Relationships Fall 2018

When unspeakable tragedy brings restoration » 7

A true Young Life pioneer » 13

One woman’s influence in the Dominican Republic and Cuba » 21

Fall 2018 | Vol. 31 Issue 1

A homeless middle schooler takes

THE TRIP OF A LIFETIME 19

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Relationships

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CONTENTS | FALL 2018

7 A PLACE OF RESTORATION 5 DIAGNOSIS FOR LIFE 11 IMMEASURABLY MORE 13 GOD LOVES TO BE TRUSTED!

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE

17 AGENTS OF CHANGE 19 A RIDE HOME 21 GOING AND GROWING

ABOUT THE COVER

2 3 4 9 22

From the President #younglife Young Life Lite In It With Kids Young Life Spoken Here

We pack every week at Young Life camp with outof-the-ordinary games and experiences, like this shovel relay at Crooked Creek Ranch in Fraser, Colorado.

For more on why fun and adventures are so important to our ministry with kids, see Newt’s article on the opposite page!

Cover photo by Troy Earnest

Publisher/President Newt Crenshaw is a publication of Young Life, a mission devoted to introducing adolescents to Jesus Christ and helping them grow in their faith. Relationships magazine is published three times a year (spring, fall and winter) by Young Life.

If you’re receiving duplicate copies or would like to switch over to the electronic version, please contact the Young Life Mission Assistance Team at 877-438-9572. We can also help you with the change of address or giving information.

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Executive Editor Terry Swenson Senior Editor Jeff Chesemore Coordinator Donna McKenzie Copy Editor Jessica Williams Art Director Isaac Watkins

Designers Liz Knepper Joann Oh Diné Wiedey Contributing Photographers Courtney and Wayland Cossey LJ Roberts Photography Jonathan Schultz Jeremy VanHaitsma

Young Life is a Charter Member of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability.

younglife.org P.O. Box 520 Colorado Springs CO 80901 Support Young Life at giving.younglife.org/kids

C O L L A B O R AT I N G I N

Faith AND

VALUE #4

Ecumenical – Collaborating with followers of Jesus Christ from various traditions and local churches worldwide.

METHOD #4

Providing fun, adventurous, life-changing and skill-building experiences.

At the European staff conference, from left to right: Newt Crenshaw and wife, Susan; executive vice president of International, Marty Caldwell, and wife, Susan; Reverend Dr. Keith McCrory; Father Lukasz Szymanski; Renee Edwards and husband, Chad, senior vice president of Europe.

FUN

We believe Young Life’s value of being an ecumenical ministry is centered on “promoting or tending toward worldwide Christian unity or cooperation.” This definition finds its strong impulse from Jesus’ words in John 13:34-35 (NKJV): “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another ... By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Jesus not only called His followers to love one another, but to be united as He prayed this prayer for us to His heavenly Father: “The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one . . . so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me” (John 17:22-23, ESV).

While church traditions have doctrinal differences, we seek to minister alongside those who agree with us on the importance of sharing the gospel with young people and helping them grow in their faith. When we partner, we insist on the clarity of the gospel proclamation and a relational approach to ministering to kids.

In my 35-year involvement with Young Life, it has been my experience that many people and church traditions wholeheartedly agree with us on these foundational elements.

Today, we minister alongside Protestants, Roman Catholics, Orthodox, as well as ethnic and country-specific denominations around the world. Some of these churches are small; others large and state sponsored. While at a recent European staff conference, we heard

FROM THE PRESIDENT from two keynote speakers — Reverend Dr. Keith McCrory (a Presbyterian minister from Northern Ireland) and Father Lukasz Szymanski (a Catholic priest from Poland). Both these men and their churches have been active partners with Young Life in their communities. In fact, Father Szymanski has been a volunteer leader under our local area director!

We also have a long-standing church partnership in Brooklyn, New York, with a large African-American church. This partnership is at the leadership level and includes financial, spiritual and mentoring support. I am confident God is blessing our ministry because of these carefully chosen partnerships with like-minded churches and church leaders.

Alongside our mutual love for a clear gospel and relational approach is our emphasis on “providing fun, adventurous, life-changing and skill-building experiences” for kids. Giving young people a taste of the abundant life Jesus offers to all is a method which travels well across traditions, and offers an appealing point of connection among many denominations around the globe.

This method has been characteristic of our ministry since our founder, Jim Rayburn, began taking kids on outdoor adventures. His genius was not about seeking some adrenaline high, but rather helping young people step outside their “comfort zones,” often in the middle of God’s amazing creation. These experiences open kids of all abilities and backgrounds — as varied as Capernaum, YoungLives, multiethnic, middle school — to seeing God in new ways, giving them the courage to take important steps toward following Jesus.

In all these efforts, our hope and prayer is to develop leaders in God’s Kingdom whom Jesus can send into the world in His name.

Newt Crenshaw Young Life President

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SOME OF OUR FAVORITE SOCIAL MEDIA MOMENTS

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forever my home away from home

Fun night last night!

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We had an awesome time at the Night to Shine prom!!!!! Big shoutout to @timtebow for loving our friends so well and letting them know they belong in the Kingdom. #nighttoshine #capernaumshines

This team man. It’s graduated legends, and added new trailblazers; can’t imagine college without them!!!

AHeights4Ever.

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reminiscing a ton today & wishing i could be hugged by these people one more time

“I love Young Life because I’ve finally found a place where I feel like I belong. You can actually feel Jesus' love radiating through the room and it’s awesome to be a part of!” @krizziadejesus #humansofYL

FOLLOW US

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@younglife

@younglife

Young Life

Young Life

YOUNG LIFE LITE

Signing on for [YOUNG] Life X_____________________ (Signature here)

JoAnn and Terry Watson

By Stacy Windahl

An Oregon garage bears witness to the kids who came to know Young Life and the love of Jesus there.

In April, credit card issuers stopped requiring signatures on receipts.

They’ve gone the way of cursive writing lessons and autograph books.

Quaintly archaic. Sad to say, your John Hancock isn’t worth much anymore.

Except in the West Salem, Oregon, garage of JoAnn and Terry Watson. Since 1989, the Watsons have collected the signatures of thousands of club kids who have autographed the walls, ceiling, woodwork and garage door. When those were filled, kids signed canvas panels. JoAnn has 10 of them rolled up and stashed in the attic. These signatures record what God can do in the lives of kids — and their parents.

It started as Young Life relationships often do. A leader serving as a volunteer coach discovers a discouraged freshman in the locker room and suggests they get together to talk. Before long, the athlete is coming to club. This particular athlete, JoAnn and Terry’s son, Chad, attended club and then camp at Breakaway Lodge.

When Chad’s leader, Eric, had to leave camp to coach the state playoff game, he invited Chad to come along, if and only if the leader could share the club talk they’d be missing. So during their drive, Eric shared “the cross talk,” and

Chad made a faith commitment then and there, and that changed the faith journey of the entire family.

The following fall, Eric approached Chad’s parents saying, “Just think about this … ” which JoAnn now understands to mean, “You’re about to go on a big adventure.” In this instance, the request was for the Watsons to host club in their home.

