Young Life=Family

Audrey speaking to a packed house at Younger Life Club

Lee’s Summit Young Life leaders and kids have been calling our community “family” for quite some time so we were more than thrilled to invite our “extended family” in on our amazing (not so) little secret the past few weeks.

March 31 – “Brothers and Sisters”
Two weeks ago we split the family up just slightly for a Girls/Guys Night Out at LSCC.  The boys met outside and did very manly things such as playing basketball and Frisbee before listening to an amazing guest speaker named Ruffin Bailey.  I’d love to share more but I wasn’t invited!

As for the girls, we held an “open mic night” as we like to call it it Young Life; this basically means the other leaders and I passed the
microphone to the kids and gave them a chance to share their hearts.  One by one the girls stood in front of their sisters and friends and talked about whatever they wanted to speak about.  These amazing and brave girls offered advice and encouragement, shared stories of what they have overcome and where they see Jesus in their lives; many simply wanted to say “thank you” to a friend, to a leader or to their “Young Life family”.  It was a beautiful night that far exceeded our expectations.  I believe that the over SEVENTY girls that showed up left feeling better apart of this family and encouraged by the many ways Jesus is ever-present in their lives.

April 7 – “Parents”
A week ago we invited our parents to club for “Old Life”.  It was incredible to stand at the front of the room and look out at all of that support (or stand in the middle of the dancing parents mixed in with their kids throughout the night). The night was full of energy and was topped off by a guest appearance from THE KC Wolf, Mr. Dan Meers, who also happens to be a parent of some of our Young Life kids.  Dan shared his wonderful story with us, including how one even becomes professional mascot; but most importantly he shared the perfect love of Jesus Christ.  (If you missed Old Life and don’t know Dan’s story, I encourage you to check out his book Wolves Can’t Fly, it really is an amazing story with an even better message.) Thank you, parents for being a part of that night, please come back anytime. 

April 14 – “YOUNGER Brothers and Sisters”
Finally, this past week we invited out younger brothers and sisters. Our goal was to share the night with our middle school family and I’d say we did. They mixed right in with their big brothers and sisters; in fact it was hard to even tell where most of them were except by their
size! The best part of the night was watching new leader, Audrey Copenhaver share the story of God’s messy, protective, tough, unconditional love through the story of her relationship with her late
father and a room full of 6th through 12th grade students learned that even through sadness, struggle, tough times and loss. #HisloveNEVERfails.

Thank you siblings, parents and students for Lee’s Summit Young Life and for allowing me to be part of the best day of my week, so many amazing lives and this incredible ministry.  I love this family.

Thanks to Jessica Burton for writing this post!