Day 3- Crooked Creek

What a day filled with fun, sun, mountain views, great food, bike rides, and adventure.  We are having a blast.  Tonight we will have club and a lot more surprises.  I love that we get to surprise kids each day with crazy treats and activities.  We have lost the art of surprise back home.  In our instant info culture we are connected and in the know.  Surprises back home are often not good ones.  So bringing back good surprises... what a treat to let kids be kids.  

Water Olympics

Mountain Bike Ride

Day 2

Day 2- Crooked Creek Ranch

We are having a blast.  Cannot believe that we have only been in the magical place for 24 hours.  Kids have laughed, played, ate incredible food family style, and my favorite been a kid.  It's such a joy to watch students be who they are and be kids.  

Volleyball Tourney

Rodeo fun

Hike

LS students at Volleyball Tourney

We Are Here!!

LS YL leader team

Bus Ride

Winter Park 

 We made it to Crooked Creek Ranch.  After a long bus ride and a few naps and movies we have arrived.  Crooked Creek is beautiful and kids right now are exploring camp.  Most of our girls hit the YL store in the first 30 minutes.  Now they are swimming, blobbing, rock climbing, playing frisbee and hanging out.  Tonight we will have our first epic club, share our first meal around a table together, and participate in some crazy obstacle course.  Stay tuned for more.

4 Days Away!

In 4 days a charter bus full of students from LSN, LSHS, LSW, and BSS will head to the mountains for a week of adventure and relationships.  Kids will get to be kids.  I know they have been counting down the days for this trip.  Buses will leave at 11:00pm Sat. July 25th from the Lee's Summit North Parking lot by the tennis courts.  The send of party has already been planning a tailgate, which makes me smile.  Each year previous campers, YL alumni, and friends meet to hang out and send off the new group.  This year, I believe, a tailgate is in the works.  Hope to see you there.  Whether you are a camper, parent, or alumni.

Finale

YL Seniors

Wow, what a finale.  Our last club was one of those moments you hope to see.  Moments where you are affirmed that your calling to share Jesus is validated.

Senior after senior got up on stage to take the mic.  To say what a difference YL has made in their life.  That camp truly is the best week of their life.  That their leader has been a huge influence and how good it has felt to be known and loved.  And how much they love the YL family.  But you know what was the best? Not the compliments to leaders, or myself, or the talk of YL family, or camp.  It was that seniors stood up front and proclaimed that they know Jesus.  That because of YL, camp, and the YL family they know Jesus and that relationship rescued them and continues to do so.  

Kids literally had to be asked to leave at the end of club.  They wouldn't go home.  They didn't want this to end.  They hugged, cried, and took pictures.  At 11pm I was still in the parking lot of club hanging with students who sat in the parking lot remembering their favorite moments refusing to close this chapter.  God is good!  Thank you for supporting this ministry and making a difference in the lives of kids.

Although, Club is over for the school year, YL is not over.  Our big YL Camp trip will be July 25- Aug 2.  We have a few spots left.   http://lsylcamp.weebly.com/  YL leaders will still pursue kids, have hang outs, and some small groups.  We will also be fundraising to sustain LS YL this summer with our annual Golf Tourney.  Please consider being a sponsor or a golfer.  http://lsylgolf.weebly.com/

I would like to especially thank our supporters.  YL is a nonprofit and needs financial support of the community. Those that donate their finances, time, prayers, and support we could not do this without you!  To my team of volunteer leaders:  I'm so proud of you living out the Gospel day in and day out and pointing kids to Jesus.  Thank you for being an incredible team!

Tracee

A Proud Parent Moment

A LS YL first to crowd surf at our All KC Metro YL Club @UMKC

Students from 8 areas come together as one big YL family.

I had a proud parent moment Monday, not with my adorable son but with the LS YL family.  We loaded 2 school buses to embark on our long lost tradition of a KC wide YL Club.  As we unloaded the buses and led the students into the lobby to wait.  I was beaming.  These are my people.  I love them.  They are full of questions, life, energy, hype, and pursuit of truth.  The doors opened for club to begin and as our tradition LS YL was there waiting at the door to make sure they raced in and go to stand front right of the stage.  That's our place... front right.  At camp our students poach outside the club doors to get our front right spot.  I love that our students always want to be as close as possible to Jesus, to John 10:10 life, to crazy games, to real fun, to the party with a purpose.  I love that our students were the first to crowd surf and turn the KC Metro Club into a party.  I love that when one of our own was on stage for a game she was asked her name and where she was from and LS YL kids cheered so loud that she couldn't even get out the words Lee's Summit and the leader of the game said, "You must be from Lee's Summit."  I love we have a reputation of being crazy, loud, fun, hyped, and also respectful, caring, and encouraging.  I love when a special needs student won a raffle prize LS YL kids went crazy for her.  I literally am crying writing this.  I love these kids and so do my leaders.  They are kids that are trying to live for God in a way that makes sense to them and trying to be a family to those around them.  I am such a proud mom of these kids.  I think of these seniors who will have their last club this next week.  I think of their character and its shaping over the last four years.  I think of their journeys with Jesus and their heartaches and healing.  Oh what a joy it is to know them.  They will go out from this family and meet new families.  Some will serve as Yl leaders in their college town, some will join a Bible study or lead one with kids in their dorm, some will step foot on the mission field this summer, but what I love is that LS YL kids leave a legacy and they always come home.  God is good.  

"How blessed is God! And what a blessing he is! He’s the Father of our Master, Jesus Christ, and takes us to the high places of blessing in him. Long before he laid down earth’s foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love. Long, long ago he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ." Ephesians 1:4-5

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!