My dear friends, Jay and Cathy Robinson, have been on the Young Life staff for a long time now. I get their digital newsletter from Tulsa, OK, where Jay is the metro director. This is an except from the most recent issue, which I thought gave some really powerful examples of what ordinary attempts can end up looking like in the adolescent world. Young Life volunteer leaders know that evangelism is a spiritual practice.

From the Front Lines

When we invite people to volunteer as a missionary with Young Life, we have a four week training process where we give them all the tools they need to effectively reach kids with the Gospel. But as with any “real life” scenario, the theoretical and the practical are not always the same. Here’s what it’s meant to be a Young Life leader in Tulsa in the past month…

* You have a girl in your campaigner group who has recently been in drug rehab. Late one night you get a text message from her. She doesn’t want to talk on the phone, or in person, but she’ll text (it’s what kids are comfortable with). So you spend the next hour texting back and forth as she’s wrestling with addiction and questions. “Why do I feel this way?” “Does God care about my addiction?” “Why shouldn’t I just give in to the temptation?” You don’t have all the answers, but you love her and she knows it.

* You have a high school friend who loses a loved one. You show up at his house late in the evening and sit with him and his family. The four other adults in the room are smoking which puts enough of it in the air that you’re smoking too. You don’t mind because it’s a small price to pay as an expression of love.

* You sit with a group of teen moms trying to have a Bible study. There are 5 kids running around in the room so it’s difficult to lead a discussion the way you’ve been trained. Somehow you end up discussing tattoos, specifically the ones all of your girls are wearing. You don’t really have a personal reference point, but by listening you discover that for each of these girls, the tattoo is an expression of who they are. They want to be known, so they put a little bit of their story on the outside in the form of body art. Now you know them better, and love them more.

* You have a kid that comes from a difficult family situation. You are aware that this kid doesn’t eat on a regular basis (there’s no regular basis for anything in his world). When he shows up at a lock-in, you knowingly ask if he’s had something to eat. When he responds “no”, you give your credit card to another leader and tell him to go get the kid a meal, no questions asked, it’s just the right thing to do.

We can train all we want and we can prepare for every situation, but when real life hits, love wins the day. Thanks for supporting Young Life, and allowing us to love kids right where they are.

Dear Lord, Give us the Leaders

In the above article, you read about the heart of a Young Life leader. We’re praying for 60 leaders by March 15th. There are 8300 students in the schools were we currently have YL and there are 17,500 in the schools where we do not have a YL presence. The Harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Will you join us in praying for 29 new leaders and 6 new YoungLives mentors by March 15? And let us know if you are interested or if you know someone who is.

Young Life, Tulsa
10010 S 70th East Ave | Tulsa, OK 74133-6221 | 918 665 8525

by Tracey Connolly

I witnessed a random act of kindness today (what we call an “Ordinary Attempt here in DE Land) that moved and humbled me. I was thrifting at the WARC on Keystone (in Reno). This little gal that works there has some special needs. She went to up to a gal that looked like she could use some help. She looked a little sad and tired to me. The little gal said “That is such a pretty necklace!” The gal took it off and handed it right to her.

We were on one of our usual Costco runs (read, “cheap date”) for some bread and a couple of soft yogurts at the food service area. The eating area was more busy than usual, and I noticed that virtually EVERY table was really dirty. Nobody had a clean place to sit. I decided to ask someone behind the busy counter for a wet rag, figuring I could help out by washing down a few tables (everyone was working really hard and fast back there). A guy near me heard me and began to launch into a bit of a tirade, loud enough for the work staff to hear, about his angst over poor service, dirty tables, long waits, etc., assuming (I guess) that I was pissed about having to wash my own table. Once he figured out I wasn’t angry along with him, but just wanted to pitch in and help…he got real quiet, and looked a bit bewildered. I quickly wiped clean about a dozen filthy tables and then sat down to enjoy my vanilla yogurt. I got to pray for the angry guy and the hard working gals behind the food service window. And honestly…it was kind of fun to notice the looks of confusion and awe on the faces of the folks who watched me clean their tables. You’d have thought I just levitated or something! Very fun.

-Randy