I had an incredible opportunity to speak at the Young Life Rochester East Ladies Basket Auction Brunch at Oak Hill Country Club a couple weeks ago. YL is near and dear to my heart. I was both excited and humbled at the opportunity. Below is the talk I shared. If you are looking to invest in an organization check out YL. If you have middle school or high school aged kids Wyld Life (for middle school kids) or YL (for high school kids) is worth checking out. For more info click here.
Good morning, Ladies. It is such a privilege to stand up here and
to be able to share with you the story that God has written so far in my life
and just how YL fits into it. I have to
confess that when first asked to share my story my excitement level was through
the roof. I love getting to share the
work Jesus has done in me, but as this day drew nearer the task began to seem
daunting because I started to realize there was just too much to share. YL is such a part of who I am and how I do
life- how could I ever give words to something that is so woven through my
heart and runs through my veins? I will
do my best but know that for every one thing I share there are 10 more things I
could have shared.
Growing up life was
chaotic and messy.
My mom was a drug
addict and my parents were never married.
I never met my dad.
When I was 3 years old we
moved from the city in with my grandparents in Webster. This added to the chaos of my young life
because my grandfather was an alcoholic.
If you can imagine, there was lots of yelling, lots of anger, and always
someone leaving.
My grandmother was and
still is my rock. She has always been
more like a mother to me than a grandmother.
Home was chaotic. But as messy and chaotic as life was it was
about to get worse.
When I was 9 years old, in
November of 1990, my grandfather’s alcoholism took its toll and he died.
A year later, in October
of 1991 my mom was murdered. After
having been gone from home for 2 months straight, she went out one night to
score drugs. Three teenage boys robbed
her, knocked her down on the ground and shot her in the back of the neck.
She lived for 48 days
after, paralyzed from the neck down, when she made the decision to be taken off
of life support.
After each loss my grandmother
would sit me down and she would tell me the same thing. God works in mysterious ways and everything
happens for a reason.
As hard as these
two losses were for me they didn’t break me and I clung to a belief in a God
who was bigger than my hurt.
I clung to that belief
until I was 14 years old. In the summer
of 1995 my childhood best friend was murdered.
Maybe it was because it was just too much loss at this point for a girl
to take or maybe it was because my friend had never hurt me or abandoned me the
way my family had, but I broke. I stood
in Mass one Sunday and I silently screamed that God, either you don’t exist or
you’re not good and I want nothing to do with you.
Lost, lonely and broken I
walked through middle school and most of my high school years. Then one spring day a friend invited me to YL
camp. She had invited me earlier that
year to Campaigners but when I found out that it had to do with God and that
you actually read the Bible I turned down her invitation.
But camp was a different
story. Camp seemed fun and exciting and
the boy I had a crush on my entire junior year was going. So I signed up. My expectations going to YL camp at Saranac Lake
I stepped off the bus on a
beautiful, sunny, August day in 1998 and I don’t think that boy talked to me
once. He didn’t sweep me off my
feet. But God did.
I heard about Jesus that
week. I heard how the God of the
universe created us and loved us but because of sin, a condition we all have,
we are separated from Him.
Sin is an archery term, it
means to miss the mark- anything short of perfection. Romans 3:23 says, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” And Romans 6:23 says, “For the wages of sin is death,” death
meaning eternal separation from God. That wasn’t hard for me to grasp. I knew I wasn’t perfect. I knew from all the hurt I had experienced
growing up that people were anything but perfect. And I knew that I was not living a life that
had any kind of relationship with God.
And as I listened that
week I heard how it didn’t matter how hard I tried to do good things, be a good
person, or make right choices. I could
never fix my sin condition. I could
never earn my way to God. Earning my way
to God would be like trying to jump to the moon. Maybe I could jump higher than some people
but jumping all the way to the moon is impossible.
But God loved you and He
loved me too much to leave us dead in our sin.
He made a way. He made a way
through His son, Jesus. God sent His one
and only Son, Jesus, to be born of a virgin, live a perfect, sinless life, and
die on the cross in our place. Three
days later he rose, conquering sin, death and the grave forever.
Romans 5:8 says, “But God
demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ
died for us.”
God made a way because He
loves us. He made a way because we
couldn’t get to Him. He made a way
because He thinks we are worth it. He made a way and the way is Jesus.
Every talk I heard, every
person I encountered at YL Camp spoke love over me and to me. Yes, I was broken. Yes, I was lost. But we all were. And we didn’t have to stay that way.
I decided that week that
if God loved me and thought I was worth it then I wanted a relationship with
Him.
And so began the impact YL
had on me. As a 17 year old girl YL
spoke the truth of who Jesus is and then walked beside me to show me His
love. YL helped to make Jesus real for me.
And this broken girl began to find healing,
peace, joy and comfort.
When I talk about the
impact of YL please know all that encompasses- YL is a wonderful organization
but it is made up of people. So as I
talk about the impact of YL it is the people, my leaders, Christine and Rick, Kelly,
Kristie and Chad
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| Kristie & me at my baby shower |
The impact that YL has had
on me stretches far beyond my last year of high school. It impacted me as a high school kid, as a
young woman and even now as a wife and mom, YL is still impacting me.
As a high school kid YL
provided a place for me to meet and grow in my relationship with Jesus. Every Friday morning of my senior year of
high school you would find me sitting around with a group of my peers at 6:15 in the morning singing songs and opening our
Bibles, soaking in whatever lesson our leaders had planned that day.