(Sort of.) For just a few weeks. (Maybe a bit longer.) The Watsons owned a tent and awning business, and with the hope of holding bigger clubs in a larger space, Eric asked the Watsons to erect a 20-by-20-foot tent attached to their garage. Not long after, clubs that were never larger than 70 grew to 200 under a tent that eventually had side walls, a gutter system and commercialgrade carpet throughout the adjacent garage. “Just a few weeks,” extended to 10 years. And with the help of a parent committee, this home that hosted club at 7:45 p.m. began serving dinner to kids and leaders who’d show up at five.

Eric recalls that the Watsons had to re-carpet their home three times due to the foot traffic.

During this time, signing the garage became a rite of passage. “Kids would come back and sign again,” Eric said. “People were in awe of this garage

— in awe of the impact of this place year after year. The garage represented an open door. Anyone was welcome in this safe and loving place.”

Joann and Terry signed on for more than hosting club. JoAnn, an accountant, began helping with the area’s books and caring for leaders.

And then she became a volunteer leader and the region’s student staff director. In her 40s. “I was scared to death of speaking,” she said. “I had to sit on a stool to give a talk, and I’d throw up before and after wondering, ‘Why am I here? Why me?’”

There are thousands who can answer that. West Salem kids who’ve grown up in faith and service. Chad Watson is now on Young Life staff as a Field Development coaching coordinator. That leader … Eric?

Today, he serves as Young Life’s chief development officer. And there are others who are Young Life regional and area directors, business owners, bankers, teachers, moms, dads and followers of Jesus. Their names are written on the walls of an Oregon garage in indelible ink, and engraved for time eternal in the palms of God’s hands.

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DIAGNOSIS

4 LIFE

By Leslie Strader

A North Carolina teen’s battle with cancer and pride.

Taylor Bouma had a secret. All his life, he claimed to be a Christian. And he certainly could have been. His parents took him to church; they read the Bible and prayed with him.

Taylor was a regular at Young Life club and summer camp. He knew how to act and what to say. No one would have ever guessed that in reality, Jesus was a complete stranger.

Typical High School Kid

Taylor (left) Eric (right), and their friend, Gentry, at SharpTop Cove.

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Church had been a consistent part of Taylor’s life growing up in the small town of Mount Airy, North Carolina. But once he hit the middle school years, he refused to go anymore.

“The older I got, the more disinterested I was,” he said. “I saw it as a waste of time and something that wasn't for me. I did the bare minimum.”

When the high school years came along, life for Taylor got harder to navigate.

“My first two years of high school, I struggled to find myself and my self-worth,” he said. “I turned to partying and drinking and all sorts of things, except God. I attended Young Life, but just for the social aspect — to see friends and hang out. I wasn't usually paying that much attention.”

Eric Leathers has been the area director in Mount Airy for 15 years. He described Taylor as a “very typical high school kid.”

“We live in a small American town, so everyone is ‘supposed’ to know the Lord,” Leathers said. “It’s real easy where we live for people to assume you’re a Christian because of who your family is or because you’re a regular church attender. Kids are born into their faith, and it takes a while for them to realize they need to follow and love Jesus with their whole lives.”

In the fall of 2013, Taylor signed up for fall camp at Windy Gap, because “it was the thing to do.”

“I was ready to have a fun weekend away from home,” Taylor recalled. “But something strange happened. I found myself actually listening and paying attention to what the speaker was saying. And I wanted what they had to offer.

“Unfortunately, I was a very prideful kid in high school. Most of my friends were strong believers and had a relationship with Jesus, so I put on the front that I did as well. It was easier to pretend I knew than to ask someone to explain it to me. So not much changed for me.”

About the same time, Taylor started experiencing leg pain. He was treating it with medication and was for the most part still able to be an active teenager. When he signed up for a week at SharpTop Cove in July 2014, his mind was on having fun with his friends. The leg pain would have to wait.

“Over the course of the week, I really found myself focusing on the speaker and desperately wanting what the Lord was offering,” Taylor said.

“But I had friends at camp who knew me to be a Christian. If I asked for help and said I wanted to begin a relationship, they would know that I had been lying.

“I had too much pride to let people know it was a front. I felt the Lord speaking to me and again, I turned away.”

The Turning Point Two weeks after coming home from camp, Taylor went for a run. About halfway through, he called his mom.

“I couldn’t move without excruciating pain,” he said. “My dad and mom carried me into the emergency room because I couldn’t walk.”

Several scans, examinations and one surgery later, Taylor was diagnosed with Ewing’s Sarcoma, a rare bone cancer with a bleak prognosis.

On the day of his surgery, he remembers Leathers sitting in the hospital foyer when his family walked in the door to admissions.

“He was there before I was there, and he prayed with me,” Taylor said. “I don’t think he knows that had the biggest impact on me.”

“I felt like that was going to be a really big deal, so I drove to the hospital to pray for them,” Leathers recalled. “I told them, whatever the outcome, Jesus knows, and we’ll get through it.

That’s what I love about being in a small town; I know the kids, and I have the time. I wanted to be there.”

Taylor’s chemotherapy began a week later.

He said, “I felt fine. I thought, ‘It must not be the real thing,’ but it hadn’t hit me yet. My mom researched it, so she knew everything that was coming. By the third week, my hair was falling out everywhere. That was the first time my mom and I cried about it. It was the first time it felt real.”

That night, Taylor looked in the mirror — his bald head, stitches from incisions, and body weakened from disease and treatment stared back at him.

“Everything started coming back to me: Windy Gap and what the speaker said ...

SharpTop and how I truly wanted to stand up at Say-So, but pride held me back.

“During those times I realized Jesus was speaking to me, and I was turning away from Him. But right then I knew, I can’t do this on my own. I prayed, ‘I know I can’t do it alone. I know you’ve always been there.’ And Jesus said, ‘I can help you. I’m here, and you need Me to get through this.’

“That night was overwhelming. A sense of peace came over me, and I knew whatever happened, I was going to be OK.”

Dialed In From that moment on, everything changed.

Taylor started attending Campaigners, reading his Bible daily and praying. And he talked about his faith like never before.

“I told my close friends about (my decision to follow Christ),” Taylor said. “They felt relief that they knew where I was putting my faith. To hear me say it out loud was comforting. They

were as scared as I was.”

Leathers said Taylor’s yearlong battle with cancer was a testimony to everyone around him.

“You don’t get to see people really live out their faith that often,” he said. “Taylor knew he might die, but he was still showing up, reading his Bible, talking about his faith. That had a huge impact. Once he was really battling, he was dialed in. It was rapid maturity.”

Taylor finished treatment at the end of his junior year. One year after his diagnosis, he was cancer free. That was three years ago.

Since then, he’s served on work crew and summer staff, and is a freshman guys’ Young Life leader at the University of Alabama, where he’ll be a junior in the fall.

“My diagnosis was a turning point for my life,” Taylor said. “Ironically, my diagnosis is what gave me new life. Instead of my life ending, I feel like it’s just begun.”

Taylor has a testimony to share, but he wants to be sure his message is clear: “I tell my freshman guys now, this isn’t how everybody comes to the Lord. It’s not always huge things. Everybody’s experience is different, and it doesn’t make it any less beautiful or encouraging. It just shows God knows what we need.

