she has ever done" and LOVED her in spite of it. I heard multiple positives comments from the talk, so despite all my shortcomings God did some good things through it! Thank you all for your prayers! On a quick side note, we've been giving out 6 dozen donuts for free at Sprague High School on Thursday mornings and on Sunday I shared with Trinity Covenant what we were doing, at the end of both services I had been given $421 (not counting the $150 we had already raised) bringing us to a grand total of $571 to purchase donuts for Sprague students! Needless to say we will be buying more donuts this week and will certainly be able to be there through the rest of this year! Anyway, this has been a long one. Thanks again for everything, you are all such a blessing to us all! -Mat

And the Word became Flesh....

Tonight was a blast, I think we had more energy than we've had yet (which is great) with the same amount of kids (so still room to grow!!!). We had just over 20 kids this week come to Young Life and it was a bunch of fun. We did a mixer where we each have a celebrity name on our backs and try to figure out who we are by asking others questions, we sang songs, we yelled songs, and we learned about Jesus a bit. Tonight I shared about how much Jesus was willing to give up just to learn to speak our language, just to present himself in a way we could understand. I showed a video from youtube about mustaches (don't worry, it made sense in context) and stated that the incarnation (which literally means, "in meat" or "in flesh") was God's growing a mustache to be a part of mustache culture. I posed the question, "If God was willing to do this for you, isn't it only fair for you to just check God out?" All and all I think the night was great! There was so much energy however, that it was very difficult to lead music without a sound system. If you know anyone who would be willing to join us in this ministry with a $400 gift we could get a full sound system. Thanks so much for your support. Brad (in the video) said tonight was the highlight of his day. Your prayers and financial support made that happen! -Mat

Young Life #2

Tonight's Young Life was wonderful! It was a bit smaller than last week, but it was a long weekend so it was to be expected. We had high energy the whole time for sure! I shared about Jesus in John 2:1-10 which is the Wedding at Cana and turning water into wine. I challenged our common perceptions of how we think of God and Jesus and said that I really think that Jesus is the life of every party. We talked about turning water into wine and how when Jesus shows up the party only gets better (even if someone else had put out their best wine first) and asked all the kids there to think about whether or not what I was saying was possible, and did it matter to them if it was. We were just around 20 kids this week. I'm confident next week will be better! On a side note, We could definitely use a sound system, especially if we get any bigger, it's hard to lead louder/faster songs without one. The one I'm looking at is on sale (probably indefinitely, thank you recession) for $399, if you, or anyone you know is interested in helping us purchase that people shoot me an email!! -Mat

Young Life, The Journey Begins!

I just wanted to write a quick blurb about Young Life tonight! I think the video speaks for itself but here's a bit more:
We started off the night at the wonderful home of Teri and Rick Schaefer, who were so kind to make our leaders dinner!!! (If you're in the Salem area and are interested in doing something like this feel free to let me know!) From there we went to Charley and Nancy Marshall's home where we held our first club. Boy let me tell ya, I was NERVOUS, not having done club at Sprague before I didn't know if we would get big numbers or not. I was hoping for 30-35 young people tonight. And we ended up having just under 30!! It was such a good night! We sang some great songs, had a wonderful mixer, a talk (I shared a talk about our story, I tried to make the case that we all have an idea of who we are and we tell people accordingly, but I pushed to say, "what if there is a bigger story we could be a part of?" and "what is Jesus has something to do with that story?" I included the story of the bleeding women in Mark 5:24-34. I said that she was a women who wouldn't accept the story those of her world told her (that she was unclean and incurable) and instead reached for the story God wants to invite us into. I asked us all to think about if we are open to the idea that we might have a better story than the one we already know. I think kids really enjoyed themselves! We went to Dairy Queen after and everyone joined us! It was such a good night. Thank you all for praying! I'm sorry if this video isn't perfectly edited and I'm sorry if my spelling or grammar isn't perfect. I just really wanted to get this up as soon as possible to let you all in on all the great things God is doing in South Salem! -Mat

New Staff Training

If any of you are reading these entries, here's an update on where I am right now. At this moment, I'm sitting in Young Life's Crooked Creek Ranch, in Fraser CO. It has been quite the experience! We are in 8 hours of class a day with a mix of Seminary Classes (Life of Christ, taught by Dallas Seminaries' Darrell Bock, and Foundations of Youth Ministry, taught by Fuller Seminaries' Chap Clark) and staff orientation time. The time has been exhausting, but wonderful. Free time is filled with snowshoeing through the mountains, playing pool with friends, sitting by the fire, and reading some good books. This time is so chalked full of information and fellowship. It has definitely been a fantastic blessing to be here with 200 staff from all over the world! I will certainly post pictures of this camp soon! It is about as beautiful as I could ever imagine. Nestled in the Rockie Mountains only 20 minutes from Winter Park (where I will definitely be snowboarding on our free day!) Anyway, More updates will come! I'll keep you posted! Love you all!