The Last Club!!

Hello all!

Forgive me for forgetting to put a blog together last week. It was our first week with out Mat to remind us, and we already realized how much we need him.

Tonight was our final club of the year! And we went out with a bang. We decided to make it a completely student led club, and I think we will want to do that much more next year. Having them up front gave them more of a reason to invite their friends, and they came. It was the highest energy and most people we’ve had all spring, and I loved every moment. I was especially loving not having to be up front, and being able to sit back and watch. The best part of the night was watching our senior Kelsey Finicle get up, share her testimony and preach about the Love of Christ. 3 years ago, Kelsey was one of the first students to walk into our new Sprague Young Life club, and she came to camp with us that first summer. Amanda especially decided that Kelsey was a girl she wanted to disciple and walk with, and tonight was a proud night for all of us! She shared about a few tough seasons in her life, and the way God pulled her through. The rest of the crowd silently listened, leaning on every word. It was awesome!

I will try and upload a video of her speaking soon! For some reason, my little lap top isn't letting me tonight.

We ended by bringing out a gutter filled with ice cream and toppings, an epic traditional foursquare tournament and hang out time. It was a great night to end the semester with! Now we have 3 weeks to fundraise 4.000 for 21 of us to go to camp on the 23^rd ! I can’t wait!

                                                            -Caitlin

Full Room! 

Brittanie on Raffle! 

Gutter Sundaes

Mackin and Jordan helping lead songs!

Hey, Mat here!! I just wanted to tag on to what Cait said! Man, tonight was awesome. For me, it was such a huge affirmation of the fruit of the last three years. It was SO COOL to see our incredible students just hit club out of the park! It was such a great night. SO much fun! Such an honor to be involved in it! I just wanted to say thank you to all of you for all the support in this ministry. I’m so excited to get over to West Salem Young Life and implement so much of what I’ve learned at Sprague. I have LOVED this past three years more than words can describe. It has been an honor to serve with this incredible leaders and this incredible adult support team. I can never fully express my thanks to you all! This ministry would not be the same without all of you!

                                                            -Mat

Hello Sprague community! Kyle here! Hope all is well. Tonight at Young Life the fun times couldn’t have been more epic. First of all, the sun was shining so it was automatically going to be a great day. We partook in plenty of fun and games followed by Mack’s exceptional song playing skills on the guitar. He plays all the hits. The three amigas (Amanda, Haley, and Taylor) led us in what is probably the most creative of all pieces in choreography. I'm talking, of course, about the Macarena. The best dancers got to compete in a game and the winner (John Marshall) shaved a very great design into Mat Hollen’s beard. It was quite attractive. Gross beard and all, Mat shared a story that Jesus told in the bible about a Father in His prodigal son. He spoke about how when Jesus died on the cross it turned the world upside and changed what seemed to be a downward spiraling world back into an upward spiraling world for EVERYONE! Our students asked some great questions and we all grew together. Then, of course, Limeberry!

All of us just want to thank everybody so much for all your support so far. We look forward to helping work get kids to camp in just over a month. Just a reminder that we have a car wash at Trinity Covenant this Saturday (The 19^th) from 10am-2pm and a garage sell on June 2^nd at Trinity. We would really love to see everybody who has been involved, and those not yet involved, at our fundraisers to help these amazing kids get to camp. A special thank you for Ken and Joy Rawlings for hosting our leaders for dinner before club. Keep praying for us!

Grace and Peace!

Hello! It's the new team leader here!

 Tonight became an impromptu event. As we (the leaders) sat in our team meeting, we realized that with multiple events happening at Sprague, our student numbers would be very low. We decided to have a plan B incase less than 20 students showed up, and that we’d do something spontaneous and fun. So, when 19 showed, we shocked them all by playing “Bigger or Better”! Teams of about 5 took a penny to a house, asking for anything bigger or better than that penny. Then we went from, house to house swapping items, trying to get the biggest or best thing. We met back at LimeBerry to see who won, and teams showed with items such as a TV, a vanity, bags of chips and toilet paper, and the winning item: A new Futon!

We weren’t sure what the night would hold while sitting in our meeting, but it turned into a great way to spend time getting to know kids better. We are realizing that spring is a busy time for everyone, as numbers at club fluctuate. So, we decided that whichever students show up, we will make it worth their while.

Prayer requests: Keep praying for us as we are filling camp spots! Also, spring is busy for both students AND leaders so pray for perseverance as we are in this push towards camp and finishing off the year strongly. Finally, for the camp funds. God has them, and we are trusting him to provide.

Events to know: Car Wash at Trinity on May 19^th 10-2 (come get your car washed!)
and Garage Sale on June 2. I’ll email the location out soon, but if you have anything you need to get rid of, let us know!!

