See You Next Fall!

Tonight was AWESOME! We had over 55 students and boy was it a high energy night! We sang, we laughed, we danced, we laughed, we talked about things that matter (tonight's topic was on how to have a relationship that is healthy) and then we laughed some more. We even had our Annual End of the Year Foursquare tournament (Congratulations Paul Herman for taking home the trophy this year with a 19 consecutive rounds in the number one square!) It was a night for the history books! HUGE thanks to all the families and supporters that donated food and time and money to making our end of the year BBQ a huge success! Sprague Young Life would not be what it is without you! As always, thanks to the Butlers for hosting all of us crazy folks! And big thanks to Terry and Teresa Hancock for hosting the leaders for a delicious dinner tonight! I am SO, SO thankful to be in a community this supportive! Tonight was our last Young Life of the year, and as of tonight we still have $17,735 to raise for camp sooooo if you want to help us shrink that number feel free to shoot me and email! You will be hearing lots from us this summer! Keep us in your prayers in between blog posts! -Mat

The End is Near...

Well, we're quickly coming to the close on this semester of Young Life! There is always a fear that as the semester draws to a close the momentum that a group has been building all year will slowly start to weaken and by the end it seems like a crawl to the finish... that however is NOT what we're seeing! Tonight was such a high energy Young Life! There were over 40 people in the room and the mood was exciting! We had so much fun laughing together as we sang silly songs and played ridiculous games (I wish I could succinctly explain 'Circle the Wagons' it's incredible!) and after all the crazy semi-controlled chaos, we talked about some heavy stuff. Lat week we asked our students what they would like to talk about for the rest of the year. The two overwhelming responses were "Relationships" and "What do bad things happen to good people?" And so tonight I tackled the later of the two. I shared with our students the truth of God's unceasing love and desire to care for our needs and I claimed that God suffers along side us, joining us in our pain. I encouraged students to consider those words and to have faith in God's goodness, even when it's hard to believe. I said that, truly, that question is seemingly unanswerable and that any answer seems unsatisfying. It was a great night, and our leaders were all overwhelmed by students needing to talk about some really serious stuff afterward. God was moving tonight, and I know I speak for all the leaders when I say how honored we were to be a part of it. Special thanks to Perry and Sue Webb for hosting a delicious dinner! To Mark and Rebecca Butler for hosting us as always! And to Limeberry, our home away from home! (Tonight I had the best Blackberry frozen yogurt ever! Go get some, it's awesome!!!)

And Now For Something Completely?....err A Little Bit Different

Well, Tonight was the big Save our Sports Meeting, and we weren't sure how many students we'd have. And on top of that Spring is a LONG stretch of Young Life. With those two things bouncing around Caitlin Marshall had the wonderful idea of just mixing things up a bit tonight. We scrapped the talk in order to prep for a REALLY GOOD couple talks coming up, scratched the songs, and we just played a lot of games, including Catch Phrase and Apples-to-Apples. It was such a fun night. We ended up with between 25-30 students after all and everyone had a ton of fun! I am so thankful to be a part of a ministry that doesn't live or die on the quality of an event but instead finds it's success in the strength of the relationships between leaders and students. Tonight was a beautiful testament to that. Special thanks to Rick and Teri Schaeffer for a really wonderful dinner! To Mark and Rebecca Butler for hosting Young Life once again, and to Limeberry for being our own special after Young Life hang out! You are all such a blessing to us leaders and students at Sprague High School! Thank you for everything you all do!

Who do YOU say that I am?

Tonight was good! We had a smaller group (I tell ya, Spring is a busy season, SO much to compete with!!) But it was a wonderful group of students! And it was just great to be a part of it. We played math games, blew bubbles with chewing gum, sang to our hearts content and talked about a simple, yet incredibly important issue. Who do we say that Jesus is? I encouraged our students to really wrestle with that question. I claimed that we can't sit in the lukewarm of Jesus being a teacher and a good guy. I pushed us all to realize that Jesus was either God, or a loony, and that we owe it to ourselves to wrestle with who we really feel that he is. We read Luke 9:18-21 where Peter confesses Jesus is the Christ and discussed from there. We had some great questions and it was just a wonderful night! Special thanks to Rick and Teri Schaefer for hosting a delicious dinner, Mark and Rebecca Butler for hosting us and all the students for Young Life, and Limeberry for being our after Young Life snack of choice! You are all SUCH a blessing!! -Mat