“It took a tragic event for me to realize what I had been missing. He didn’t orchestrate my diagnosis, but He brought me through it. He goes to the greatest lengths to bring us home.”

Taylor (and his medical team) after finishing his treatments.

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N O I T A R O T S E R F O A PLACE emption.

use of red comes a ho

gedy be a r t le b a k a nspe The site of u

T

Building the secondfloor club room.

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he phone call came on a typical spring day in 2013. As Wayland Cossey drove home from work on Friday, April 26, he received word his father, “Coss,” had been murdered in the Woodinville, Washington, home where Wayland grew up.

“I’ll never forget driving to my family’s house and seeing police cars and sheriffs and firefighters and investigators,” Wayland said.

“This is the house I was raised in; a very humble house in a wooded area outside of Seattle. The house was ransacked and my father’s body was found in the garage.” That was a sleepless night, understandably, for Wayland and his wife, Courtney.

The next day, amidst the shock, confusion and sorrow, Courtney also experienced a strange feeling of comfort. “On Saturday I had this crazy peace that God was doing something big here; far more than we could know.”

It didn’t take long to find out what He had in mind. The next day, as the couple drove to church, the message became clear.

“Just two days after the tragedy,” Wayland said, “the Lord spoke in a unique way I’d never experienced before — clearly and separately to each of us. The message was simply, ‘You’re moving back into this house where this occurred.’”

Courtney had heard the same message, too, but waited until after church to broach the subject. “On the way home, I told Wayland, ‘I think God is asking us to move into this house.’

Wayland didn’t say a word; he just started weeping. We both knew this was from God. “Not only did He tell us to move back in, He kept saying over and over again before, during and after church, ‘Woodinville Young Life house.’ The message rang in both our ears.

We were on the same page.”

As they continued the ride in silence, they knew God was calling them to reclaim this house for His purposes —

emore

By Jeff Ches

a place where they could restart the Young Life work in Woodinville.

Wayland understood the vision seemed to fly in the face of what most would do with the property. “Every ounce of common sense in a normal person would have said, ‘Sell the place, get rid of the memories and never go there again.’

“God told us exactly the opposite.”

A Double Portion The Cosseys didn’t wait long to begin the process. After a period of grieving and healing, the couple started the process of reconstruction.

They would tear down the house to its very foundation and build it back up from scratch.

They hired an architect to design a new two-story house — with the vision to create a Young Life club room upstairs, large enough to host 100 kids.

The vision started with destruction, Wayland said. “We did all the demolition ourselves; friends who knew my dad and what had happened came over and together we knocked the house down. It was sad to see many things of my childhood go.”

With the sadness came hope as well, as the skeleton of the new house began to rise up.

“One of the great memories during that time,” Wayland said, “was the invitations for dozens of our friends to come write Bible verses on every wooden beam, floor panel, ceiling joist, to ‘seal’ the place in Scripture.”

Three of these scriptures were the following: “Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain.” Psalm 127:1 (NIV) “He has sent me … to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes.” Isaiah 61:1-3 (NIV) “Instead of your shame you will receive a double portion, and instead of disgrace you will rejoice in your inheritance. And so you will inherit a double portion in your land, and everlasting joy will be yours.” Isaiah 61:7 (NIV) “When we moved into the house I kept hearing the same Scripture over and over,” Courtney said. “Isaiah 61:7 — a ‘double portion’ — we could have been left devastated with what happened; instead it was all redeemed.”

IS

3 1 : 1 6 h a i Isa The Numbers Add Up “It was crazy to see God’s faithfulness in walking us through every step of the process,” Courtney said. “Before we started we knew we had a tight budget for this. We were advised to create a fixed-price bid, where we pick everything out up front and we’d be given a bottom-line price by our contractor.”

Nervous about the price, the Cosseys prayed regularly about how much to spend. “I kept hearing this specific number,” Courtney said.

“Eventually our contractor gave us the final draft and numbers — it was the exact dollar amount God had given to me!”

It turned out that not only was the figure God-approved, but also God-sized ...

“Honestly that was a sacrifice on our end,” Wayland said. “We learned to be uncomfortable to a point where God said, ‘You are going to spend significantly more than you budgeted and I’ll figure out how to cover it.’ It was one of the greatest things to have to be financially dependent upon Him. We had many people in the Woodinville community come in and be a part of that process, whether giving financially, providing food or meeting other needs.”

The community was well aware of Wayland’s dad. Coss had lived in the house since 1971 and worked his entire adult life as an algebra and aeronautics teacher down the street at Leota Middle School. The nearly 50-year resident’s murder was big news for the town.

It was at Woodinville High School where Wayland and Courtney were both introduced to Jesus through Young Life. Rebuilding the ministry in many ways was for them “coming full circle.”

As the house underwent rebirth, so did the local Young Life work. “I volunteered with another leader,” Wayland said, “and we began contact work. We did everything every other area does to get Young Life started in a place it hasn’t been in for years.”

The process in many ways mirrored the timing of the house. The Cosseys were able to move in to their new house in August 2015, and just one month later hosted the first Young Life club meeting.

Ps a l m 1 2 7 : 1

AI

77 Pairs of Shoes and Counting As kids flooded into the house on September 22, 2015, they embraced the club room awaiting them. On the staircase, festive string lights and a metal sign with an arrow pointing out, ‘Young Life this way,’ greeted them. Entering the club room they immediately saw themselves in a huge photographic collage from past years; they even danced to their favorite music pumping out of a state-of-the-art audio/ visual system.

Wayland’s most vivid memory, however, wasn’t in the club room. “The indelible imprint in my mind from that night will be standing at the top of the staircase and looking down at 77 pairs of shoes, representing 77 souls (and more to come) ready to find out about abundant life.”

AH

61

:7

The Cossey family

Running Parallel Today the Cosseys’ home serves kids and leaders as a warm space custom made for club, Campaigners, leadership meetings, prayer times and so much more.

“I take so much joy in knowing we’re a living fulfillment of God’s ministry in God’s house,” Wayland said. “We’re seeing many young people meet the Lord in a place some would regard as a place of tragedy, but we regard as a place of redemption.

“There’s an overriding theme when young people are trying to escape bad things in their life and God wants to redeem their story in the same place He’s redeemed my dad’s story. It runs parallel.”

“This is a story no one could make up,” Courtney said. “His hand was in the whole thing.”

Beauty out of ashes, indeed.

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IN IT WITH KIDS!

Alastair with wife, Karen, and their children.

I grew up knowing God didn’t exist.

When I was a freshman, my sister, Fiona, started going to Young Life, became a Christian and thought I needed to know Jesus. So Fiona made it her goal to get me to Young Life.

I didn’t want to go to anything religious, so I told her I had to do the dishes (which is very important to every 14‑year‑old boy).

The next week, she asked me; again I told her I had to do the dishes. But she had done them!

So I said I had math homework. The next week, “dishes and math homework.” That week she actually called my friend, found out what my homework was and did it for me along with the dishes before she even talked to me! Eventually I started coming up with all sorts of chores on Wednesday, and Fiona did them all, and I got the credit with my mother. Finally, I’d run out of excuses, and said, I’ll go once, but you can never ask me again!”