Thanks Tim and Jean Rawlings for the delicious food, Butlers for the use of your warm home, and Mckenzie Trautman for coming and hanging out with us tonight! We appreciate all the support!

Love, Caitlin

Lilypad here! Tonight club was great, we started off with a "get to know you" mixer from Caitlin called "What's Your Name?" Then we played the craw dad song and Caitlin and Matt did a great program about a doctor and a patient that has a giant hole in his body!! (his belly-button) After their shenanigans we played a game which involved two kids, a boy and a girl, on either side of a plexi-glass with peanut butter on it. Their goal: to lick the peanut butter of their side of the plexi-glass the fastest. Finally Kyle brought us home tonight with a message about sin and how our relationship with God is like a bridge, and sin damages that bridge between us and God. It was a great message full of laughs, good questions, and overall positive feedback from the kids. Shout out to the wonderful Hancocks who made us a delicious dinner of chicken tacos and ice cream for dessert. Also to the Butlers who love on us and our club every week by opening up their home. Much Love!

Hey Sprague Young Life community!!! Just thought I would catch you up on the happenings of Club at Sprague Young Life.  We started off club with a mixer designed by Lily wherein we finally forced kids to learn each other’s name. We were mildly successful, but were slightly shocked to realize that our leaders struggled to remember one another’s names. The mixer was followed with the world’s most famous song, 500 miles by The Proclaimers, after a slightly failed raffle attempt.  After an incredible walk on by our favorite Siamese Twin Thugs (Hailey and Amanda) Ellie gave a talk about how problems that are too big for us aren’t too big for Jesus. Tonight also marked a milestone for Sprague because it was the first night the capable Mat Hollen was not up front. After the talk and questions, everyone went to lime berry and participated the fourteenth weekly lime berry dance off! Huge thanks to our Young Life committee, the Fargo family for hosting our meal, and of course the Butlers for being so kind as the open their home to us. Until next week!!!

-Mack

WHAT A NIGHT!

Hello Blog Readers and supporters of Sprague Young Life!

Tonight was such a fun, and refreshing night of Young Life in the Butlers basement. After a week of small attendance, tonight seemed to be at least 50% of new faces. Some of our regular attenders brought friends, and it was so fun for us leaders to meet them all.  We started the evening with a mixer brought to us by Haley, trying to untangle human pretzels. Kyle came up with a game that involved spit wads and ski goggles. Mack, Matt R. and Lily brought us some laughs in a skit about old people at a gas pump, and Amanda finished the night off with the talk! She spoke on John 11, where Jesus weeps with Mary and Martha. She shared about how He loves us SO much that he enters into our grief and suffering with us, even when he knows the end result will be okay. It was amazing the way the 40+ students sat there, quietly, listening so intently to the words Amanda spoke. Afterwards, they had so many great relevant and real questions, and she answered them confidently, beautifully and honestly. There were a few questions about suicide, trying to figure out where God is in the middle of grief like that? It was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. Please keep our students in your prayers, as it’s evident that kids are still grieving over the loss of Dana (a fellow classmate), and definitely searching for God in messy and hard situations. Pray for us leaders as they come to us with questions that we may or may not know the answers too, and pray that all the new students who came today will be back!

Thank you SO much for reading this blog, and being interested in the ministry that God is doing at Sprague, through our team. You are a vital part of this team and community, and it’s exciting to know that people care and want to hear about our exciting nights at club! Thank you to the Fargo’s for the delicious lasagna and salad dinner, and of course to Mark and Rebecca for welcoming us into your home, and being so gracious, even when high school boys accidentally put holes in your wall.

Tonight was a good night, God is Good, and He is at work! Thanks for reading : )

Caitlin, and the rest of the team!

80's Night!!!

Hello Sprague Young  Life and Community! It was great to see everybody after an awesome spring break. Tonight we celebrated one of the craziest decades… the 80’s. We wore our bright colors, acid washed jeans, and danced to Vanilla Ice. We played some amazing games and we got deep reading a dramatic poem written by the one and only Ke$ha. Lily shared the story of how Jesus healed a blind man by rubbing dirt in his eyes gave and answered some great questions about how Jesus can open up our eyes and change our lives. This was all followed, of course, by limeberry.

Not only was it a fun, post-spring break Monday night, it was a great night to get the students amped for all the fun that will be had at camp in June. We are currently organizing fundraisers and getting students to turn in camp forms. We are also looking forward to the epic CT Studd basketball tournament here in Salem. We hope you call can come out and watch April 21^st!