YL provided a safe place
for me to have fun but to also learn how to share who Jesus was to my friends
who didn’t go to camp and to my friends who, like me months before, didn’t know
there was a God who loved them. So, every
Tuesday night you would find me huddled in some kid’s basement, singing loud
songs, laughing like crazy and sitting on the floor listening to a 10 minute
talk about who Jesus is.
As a high school kid YL
put adult leaders in my life who modeled for me what it looked like to live a
life surrendered to Jesus and what it looked like to love people well. My leaders loved me and they accepted
me. My YL leader, Christine, even took
me to tour colleges which is something my grandmother never would have been
able to do with me.
As a young woman in
college I carried with me the foundation that YL had built of what it looked
like to love others and to share Jesus with them. I took with me the importance of spending
daily time with God and investing in the people He put in my life.
After graduating college I
went on to work for YL for 2 years as an intern in Hamburg , NY
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| Rick Rogan officiating our wedding |
It was the years working
for YL that I would hear Rick Rogan talk about loving kids well and that God’s
love is bold. He would challenge us to
ask hard questions and speak hard truths.
I would find myself
sitting in my car with one of my high school girls in her driveway and as she
would pour out her heart and share what she was really thinking and feeling and
what was really going on, the things high school girls don’t always tell their
moms, their friends or facebook, Rick’s words would crash through my mind. I would find myself asking the questions heavy
with the weight of eternity. What did
you think about what so & so shared at club tonight? Who do you think Jesus is? If God loves you and wants a relationship
with you and Jesus made a way all you have to do is accept it, how do you feel
about that?
As I left YL and went on
to work a lot of other jobs from Starbucks to a construction company I would
carry with me the impact of those who had poured into me.
That ministry is wherever you are and that
loving others for Jesus is intentional.
I viewed my co-workers as my ministry and approached them the only way I
knew how at this point- with love, with honesty, and with the desire to share
with them the incredible truth that Jesus loves them.
As a wife and mom I have
seen the impact YL had on me. I didn’t
have a father figure growing up. I
hadn’t seen a healthy marriage modeled to me. But then I was a part of YL. And I watched my leaders. I listened as Rick shared stories about his
wife and his kids. I spent a month on
work crew and watched how the staff there treated their spouses and spoke
kindly to them. I was a sponge and I
soaked in all I could. I lived in
Kristie and Chad
I’ve been married almost 6
years now to a man who is much quieter and more even keel than I could ever
dream of being. We have a 19 month old
little boy, Sullivan and another little boy on the way. We met in college, and while I worked for YL
he volunteered with Wyld Life. Rick
Rogan officiated our wedding and Kristie and Chad Rush have become our
family. We often talk about if God will
move us out of the city of Buffalo
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| Sully's dedication |
16 years after I stepped foot
off of that bus at Saranac Lake there is no doubt in my mind that I was
stepping onto sacred ground.
16 years
later and YL still matters. It’s woven
into my life and into how I do life.
So, why does this matter
for you? Let me give you 3 reasons.
1)
It
matters because way back when, 16 years ago, I couldn’t afford to go to
camp. My grandma and I didn’t have extra
money. So, it was sweet people, like you
beautiful ladies here this morning, who gave of their money in order that I
might go to camp. I remember weeding
gardens for a couple hours to earn money toward my trip. I know they gave me far more than my weeding
earned me. And if I knew then what I know now I would have weeded 1,000 gardens
that summer.
Sometimes I wonder if when
I get to heaven I will get to meet the sweet people that donated money to my
camp trip. I would love to hug them and
to thank them. I wonder if they have any
idea the impact their dollars had on my life.
2)
It
matters because the impact YL has goes beyond camp. It goes beyond high school kids. It’s bigger than me and it’s bigger than you.
It matters because the work of YL is kingdom work. It’s eternal.
And it’s a really neat thing when we can come along side God and His
work, open ourselves to live generously, and partner with Him. My kids will grow up knowing that God created
them, that He loves them and that Jesus wants to be their friend forever
because 16 years ago some leaders and staff thought I was worth it enough to share
the incredible love of Jesus with me at YL Camp. That’s what we get to be a part of. My kids’ story will look so much different
than mine because of Jesus. And Jesus
used YL to do that.
3)
It
matters because if you are a parent, then you know this truth; there is nothing
that makes your heart beam more then when someone loves your kid. If you want to win me over, love my little
boy. I’ve thought how this, too, is
God’s heart. Want to make God’s heart
smile? Love His Son. Love His children.
Do you know what these YL leaders do, some
paid and most volunteer? They love your
kids.
They pray for them, they think
about them, they figure out how to challenge them, how to encourage them and no
matter what your kid is walking through or dealing with YL leaders come along
side and do life with your kids. Invest
in these leaders. I don’t know what that
looks like for you- maybe it’s donating money but maybe it goes beyond
that. Maybe it’s having your local
volunteer leader over for dinner because they are in college and what college
kid couldn’t use a hot, home cooked meal.
Maybe it’s giving them a gas card because a synonym for YL leader is
also chauffer. Maybe its writing them a
note and letting them know that you appreciate them and that the work they are
doing matters.
YL is in the business of
loving kids and sharing Jesus. The work
is hard. The impact is eternal. And we can all be a part of it.