I went and loved it! The leaders were amazing, and I had so much fun. The next week I sheepishly had to ask her if I could go (she kept her word not to ask me again). Eventually I started listening to the club talks and marveled that these leaders actually believed what they were saying. I thought they were deluded, but sincerely deluded — I’d never met anyone whom I thought actually believed in God. As I kept going to Young Life, my friends

and I would show up at our leader Dave’s house.

We hassled Dave, but he kept forgiving us, and caring for us.

Another leader, John, took care of me, and shared his life with me. He cared for me in a way I’d never experienced before, never having had a father. I’d never had someone teach me about life, and pour into me with no expectation of anything in return.

That summer, I went to Malibu. Every day, I would go into Dave’s cabin, dump his luggage on the floor and rip the sheets off his bed. One time I found a fish, ripped open the door and threw it at him when he was in the washroom.

I was horrible to him, but I loved him too.

One night the speaker said Jesus has been chasing after me; I experienced that through Fiona. He said Jesus loves me; I experienced that through John. He said Jesus forgives me for everything I’ve done; I experienced that through Dave.

I’d seen the gospel in action through their lives. That day I realized I believed it all, and this was the life for me. I turned to Jesus, and have never looked back. It changed the direction of my life.

I’ve now been a Christian for over 34 years, working with Young Life for 28 of those. This is what Young Life is to me: the love of Jesus being lived out through leaders so kids can meet Jesus before they even know it’s Him. They learn about Jesus by being around us.

“Because we loved you so much, we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well” (1 Thessalonians 2:8, NIV).

— Alastair Hunter, director of Field Services, Young Life of Canada

Augustin (middle) and friends.

In Guatemala there is a second dominant language after Spanish — Kaqchikel, which is a Mayan language. A half million people here speak it.

Augustin is part of this half million. Thanks to the Lord and Young Life, he was invited to go to our first adventure camp where he heard the good news of Jesus. Raised in a Mayan community which believes in many gods, it was really confusing for him to hear there is only one God. But today he is firm in his faith and his goal is to reach other kids of his culture for Jesus. He hears, receives and learns about Jesus daily in our discipleship, club and activities which has made his faith stronger.

There are so many kids here who still have not heard of Jesus in their own language and Augustin is being trained to share the message of Jesus in Kaqchikel!

— Yener Lopez, Vida Joven Guatemala

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After working with kids for over 30 years, I do know what it feels like to see the child of a former student getting involved with Young Life ... but this is a new one!

In the early 2000s, I met a young man named Jose. He came to everything we did and even became a WyldLife leader for his younger sister, Samantha. When his older sister, Katrina, found out she was going to be a mom, she joined our YoungLives group for teen moms, and of course brought her beautiful baby girl, Aubrianna, to club.

Katrina reminded me that every year as she and Aubrianna decorate their Christmas tree, they hang the ornament she received from YoungLives that year. Only this year it was much more special for Aubrianna because she attended her first WyldLife camp as a middle school student! I am blown away!

Relationships that last. Hope for every generation. God’s plan at work long before we know it. Never ever quitting = some powerful stories. These are all reasons I Young Life!

— Dan Larson, area director, Pueblo, Colorado Katrina and Aubrianna in 2005.

Aubrianna (far left) at Frontier Ranch in 2017.

A miss Join usion trip like n b at camy caring fo one other. rc p for t een m hildren oms.

goyounglives.younglife.org IMPACTING TEEN MOMS. SHAPING GENERATIONS.

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By Travis Johnson

Immeasurably

MORE

How one idea became something greater than anyone imagined.

On your way south through Colorado, just inside the small town of Monument, you’ll find the Young Life logo overlooking the interstate, hanging beside signage for the Tri-Lakes YMCA. Young Life opened the doors of the North Springs | Monument Teen Center in cooperation with the Y in 2016 — an affiliation that brought to life a long-standing dream.

Desperate for Something More Area Director Jeremy VanHaitsma’s trip to camp in 2007 planted the first seeds of the vision. “On the outside, Monument kids appear to have comfortable, stable lives,” he said. “Below the surface, though, it was apparent they were desperate for something more.”

At camp, the kids in his cabin told VanHaitsma story after story of perilous, irresponsible behaviors. “They were wrapped up in all these things because they were hurting, bored and didn’t know where else to turn.”

Another leader, Kristi Creps, joined him on the bus ride home with similar tales from the girls in her cabin. Hearts broken for their hurting kids, they began to dream together. There has to be more we can do, they said. Creps felt there was a significant need for a space, somewhere safe and fun, similar to what they had experienced at camp. A place they could call home. “For the next nine years,” VanHaitsma said, “we didn’t let go of the dream.”

They started small. “Grilled Cheese Thursdays” began as a simple way to invite high school kids over to VanHaitsma’s nearby apartment complex where he and his team would feed them lunch. “I wanted another contact with kids throughout the week,” he said. About 50 kids showed up the first week. They told their friends. A few weeks later, his team was serving sandwiches for more than 200 students. “One kid told me it was the only meal he could count on,” VanHaitsma said.

In the meantime, the area was growing on multiple fronts. Increased enrollment at Lewis-Palmer High School led to the creation of a new high school, Palmer Ridge. The North Springs/Monument area began to expand outreach across two school districts. Kids had difficulty squeezing into the multiple houses hosting club each week. With so many kids to feed, to serve and to support, VanHaitsma needed more room.

A church graciously provided space for club (called “the HUB”). Right across the street from Lewis-Palmer, meanwhile, the new YMCA facility had recently opened its doors. VanHaitsma went over and made his pitch for Grilled Cheese Thursdays: his team would provide the manpower and the food, all he needed was the space.

“This isn’t just a Young Life thing,” he told them, “this is for the community.”

When the YMCA said yes, it was only the beginning.

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Something More Takes Shape Since the bus ride home from camp, Creps had not stopped praying. The HUB met the need for space for the time being. Kids all across the area’s wide canvas had a place to come together; walls of division that typically separated area kids were starting to come down.

Under resourced as it was, however, the HUB’s permanence was always in doubt.

“Kristi had a real heart for providing and finding a place for kids to hang out in the afternoon,” remembers Paul Sherrill — Young Life’s vice president of Administrative Services, who also served on the North Springs/ Monument committee at the time. “She and Jeremy had spoken about it a number of times,” he said, “but we hadn’t talked about what it would look like.”

Conversations progressed, and the area began looking at land on which to build a facility. Questions of sustainability refused easy answers. The potential cost to the area — not to mention taxes, insurance and other forms of overhead — created serious barriers.

Creps and VanHaitsma continued to pray. “I was at the point where I said, ‘I can’t do this on my own,’” Creps said. The moment she confessed this, she said, a number of disparate details at last began to converge.

Boyd Williams, president and CEO of the Pikes Peak YMCA, had two sons in Young Life.

He had first come to know the ministry through their eyes, and had watched Grilled Cheese Thursdays develop into a strong community draw at the Y. He also attended a Bible study where Creps’s husband one night shared his wife’s enduring dream.

“Boyd opened his heart,” Creps said. “He had seen firsthand the impact Young Life could have.”

“What if,” VanHaitsma remembers Williams saying, “we offered you the land, you build the building on it, we will manage it and it’ll be a space primarily for teens, but space our members could use as well.”

