I met her up in Deleware

Last night Solanco Young Life celebrated its second annual Christmas party. This party includes both current students and alumni and is a fairly unorganized chaotic mess of fun, laughter, and gift giving (and stealing). We dress in the Christmas spirit, except for me (someone has to be scrooge), play the white elephant gift exchange, and listen to conventional and unconventional Christmas music (if you've never heard "Favorite Christmas Story" by Capital Lights it comes highly recommended).

As you can see from the blurry picture, we had over 40 kids in the Kauffman's basement. Last night was just incredible. People who normally don't hang out or associate together were jumping around and dancing to music, were throwing pretzels into eachother's mouths, and laughing about the randomness of the white elephant gifts. Tom still reigns as most creative gift by bringing a urinal painted yellow with a smiley face inside. Oddly enough, Owen and Anthony actually fought over that gift.

Owen has been one of the highlights of club for me this year. To paint a picture of who Owen is: He's kind of a punk kid that likes to drive fast, break the rules, and freak people out. He brought an 8ft red boa constrictor snake to the party last night. He gives his friends tattoos himself and regularly gets in trouble at school for being disruptive. One of the first times I met Owen he had what I thought was a bloody knuckle. Apparently he just painted it on. He had me believing he was in a fight and punched some kid in the face. Someone told me it was fake, and I looked at Owen and said if he tells me it's real I'm going to believe him. Obviously he lied, but I'll continue to believe him when he tells me things. For what it's worth, I actually don't think he's lied to me since that night.

During the sin talk this year I was pretty sick and was losing my voice quickly. I had a glass of water and a music stand with me up front and we joked about how all I needed was stool and I would look like a stand up comedian. The drummer, Shayne, quickly gave me his stool, and I set my glass of water on it. Owen asked if he could sit on it during my talk, so I handed it to him in the crowd. I quickly realized this was a squeaky stool. I told Owen he had 10 seconds to get all the squeaking out, but it would distract me the rest of the night if he kept doing it. To my surprise, Owen was hanging on every word I said that night. You could hear a pin drop in the room as I talked about the condition of sin that we all have, and that God didn't leave us out to dry. He did something about it.

As you celebrate Christmas this year (what God did about our condition of sin), please celebrate with us all the things the Lord has done. He's brought kids like Owen, Will, Derrick, and Nate to a Christmas party to celebrate with Christians like Tom, Lydia, Shira, Caleb, Jesse, and myself. Emmanuel, God with us, is with Owen and working in his heart as his friendship with Tom continues to develop.

Let's pray boldly for miracles this upcoming semester, and let's love people ruthlessly and sacrificially. Not only did God come to earth, but He entered our wicked hearts and is changing us into the people we were always meant to be. That's a life long process that I am so blessed to be a part of in girls like Tori, Kayla, Alyssa, and Celeste (even if they don't know it's happening).

Truly, have a Merry Christmas,

Love,

SLC YL

Tell me whatcha want

Club night is pure chaos. For those of you who have experienced it from the leaders end, you know exactly what I'm talking about. You're constantly running around, getting things together for games and songs, practicing your talk, trying to make kids feel welcome, stopping kids from doing things that are too stupid, while also trying to keep the energy level up. My favorite part of the evening is after club when we all go out to eat. Not only is this just a chill, unorganized, time, but it's a time to talk to our friends and really get to know them.

A few weeks ago the Solanco leadership team had an interesting situation to handle. As I'm driving girls home, Lydia is the last person to get to Taco Bell. She sees a group of guys walking across the parking lot to the dollar store, so she decides to join them. As they are leaving the store, Paul* pulls a candy bar out his pocket and laughingly says "hey, look at what I got!" His friend, Rob*, laughs, and Lydia shockingly asks if he stole the candy bar. He says yes, and then eats it right away.

I get a panicked phone call from Lydia, and once she explains my first reaction is anger (like any good Christian). She talks with our other co-leader, Tom, about the situation, and decides she can handle it. She goes up to Paul and tells him she's going to go pay for his candy bar. Paul says he will go with her, and Rob says he wants to go too. Lydia gives Paul the money and he bangs on the doors on the dollar store, as they are locked and all the lights are out. Someone inside shouts that they are closed, and he shouts back "I stole something, I just wanted to pay for it!". Long story short, Paul shoves the money through the door crack as Rob is in the background saying "It's so easy to do the wrong thing, but so hard to make it right" (oddly profound, I know).

