So many of you may know what young life is. A lot of you who may be reading this i met from or because of young life. And those who did not met me through young life probably know that i was apart of it because i really love to talk about it. And if none of this applied to you- you might be one of my mom’s friends and that’s okay and i am super excited you are reading this!
Okay, so why am i talking about young life when i am working with World Race? Well, because Young life set me up for success while volunteering in Vietnam. As a disclaimer i have to stay away of the “m” word that rhymes with “winistry” while being here.
So here’s a really quick summery of my young life background: I grew up with it. My parents both led young life while they were in college and then my dad was on staff as one of his 1st jobs out of college. A ton of my family friends are families that also were in the young life circles- so hey Destin squad and hey to any Kane Country YL fams! I did Wild life (YL for middle schoolers) and Young life while in high school! (Hey to Mia – the best YL leader i could have asked for). I was encouraged the summer before college to volunteer at a YL summer camp for a month which i did and loved (I miss you all Timby SS)! Then when i moved to college last year I got to start leading YL which was just awesome (Hey south jeffco team)!
Young life taught me a lot! I’ve known Jesus my whole life. I’ve never wanted to do life without him. But let’s be real for a sec- growing up in the same church your whole life can get repetitive at times. Young life for me was my escape. A healthy escape- it allowed me to fall back in love with the gospel. I was able to invite and bring so many of my high school friends who wanted nothing to do with Jesus because it was a pressure free environment to just be yourself. Young life’s mission is to reach the most far out kids. To make a safe, fun, and welcoming environment for anyone and everyone so the gospel can be shared. It’s a pressure free environment to be nothing but yourself! That is to me what sets younglife apart from other youth groups I’ve been apart of- it’s pressure free. It’s a place to make relationships and to plan seeds. But also it teaches the skill of learning how to be an open vessel. You never know what you might be asked to do at younglife or what questions you might be asked as leader.
While being here in Vietnam, my team and another team get to work with an organization which puts on lots of different English classes as well as english club! Vietnam is a country where people don’t have free access to even knowing the name of Jesus. You have to really seek it out. So many do not even know a man named Jesus who died for them and loves them. We got to plant seeds through our English club. Because Vietnam is a closed country, you can not explicitly share the name of Jesus in a place of business. So because of that, we got to get to know the students during English club by learning about their lives and loving on them as they are. Reminder: that is exactly what Jesus does for us every single day. Then once we made connections we got to hang out with many students outside of English club. (In young life terms this is called contact work). This is where we got to know our friends on a deeper level and share the gospel or simply be a safe place for them to be open and feel seen. It was beautiful. Judgment free, pressure free, and spirit welcoming- as it always should be.
Do you know that you were made on purpose for a purpose? – a YL slogan that has become one of my go to questions for anyone and everyone. You should try it some time.
*also- this was written about 4 weeks ago. A week into being in Vietnam. I am now in Cambodia. Vietnam was really hard and frustrating for me in a couple different ways. I got some pretty rough sicknesses while being there that i will be writing about soon. But please be praying for me, my health, and my spirit.*
I love you all,
-Maggie