“

Our vision seemed so small compared to what God had in mind.”

VanHaitsma and Creps took the idea to Sherrill. “Obviously, we’d have to be real careful,” Sherrill said. “We’d have to think about what that looked like in terms of use, the value of the asset and all these pieces.”

Creps and her husband made a decision.

“When you volunteer,” she said, “it’s easier to donate to it because you know how important it is.” To help make the dream a reality, they contributed a gift toward the project. The YMCA offered their support as well. A third anonymous donor also came forward to help complete the project.

“We began the discussion about how we can make all this work,” Sherrill said.

Conversations progressed quickly, each side agreeing to terms over the next several weeks.

Prayer covered the grounds as earthmovers broke the soil. Creps and VanHaitsma etched prayers into the drywall as it hung in place.

“The Y built the facility,” VanHaitsma explained. “They manage it, but we have the first rights to it for the first 50 years.”

“The Lord Gave It to Us”

Kids from Colorado Springs and Monument, Colorado, prepare to embark on their 2018 camp trip to Timber Wolf Lake.

The Young Life North Springs | Monument Teen Center opened on March 5, 2016 — 7,688 square feet which includes a club room, kitchen, gymnasium, stage area and area field offices.

The space hosts four clubs a week, regular Campaigner meetings, free grilled cheese lunches and much more, welcoming more than 300 kids each week. VanHaitsma coordinates the area calendar with the YMCA, which utilizes the facility during the day. “Young Life has become a household name,” he said. “People come to work out, they see our offices and they ask how they can get their kids involved.”

“Our vision seemed so small compared to what God had in mind,” Creps said. “He took over. He put the right people in the right place from the start. I hope this inspires others to never give up on what you feel the Lord has led you to be a part of.”

“The Y was more than fair in terms of how it was set up, and it’s been a great relationship,” Sherrill said. “What’s encouraging is we have a group of people who understand the vision of Young Life; you have somebody whose family was impacted and understands the benefit that comes from relationships with kids and walking alongside them.”

The immensity of the gift continues to affect VanHaitsma. “It’s nothing I did; the Lord gave it to us,” he said. “He just spoils us — if we’re faithful to ask and dream big, and believe He can do immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine, it’s amazing what He’ll do.”

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God Loves TO BE TRUSTED! How one of Young Life’s true pioneers has embodied a life worth living.

By Jeff Chesemore

In April 2018, I had the honor of interviewing retired Young Life staff veteran Chuck Reinhold. Here’s a short exchange from that time: JC: Tell me about hanging out with Young Life’s founder, Jim Rayburn, when you were in college in the late ’50s.

Chuck Reinhold, during his junior year at the University of Pittsburgh, 1959.

CR: It’s one of my most cherished life experiences. Jim invited me to spend time with him at his chalet at Frontier Ranch and join him on one of his climbs up the mountain. It took us all afternoon to climb up and down that mountain and I loved every minute. Jim was personal, and it became obvious to me why Young Life was effective in communicating the love of God to teenagers. There was nothing exceptional about the trip except he was interested in me. He asked me about myself, my Young Life experience and Pitt football.

JC: Chuck, that’s so great!

CR: [For possibly the 10th time that morning] “Yes! Now tell me your name again … ” This is the living contradiction that is Chuck Reinhold. Now 79, he’s in his 14th year dealing with short-term memory loss. The condition takes away much of his ability to remember bits of conversation or events occurring just minutes earlier, yet he still displays great clarity when it comes to recalling his life story from days gone by.

The dementia is believed to be CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy), attributed to his football days in high school and college. As if ripped out of today’s headlines, the effects of so many hits led to the state he finds himself in today.

But how can he also retain such detailed memories of the bygone days? The answer comes directly from his neurologist and friend, Bill

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Malarkey, who said, “My research and that of others has shown positive inputs into our lives like Scripture reading and prayer have antiinflammatory properties. In contrast, worry, fear and anxiety accelerate inflammation.”

Reinhold’s daughter, Hollie Birckhead, said, “In other words, Bill believes what’s protected our dad’s brain from getting worse over these past 14 years is his relationship with Jesus and his discipline of reading Scripture every day.”

The Imperfect Pioneer The Lord has used Reinhold’s daily discipline of reading and memorizing Scripture (for more than 60 years!) to equip him as one of Young Life’s foremost pioneers. Since coming on staff in 1962, he’s always been a “starter,” whether it’s beginning new clubs, areas, training methods or the work in a foreign country. Consider just some of the Young Life ministries Reinhold began:

• Clubs at Woodlawn and Dundalk high schools in Baltimore (1962) • The work in Rochester, New York (1965) • The training program for new staff (1969) • The work in Prince George’s County, Maryland (1969) • The work in Ethiopia (1998) Armed with a twinkle in his eyes and selfdeprecating wit, Reinhold would be the first to tell you, however, that 1) the glory for these accomplishments belongs to Jesus, 2) he’s still very much a man in process and 3) he is so thankful to have been used by the Lord.

That Quote Reinhold has famously said, “I’m glad Young Life didn’t stop before they came to my high school!”

When reminded of this quote Reinhold quickly added, “And me! I’m glad they didn’t stop before they got to me!”

If there’s one quote the larger mission of Young Life associates with Reinhold, it’s this one. Perhaps it’s so memorable because it’s both personal and universal ...

How many within the mission have thought the exact same thing? How many have thanked God Young Life didn’t stop before it found them?

Well, “Young Life” is usually a friend. And for Reinhold, that friend was Bob Scott.

Reinhold met the Lord on a Young Life weekend in Bedford Springs, Pennsylvania, in 1956. The self-proclaimed atheist, who previously believed, “Christianity was for those who didn’t know how to have fun,” was drawn to Christ through the love of his leader, Bob Scott, who didn’t give up before getting to Mt. Lebanon High School … and Reinhold.

From Football to Far Away A star athlete in high school, Reinhold received football scholarships from colleges up and down the East Coast — Ohio State, Harvard, Penn State, just to name a few.

“I was very thankful and humbled by it all,” Reinhold said of his football success and the attention it garnered. “It pressed me against the Lord.” [Another oft-repeated “Chuckism.”]

Ultimately, he chose nearby Pitt University, where he played alongside future NFL Hall of Famer Mike Ditka, who would open up holes for the halfback known as “bird legs.”

As he neared graduation in 1961, the NFL came calling. The Pittsburgh Steelers were well aware of the hometown hero and, not wanting to waste a draft pick, they inquired if he would accept the offer if chosen.

As exciting as this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity was, God had other plans and Reinhold was perfectly fine with that.

At church one Sunday, the guest speaker wrapped up his sermon with this: “I’m going to an untouched tribe of people called the Anuaks in the wilds of lower Ethiopia. I’ll need some help. Anyone want to volunteer?”

The speaker was renowned missionary Don McClure, and sitting in the congregation that spring morning was Reinhold. You can guess the rest.

Continued on page 15.

Reinhold (far left) alongside George Sheffer and Bill Milliken, early Young Life urban staff, at Young Life’s Star Ranch in the 1960s.

“I'm glad Young Life didn't stop before they came to my high school!”

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Continued from page 14.

