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