At this point, you may be thinking that Lydia is a really confident person who knew exactly what to do in this situation. However, the exact opposite is true. She is petrified, especially considering this is the first time Paul has ever come to club! She feels like she didn't do anything right. But as they are walking across the parking lot one last time, Paul begins to profusely thank Lydia. He thanks her for challenging him, and for making him think about what he was doing. Before he leaves he gives her a huge hug and says he's coming to everything Young Life from now on.

Sometimes, we just don't know what the right thing to do is. But praise the Lord that He can use all of our fumbling efforts to care for, challenge, and point each other towards Him. I'm not really sure who learned more that night, Paul, Lydia, or maybe even Rob, but I do know that the Lord used Tuesday night to teach us all about who He is.

*Not real names

Love,
SLC YL

I'm holdin' on

There's really not much better than good clean fun. I mean the innocent kind. Fun untainted by competition and masking who you really are. This is the kind of fun we had on Tuesday night at our all area barn party.

Will K screamed and jumped up and down on a hayride as we swerved all over a field. Megan had a beaming smile on her face as we sang songs sitting on hay bails. Will G quietly watched with a smile on his face and his hands by his side the whole night. Maybe this is how life is supposed to be. We played silly games, cheered for each other, sang songs, listened as Theron talked about how we all want to have a good life, we rode an extreme hayride, and sat around a bonfire. There was no drama. There were no fights. Our campaigners had a direct opportunity to stop thinking about themselves and just serve.

Life makes a little bit more sense when it's not all about me. When I get a taste of true humility. The only way to find true humility is to see the grace that has been lavished upon us. I'm going to hold onto that.

It feels so good to have clean feet!

Tonight. Tonight. There was a party at the Fredrick's. Top of the world. Tonight. Tonight.

It was a night of firsts and lasts.

First official club of the year! Legit. Jesse's last club before heading off to the Navy. Sad. Tom's first Homecoming proposal. From a freshman. And Holly's last time eating Hot Tamales. Saucy!

Our first club included a bunch of kids from Octorara, who were checking out club to try to get Young Life started at their high school. Music was loud, kids were cheered for as we played games, and we talked about the questions we all have about life. We got to see many new faces. It was packed!

Since it took us (one of us) foooooreeeeeeevuuur to write this most recent blog post, our second club has also already come and gone. This has definitely been the best club we've had so far! We met some more new people, a few freshman, a basketball player, and two crazy southern hooligans, who came to invite us all to the All Area Barn Party next week. In Nottingham.

God truly blessed us that night with energy, smooth transitions, and excited kids--all despite our somewhat tentative expectations at the beginning.

Pray for us as we continue to love and pour into the lives of these teenagers and help them love each other well.

SLC YL. Out.

You play ball like a girl!

In the infamous words of Socrates (or maybe Bill and Ted, I can't remember): We are all dust in the wind.

How depressing? I prefer life to be a little more lively than that. You know, things like sun rises, baby turtles, jet skis, and surfing. That's why we (Tom, Lydia, and Sarah) took our senior campaigners to the beach this past weekend.


If only you could be a fly on our wall! You would have seen boys giggling, girls burping, and Lydia cooking. All weekend. You also would have heard our amazing conversations about life. We had the privileged of 5 high school seniors opening up to us, and sharing their lives with us. Someone much wiser than myself once told me that if a high schooler ever opens up to you, take off your shoes, because you're on holy ground. This is not something we take lightly. We tread softly and love deeply.

In the midst of tears and vulnerability we got to laugh and enjoy each other, and trust me when I say these kids would not be hanging out with each other if they weren't all involved in Young Life. Now they get to live life together. Now we, as leaders, have front row seats to life transformation. How amazing is that? I know, you wish you were us.

Throughout all the chaos this weekend, we took time to talk about how to live a Christian life in a public high school. How to seek the Lord above all else. How to care for people that don't care about you. How to not judge people. How to find the people that don't think they are worth anything and tell them they are worth the world.

The truth is, we are all broken. We are all in need of a Savior. We're just beggars trying to show other beggars where to get bread (Isaiah 55). In our own messed up way, we get to show our friends that God is redeeming us, our friends, our high school, and our community.

Now begins club season! We throw eggs, whip brooms, sing off key, and maybe say some cheesy pick up lines. All for the sake of the gospel. So we can care for kids where they are at, and show them they are worth dying for.




Pray for us as we enter this chaotic season. You are dearly appreciated and valued.

Love, SLC YL