“I had never felt God speaking to me so clearly,” Reinhold said. “I don’t think I even took time to think it through; I felt the Lord say, ‘Go up and volunteer,’ which I did. I never looked back.

I was happy to turn down the Pittsburgh Steelers, no problem. I was so alive and happy to go on such an adventure with the Lord and this great man, Don McClure. I have never regretted that decision.”

In that year, Reinhold’s worldview exploded.

Working with McClure and reaching out to this untouched people group in the wild African jungles taught the young college graduate the meaning of the phrase, “God loves to be trusted.”

“In Ethiopia, I had seen a huge God who took away my fear. I prayed every day, ‘Lord, what’s the most important thing I could do for you?’ Up to that point I didn’t have a clue what I would do when I got back home, but the Lord spoke loud and clear to me that high schools were lost tribes and Young Life was a mission to them.

“I asked myself three questions:

• Was doing Young Life scary?

• Were high schools lost tribes?

• Should I then go there?

“The answer to all three questions? A resounding, ‘Yes!’ “I’m absolutely positive God took me to Ethiopia to help me see the lost tribe of teenagers, a tribe that has few missionaries.”

A Principled Man Reinhold returned to the States and began his career with Young Life in 1962. His first assignment was in Baltimore, where he met his eventual wife of 50 years, Linda. He then moved to Rochester, New York, where he began the work there and back to Maryland to start

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a brand-new training program for incoming staff. He lovingly called the program “a graduate school for Christ” and set the bar high. The principles born out of this time left an indelible mark on the hundreds of staff who have sat under Reinhold’s teaching.

Consider this remembrance from Rick Rogan, senior regional director of the Greater Northeast: “In September of 2016, I sat in a meeting with a dozen other Young Life staff. About a handful of us are still on staff because of Reinhold. Each day over our time together, someone in that room quoted what they learned from Reinhold over 25 years ago. ‘There is nothing more important than your personal walk with Jesus Christ.’ ‘There are no shortcuts to spiritual leadership.’ ‘Muslims don’t even think their Bible is the Word of God and they memorize it, what about you?’ ‘People are more important than programs.’”

Ethiopia, Part II By the age of 59, Reinhold had spent 30 years on staff (another seven were spent serving at the National Presbyterian Church outside Washington D.C.). Feeling he owed the country of Ethiopia a debt of gratitude for all he received in his year after college, he and Linda moved across the Atlantic to start Young Life there.

“For me, the ultimate objective in returning to Ethiopia was simple. God willing, in two years we would leave behind 24 trained youth leaders.

Think about the incredible difference 24 trained youth leaders would make in a country of 53 million. They, as well as those they touched, would multiply through the years until every school, neighborhood, business and government office would be infiltrated with the aroma of Jesus Christ.”

In the end, the couple stayed for more than seven years, and since returning to the States in 2005, the work in Ethiopia (and beyond) has indeed flourished.

Currently, Young Life is active in schools and neighborhoods throughout Addis Ababa and in 89 different towns and villages around Ethiopia. Over the last 18 years, Young Life in Ethiopia has grown 34 percent per year.

Currently, over 15,000 kids attend Young Life outreach clubs every week and almost 10,000 kids are involved in weekly discipleship groups (from the Young Life Ethiopia website, July 2018).

Young Life’s Old

Chuck and Newt Crenshaw, 2017.

Dominion Regional Director Joe Marks shared this telling story: “Last year, at Young Life’s Global Leadership Conference, I was in a room with several African staff. I was talking with one of them and found out he was from Ethiopia. I told him my Young Life leader was Chuck Reinhold and that he had helped start Young Life in Ethiopia. The man next to him, who was not from Ethiopia, held up his hands dramatically and said, ‘Oh no, Chuck Reinhold is the father of Young Life in all of Africa!’”

The Adventure Continues While Reinhold’s world may be a little more confined these days due to his memory loss, his wisdom continues to impact future generations of believers. Reinhold has been around the block long enough to have known every president of Young Life. In March 2017, Newt Crenshaw made it a point to have lunch with Reinhold.

The meeting was significant to Crenshaw,

who shared some of Reinhold’s wisdom with the mission …

“We all need to stay close to our Lord and pray that He would speak through us in every encounter we have. It is clear from the scriptures that trials and persecution should ‘push us up against the Lord,’ as Chuck Reinhold put it to Wiley Scott [Young Life’s senior vice president of the Eastern Division] and me when we visited with him in Washington D.C.” Reinhold’s journey from a man of great leadership and vision to one with very limited outreach could cause tremendous sadness, his wife, Linda, said, but Reinhold never exhibits disappointment or frustration — only thankfulness. “He realizes he struggles with his memory, but this is just an inconvenience for him, not a hardship.

“Chuck’s life might be lived in a smaller environment, but his heart and mind continue to be full of meaning, joy and life. He simply says, ‘In Christ we all have a life worth living!’”

Reinhold, with a little help from family and friends, shares more of his story in his new book, A Life Worth Living, the source for much of this article. The work addresses Reinhold’s many adventures, while pointing readers to the life and leadership principles he’s shared with kids and leaders all over the world.

The book is available for pre-order at online book sellers such as Amazon.

Learn more at chuckreinhold.com.

Listen to our brand-new show about a revolutionary mission and the stories of pioneers, like you, who live it.

Subscribe today in iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify or listen at younglife.org/podcast.

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AGENTS OF CHANGE Young professionals come together to help meet the needs of Young Life Africa/Middle East.

By Jonathan Schultz

The year was 2001 when Deodatus Kyara (“Papa Deo”), one of Young Life Africa’s founding staff, led a prayer climb up Mt. Kilimanjaro. At the summit, Papa Deo received a vision from the Lord; a vision of fires lighting up all around the continent. The Lord was going to spread the gospel to teenagers across Africa.

Over the course of the next decade God delivered on His promise. Young Life grew and many followed in Papa Deo’s steps: traveling to Tanzania, seeing the Young Life ministry, climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro and returning home better informed, more engaged and inspired to join what God was doing in Africa. One of these people was Ben Pinkston.

Active Hearts

In 2014, Pinkston and his father, Steve, joined 22 alumni and friends of Young Life on a “Climb for

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Change” expedition to Africa, led by Pinkston’s Campaigner leader and longtime family friend Tom Ramey. Toward the end of a life-changing two weeks that included meeting Young Life staff and leaders in Arusha, serving at a Young Life camp and summiting Kilimanjaro, Pinkston and Ramey found themselves talking as they made their way down the mountain. Ramey remembers Pinkston reflecting on what he’d experienced and saying, “Tom, this is incredible! We’ve got to do something!”

Like Deo over a decade before him, God was using this “mountain-top experience” to speak to Pinkston; however, like many great ideas, it would take time to grow. In fact, it wasn’t until the following December at a family Christmas party that the two men continued their conversation.

Ramey and Pinkston reached out to Matt Stevenson, a former Campaigner kid of Ramey’s and

friend of Pinkston’s. Like Pinkston, Stevenson was just getting started in his career. Though he’d been a Young Life leader in college, he was now in a season of life that made it difficult for him to be as involved with Young Life as he had in the past. The three decided to expand their circle, reaching out to more young professionals.