Lastly, we just want to thank everybody who supports us in any way at all, from prayer to hosting our leaders for a nice dinner. We couldn’t do what do without your powerful prayers that back us. A special thanks to the Marshall family for cooking our leaders a wonderful dinner tonight before club. We hope you all have a great week and tune in next week for our club following Easter Sunday. Grace and peace to everyone! -Kyle

Hey there, Lilypad here,

Tonight was mustache club! We got some great pictures of our kids with staches of all kinds. After mustaching-up, we started the night off with “name that stache” led by one of our students, Brittannie. It was a great way to get excited for the rest of club. After “name that stache” we had raffle, sung the crawdad song, and played a great game led by John Wulf. Then we set the mood for Mat’s talk by singing “we are young” and “somewhere only we know.” Mat brought club home with a talk addressing Jesus turning water into wine and how that relates to his ability to turn bad/useless things into good things. His message was geared towards informing our kids of the power Jesus has to do good and encourage them to embrace that about him and carry that truth into their own lives.

Huge thanks to Ken & Joy Rawlings for hosting a delicious spaghetti dinner, and as always, to Mark & Rebecca Butler for hosting the night!!! We are SO thankful for you all!!

Our video didn't work....again (we're working on trying new things and failing...) but if you want to see some pictures for tonight, go to this link! CLICK HERE 

BLACK LIGHT NIGHT!!!!

Hey everybody Mack Daddy D in tha house!! Tonight Sprague Younglife celebrated it's 100th biannual 30 second dance tournament and blacklight themed Club. We kicked off Club with glow in the dark volleyball, which saw the left side of the room prove their athletic supremacy over the right side. After intermittent 30 second dance parties and an amazing game of "washing the elephant" our own Tina Dikih gave a great talk about our putting our identity in Christ. After yet another bout of dance parties, we took Club to limeberry to finish out the night with frozen yogurt.

Special thanks to Mark and Rebecca Butler for again opening up their home for Club and for being so supportive of Sprague Younglife. Also a huge thanks to Teri Schaeffer for cooking the most delicious meal of pulled pork. Thanks to all our adult supporters, and please keep praying for the contact work leaders will be a part of in the coming week.

Until then, Mack

What a Night (and week!)

Wow, this has been a full week for Sprague Young Life! It's been a difficult week, but it's been a week that has affirmed God's call on each and every leader's life at Sprague High School. Wednesday night of last week, the Sprague community was shook to its core. A well know student at Sprague took her life, and left us all in shock. It's been a hard week. It's been a sad week. But, God is good, and He is faithful. We stumbled into the opportunity to host a time for high school students to process, and pray, and cry together on Thursday night of last week in place of our youth group/campaigners event we call "Kaleo." The night was very real. People were open to share what was going through their heads. Students prayed for the first time in their lives. Other students fell back to the familiar prayers we so often go to when we are at a loss of new words. Still others sat quietly. It was a holy night. A night that only God could have put together.

So, after such a difficult week, what was Young Life to be? The way I saw it, we had two options. Sit in the reality of the loss this community has suffered or, laugh harder than we've ever laughed. It turns out, that was a false dichotomy. We laughed HARD, we sang LOUD, we smiled A LOT and, Caitlin shared with us a beautiful story from the second chapter of the book of Mark. The paralytic who was lowered through the roof. "Who are we," she asked, "the friend needing to be brought to the foot of Jesus, or one of those bring that friend there?" The timeliness of that question was not lost on any student.

It was an incredible night, Amanda, Haley and Matt did an amazing dance, and it was hilarious. We sang some wonderful songs. It was just so fun. I wish I could show you a video of what tonight, but we tried something new with filming, and as it turns out, my computer just cant handle an hour of 1080p video, and so, next week we will try something a bit lower quality!

Huge thanks to Mark and Rebecca Butler, I can't begin to thank them enough for faithfully hosting Young Life for so long. And thanks to Heidi Chin, for cooking us, probably the best chicken on earth. And homemade rice crispy treats that were equal parts rice and marshmallows. It was so good! Thank you to our whole adult support system that helped us to make Thursday night as meaningful as it was. I am SO blessed to have so many incredible people surrounding me, and Sprague Young Life. Thank you all, from the bottom of my heart!                                               -Mat

WE'RE BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hey everyone, Kyle here! Sprague Young Life kicked off tonight for the second semester and IT. ROCKED. OUR. SOCKS. OFF!! Literally, we started the night off stealing each others’ socks until everybody’s were off their feet and on the floor. Then games and songs ensued. Some nasty shakes made up of wasabi, anchovies, and bananas, and were chugged. And the leaders confessed what they would want to be if they weren’t Young Life leaders… shocking. Mat reminded us of why we believe in Jesus and how powerful the bible is in our lives in today’s crazy, upside down world and a Q & A followed his talk. Then, we finished the night at Limeberry as an awesome family. Thanks for all the prayer and preparation from our Mission Community, Committee, and everybody that helped us get ready for tonight. A special thanks to the Butler family for opening up their house to a bunch of crazy kids and to the Schaefer’s for a delicious dinner! We can’t wait for next week!! Spread the word!