The initial group included Pinkston and Stevenson, as well as Phillip Niels, Jake Kirkpatrick, Jonathan Thomas, Nick Jankovsky, Stanton Morrow, Beau Longino, and Evan and Chelsea Richardson.

This fledgling, nameless group, shared a love of Jesus, knowledge of Young Life, similar life stage and desire to be part of making an eternal impact in some of the hardest places on earth. Like a group of climbers setting out to scale Kilimanjaro, this group embarked on a life-changing adventure; one that grew their faith, offered unparalleled views and impacted lives for eternity. In the words of Phillip Niels, “There was a shared passion amongst all of us for Young Life in Africa. We were all millennials, with non-vocational-ministry jobs, but a background with Young Life. We were in a season of life where we weren’t actively participating, but we still had active hearts for the mission.”

Not knowing what they were doing, the group reached out to Senior Vice President of Young Life Africa Steve Larmey. Larmey introduced the group to Country X’s* need for $3,500 to sponsor kids to go to Young Life camp.

After reaching out to several peers, and reaching into their own pockets, the group achieved their goal and sponsored 100 percent of the need for the summer of 2015.

Big Dreams The next step on their journey included a stop in early 2016 at the Young Life Africa/ Middle East committee gathering, where the core group continued to hear of the needs and dream about the future. It was here Larmey introduced the group to the idea of country sponsorship and the opportunity to not only help with the camping needs, but the operational needs in Country X. Larmey challenged them to dream big. It was decided five of the members would go to Africa in 2016 and climb Kilimanjaro. Each climber would try to raise $10,000, with a group goal of raising at least $35,000. When the sun set over this inaugural trip, $55,000 had been raised!

Back in the United States, the group again gathered at the 2017 Young Life Africa/Middle East committee meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, to gain a sense of what might be next. The group *Called “Country X” throughout this article for security purposes.

decided to also adopt Young Life Palestine, with a goal of raising $170,000. In the months following this gathering, others heard the vision and joined the group, resulting in their number swelling to over 40 people, 16 of whom committed to climbing Kilimanjaro in 2017.

When all was said and done, $150,000 was raised and the needs of Young Life in Country X and Palestine were taken care of for the next three years!

In January 2018, members of this group joined other Africa/Middle East committee members in Dallas, Texas, and continued to dream about the future. As the group looked to the summer of 2018, they took on an additional country, Senegal, with the goal of providing for their Young Life operational costs for the next three years. The goal is $155,000, and members were again raising funds and “Climbing for Change.”

Far left: Ben Pinkston and Evan Richardson on Kili in 2017.

Below: Jake Kirkpatrick, Jonathan Thomas, Evan Richardson, Matt Stevenson, Ben Pinkston at Kilimanjaro National Park; Tom Ramey climbing Kilimanjaro in 2014; Richardson and buddies in Arusha; Pinkston with Young Life Africa friends at camp in Arusha.

A Front-Row Seat What has this opportunity meant to the original core? Here are a few of their responses: “Being a part of this has allowed me to live out my faith and see God work.” — Ben Pinkston “Getting to do something bigger than myself has been great. We get to have a very small part in people hearing about Jesus in countries where it can be dangerous and illegal. We get to be a small part of God’s work. That is humbling and cool.” — Matt Stevenson “Seeing God’s hand in our own individual lives has created a great appreciation for what He is doing. I have the pleasure of knowing the gospel is being spread like wildfire; we have a front-row seat to the expansiveness of Young Life and what God is doing globally.”

— Phillip Niels “It has been a joy for Chelsea and me to be involved with this. Doing something for others who don’t have the same opportunities or privileges. Being a part of this community has meant the world to us.” — Evan Richardson When asked his thoughts about this group of young professionals, Tom Ramey replied, “I’m 65 years old. Outside of my wife and children, it’s been the greatest privilege of my life to watch this happen. It has been the honor of my life!

These young people are going to change the world, and they’re dead serious about it!”

If you would like to find out more about this effort, or learn how you can join in the fun, contact Ben Pinkston at PinkstonBenpink@swbell.net.

To learn more about Alumni and Friends, go to alum.yl.org.

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Longtime Young Life staff, Randy Giusta, offers a homeless middle schooler the trip of a lifetime.

Ryan Reffitt (right) serving as a WyldLife leader during his senior year in high school.

Randy Giusta can spot a hurting kid from a mile away.

It’s not something he learned in a manual, or in 47 years of being on Young Life staff, although being in tune with teen culture for nearly five decades has certainly helped.

Mostly, it’s because Giusta himself was once that hurting kid.

Monday night Young Life clubs at the Creekside Inn — a restaurant that converted into Miramonte High School’s club room — was Giusta’s escape as a teenager.

“I grew up in a very dysfunctional family,” said Giusta, the Young Life senior area director for San Diego North Shore. “It was such a respite from my family of brokenness that I don’t think I missed one night in the entire four years.

“It was so touching for me that ‘Mitch’ (his Young Life leader and former Young Life president Bob Mitchell) remembered my name. They cared. They heard my story. They allowed me to go to Oakbridge. They raised half of my camp fee, and that’s where I met the Lord after my sophomore year. It probably saved my life really.”

Giusta’s empathy radar went off as soon as he saw a middle schooler named Ryan Reffitt sitting on a rock in front of Oak Crest Middle School.

The seventh grader looked disheveled, with a posture that suggested he was carrying the weight of the world on his young shoulders.

Giusta’s simple gesture of kindness — offering Reffitt a ride home — did more than save the teen from a four-mile walk that day in 2007.

It started a relationship that would change the course of Reffitt’s life, including introducing him to the most important relationship of all.

Wide Open

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Much like Giusta’s story, Reffitt grew up feeling like anywhere was better than being at home.

He grew up with a single mother who battled alcohol dependency during his middle school years. Although the relationship is getting better now — an ode to Reffitt processing and working through the gospel’s message of forgiveness and reconciliation — things became much worse in high school.

During his sophomore year, he often wondered if his mom was still alive.

“I spent as much of my time as possible at friends’ houses, at the skate park,” Reffitt said, “just as much time as possible away from home.”

Rides with Giusta became a semi-regular occurrence for Reffitt. As providence would have it, Giusta was with a group of Oak Crest Middle School students on the way to Young Life’s Oakbridge camp when he passed Reffitt, who was walking.

Again, Giusta offered Reffitt a ride.

This time, however, it was a ride to Young Life camp.

After working past the logistical and financial obstacles, the bus driver drove the first group of middle schoolers to camp and then circled back 75 minutes to pick up Reffitt.

All of the back-and-forth driving turned out to be well worth it, as Reffitt literally had one of the best weeks of his life.

“It was a camper responding the way you’d dream they would,” Giusta said. “His mouth was wide open the entire time; he laughed, sang, jumped into every activity. He was overwhelmed by the fun, by the joy, by the people caring for him.”

It wasn’t just camp that was a hit. It was also the gospel message of God’s unfailing love.

“For someone who feels very lost or alone, that message comes through a lot louder,” Giusta said. “Someone is pursuing me. Someone cares about me. Somebody knows my name. Somebody knows my story, and He still loves me.”

The summer trip to Oakbridge was Reffitt’s first real introduction to the gospel and the ministry of WyldLife, but it was as part of work crew when the gospel clicked for him.

“At Woodleaf I saw that the camp staff were so stoked and had something in their lives I was missing,” Reffitt said. “That’s where my journey with Young Life and Jesus really started.”

But it’s not where either journey would end.

Sharing Hope Reffitt’s faith grew even as circumstances became more challenging in high school. Things hit rock bottom when Reffitt’s mom disappeared for half of the year, leaving the teenager without shelter or security.

He stayed with a friend’s family, who invested greatly in Reffitt, by helping him get his driver’s license and meeting other needs most kids take for granted.

And Reffitt stayed close to his Young Life leader.

“One of the reasons I’m where I am today is because Randy Giusta never gave up on me,” said Reffitt, a regular at “chocolate chip pancake breakfast Campaigners” at Giusta’s house. “He was always giving me rides, mentoring me when

I needed it, giving me tough love when I was messing up, fighting for me and being by my side.

“I wouldn’t be the dude I am if it wasn’t for Randy Giusta. Not having a solid foundation with a mom and dad to steer me in the right direction, I was extremely impressionable.

Young Life and Randy Giusta were like the parenting I didn’t have growing up.”

In the same way Giusta had pointed Reffitt toward an eternal hope, Reffitt sought to do the same, leading WyldLife while in high school.

“I always tell our leaders the best way to grow your faith is to give it away,” Giusta said.

“As Ryan reached out to his own family and peers, he probably had more of an impact on other people’s lives than I have seen in my entire time. I think his story resonated. To this day, people will talk about Ryan and what an example and inspiration he was.”

“

Someone is pursuing me.

Someone cares about me. Somebody knows my name.

Somebody knows my story, and He still loves me."

Fired Up Reffitt is now a First Class Petty Officer in the U.S. Navy. He’s been deployed twice, and is now back in the Midwest where he completed his own basic training, teaching the next generation of Naval Enlisted Recruits how to properly put out fires.

He loves the job. And the pay isn’t bad either.

Once homeless as a teen, he’s in the process of purchasing his own home. And his dream is to one day have that home filled with Young Life kids.

Reffitt plans to add some more chapters to an already amazing Young Life story.

In the way Giusta cared for him — like Mitchell cared for Giusta — Reffitt plans on continuing the legacy.

“I just see Young Life changing lives tenfold,” Reffitt said. “It changed my life. Hopefully I’ll be able to go out one day and pick up a Young Life area director position and do something amazing with that and change my community.”

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GOING AND One woman's influence in the Dominican Republic and Cuba.

By Kathryn Gatewood

Julia Veloz (right) with Carolina from Puerto Plata in the Dominican Republic.

“

What God knew was that this wasn’t just about her. It was also about her country and His world.”

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If you google “Barranca in the Dominican Republic,” you’ll see images of resorts, sweeping villas and pristine pools. That isn’t Barranca.

Barranca is a small town with more plantain trees than running water, more pigs than pools. In fact, it might be the last place in the Dominican Republic (DR) anyone would choose to start Young Life.

But since it’s God who chooses it shouldn’t surprise us when Rafa Alejo and his wife, Charo, ended up in Barranca. It shouldn’t surprise us when they met a young woman named Julia Veloz whom God would use to transform not just one country but two.

For Veloz, growing up in Barranca meant lots of plantains and lots of church. Her family of 14 was involved and known in their church community. Coming out of that she thought she was just fine. She didn’t need more faith or religion or Jesus. But then one night at a Young Life camp while talking with a leader, she began to cry. She knew God had been after her heart, calling her to give over her whole life. She knew nothing would ever be the same. What God knew was that this wasn’t just about her. It was also about her country and His world.

Walking Free!

Before God could use Veloz as an agent of transformation, however, there had to be testing.

That testing came as she tried to live a new life with Jesus in Barranca. Tensions often came to a head with her family. “There was one morning when my father said, ‘OK, now you are not being obedient and you have to decide,’” Veloz said. “‘You have to go or you have to stay. Stay and not be a part of Young Life or go and do whatever you want with your life.’”

Veloz decided to go with Jesus, wherever He might lead.

“After that it was super exciting to go back to Barranca, to my town, and to really believe what it is to have Jesus as your friend,” Veloz said.

“And, you know, when that is happening, you

are so hungry to pray, to read the Bible, and that was me.”

Even still, it was the Bible that continued to make a tense situation worse. In Barranca people didn’t read their Bibles. But as for Veloz and her friends in Young Life they kept reading the Word, trusting and growing because they “were just walking free!”

Over time the Lord started to bring fruit out of the struggle. Despite the tension, the love of Christ began to spread through Barranca and Veloz’s family — including her father. Then her younger sister Diony met Jesus at Young Life’s Pico Escondido camp and became an area director.

Fifteen out of Veloz’s 26 nieces and nephews have become involved in Young Life and have gone to camp. Barranca, a town full of plantains, was becoming a town full of God-given fruit that would not only last, but transform the country.

Expansion The Lord called Veloz out of Barranca to Santiago, where she worked with college students. Then it was on to Licey, where she started the work from scratch. Like a modern-day Apostle Paul, Veloz kept going and starting clubs in new parts of the DR. Eventually she became the metro area director on DR’s North Coast. Scott Miedema, training director for the Latin American and Caribbean Division, puts it plainly, “There is no way anyone would have chosen Barranca, but it’s what God did. We have these amazing leaders coming out of the ‘middle of nowhere.’”

But from there the story gets even better. In 2012 God made it clear to Young Life’s leadership it was the young woman from Barranca whom He would send to Cuba to start something new.

After six years, Young Life is in five cities in Cuba, and the fruit of Veloz's life keeps growing.

In John 1:46, a skeptical Nathaniel asked, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Phillip simply said, “Come and see.” Julia Veloz could say the same thing about Barranca.

YOUNG LIFE SPOKEN HERE

YOUNG LIFE’S MISSION IN

TANZANIA Tanzania is the entry point for many people into the heart of Young Life Africa. As the key training hub for new staff in Africa and the Middle East, Tanzania is also a place of hospitality, discovery and discipleship.

Ministry here has experienced strong growth over the past decade, and now reaches nearly 108,000 kids in 114 ministries. One catalyst for growth was the 2014 Freedom Walk. Africans from all over the continent, along with dozens of Americans, walked from Ujiji to Bagamoyo tracing the original slave caravan route from the interior to the east coast of Africa. While the primary objective of the Freedom Walk was praying for the hearts of African teenagers to be set free, relationships formed along the slave route sprouted into Young Life ministry and significantly expanded our ministry to teens in the heart of this country.

Alexis Kwamy now serves as regional director of Tanzania and Zanzibar after planting Young Life in the city of Arusha near Mt. Kilimanjaro. Our ministry in Arusha continues to reach a significant number of teens in some of the most difficult communities in Tanzania. Arusha also serves as a base for many U.S. work teams who assist as work crew in Arusha-based Young Life camps before embarking on a climb of Mt. Kilimanjaro, the highest freestanding mountain in the world.

EST. 2006

Arusha Ujiji Bagamoyo Dar es Salaam

BY THE NUMBERS

107,834

Kids reached

18,484

Kids in club

9,604

Kids in Campaigners 22