Ladera Ranch WyldLife: Jesus Sees You, and He Isn't Scared

Costume Selfie

It was so great to be back at WyldLife this morning! I didn't realize just how much I missed it until it was time to get up and go. I didn't know what to expect this morning since it is Halloween, but we had a great group of kids come out, and we had a blast!

The "Human Centipede" 

Andy Wright, one of our fearless volunteer leaders, came up with the game for this morning. It was called "Human Centipede." Kids had to link arms through their legs, and race as a team around a leader and then back. The goal was to make it the whole way without getting disconnected. Out of the five teams, it was only the girl team that was able to get this done, and they were rewarded handsomely with a bag of candy. As always, even though the game might not have gone exactly as planned, it was a blast.

I'll take a double double with fries and a shake.

It was fun seeing everyone dressed up in Halloween costumes today. We had everything from batman and an In N Out employee, to Napoleon Dynamite and Wayne from Wayne's World. The leaders all got into it as well, Matt and Andy were the guy from "Castaway" and Wilson, Caitlin was a disco diva, Matthew was an 80's mobster, Grant was a flying squirrel, and I was a nerdy dad (didn't have to dig too deep to find that costume).

Right before things got crazy

After the game we did a reenactment of a story in the Bible where Jesus and the disciples find themselves in a situation that seems like a scene right out of a modern day horror movie. I read Mark 5:1-20, and we had a bunch of the kids act out the different parts of the story. We had a few demon possessed guys, a couple gorillas, the disciples, a herd of pigs, and Jesus. It might not have been 100% accurate (pretty sure gorillas weren't in the story) but it was fun and the main story was still clear.

I love getting to talk about Jesus

This story happens directly after Jesus calms the storm. The disciple had just been rescued by Jesus from a life-threatening storm in the middle of the night. They heard Jesus talk to the wind and the waves, and they saw the wind and waves obey. Not a normal experience.

Now, as they are more than likely nervous because of what they just witnessed Jesus do, they come in the very early hours of the morning to shore. As they approach the shore, they hear a man, or it may have sounded like a beast, screaming. As soon as they get out of the boat, this man, bloody, wearing torn rags for clothes, clearly insane, and barely resembling a human being at all runs and falls at Jesus' feet.

Mark tells us that this man had been living in the tombs on the hills. The town had most likely exiled him there, and this man may have even felt more at home among the dead than the living. People from the town had tried to tie him up, but he would always break out of the ropes, and not even chains could hold him. It seems he had some sort of supernatural strength. The Bible says that, "Night and day among the tombs and in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones." This person was not normal, he was scary, he was dangerous, and he was on his knees in front of Jesus.

In front of Jesus he screeched, "What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? In God's name don't torture me!" This person, insane, frightening, stronger than rope and chains, was now begging for mercy at Jesus' feet.

Jesus didn't run, he didn't cover himself... he also didn't try to get rid of the man, or tell him to get back to the tombs where he belonged. Jesus did something I am certain I would have never thought to do. Jesus asked this man what his name was.

How is it that even in this scene out of a horror movie, Jesus is interested in the person. He didn't tell this man to get lost, he asked this man what his name was. What his parents named him when he was born. The town people had most likely forgotten this guys name. I'm sure they had more than a few names for him, but I doubt any of them were the name his parents gave him on the day he came into this world... they didn't care, he wasn't a man anymore, he was a problem.

But Jesus wanted to know the man's name.

The man's response goes to show that he didn't identify himself as the person he was before. He didn't even view himself as a man. He responded, "My name is Legion, for we are many." His identity as "Legion" shows that he viewed himself as a problem. He identified more with the demons possessing him than anything else. He identified with the problem he had become for the people and the town, more than with the boy who was born and given a name... but Jesus saw this man not the problem, and he wasn't scared, instead he drew near in power and love.

The demons begged to be thrown into a large herd of pigs nearby instead of getting cast back into darkness, and Jesus gave them their wish. As soon as the demons left the man, and entered the herd of pigs, the whole herd ran off a cliff and drowned in the sea. This is what it seems they wanted all along, death.

The man, on the other hand, was completely restored. When the towns people heard the news and came to where Jesus was, the man was sitting there, "dressed, and in his right mind."

I think this is where the story gets strange (because nothing that happened before this seems strange, right). The people were scared. They didn't welcome this man back. They didn't rejoice in the fact that this person was now healed and back to his true self, instead they were scared and asked Jesus to leave.

The man asked Jesus to take him with them, but Jesus refused. He told the man to stay and "Go home to your own people and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you."

Home. Your own People.

I doubt this man had heard that in a very long time. For so long his home had been the tomes, and his people the demons that were tormenting him. But Jesus knew him, he saw this man, he saw who he really was.

Later in the Bible, they return to this town and find that people know who Jesus is and welcome him back. This man, this crazy, dangerous problem spread the good news of Jesus with everyone, and helped change the lives of the very same people who exiled him to the hills and tombs, and tried to forget that he even existed. The love of Jesus is powerful when fully experienced.

When talking with the kids this morning. I hit mostly on the fact that Jesus saw this person. He didn't see a demonic crazy barley-human thing, but a man with a name. Jesus looks at us the same way. He doesn't see us the same way others do. He doesn't see our faults, our failure, our fears or insecurities. Jesus looks at us and sees the true us. Jesus knows our name, and wants us to live out of the truth: that he knows us completely, and loves us completely. He isn't waiting for us to get our act together, he isn't waiting till we have changed enough to be useful, he loves us right now, the way we are, not the way we should be... because, as Brennan Manning says, "None of us are the way we should be."

This is powerful, and a person that has truly experienced the love of Jesus and let it sink down deep into their hearts is truly free to love people the way Jesus did. Once our identity is founded on Jesus' love for us, as we truly are, and not what others think of us, we are free. Free to live. Free to love. Free to enjoy God and all he has given us. Free to help others. Free to be honest and real. Free to be our true selves. God created you. He made you unique and you are a masterpiece. The world wants to destroy that masterpiece, and if it can't do that, it will do its best to make you believe you are imperfect, flawed, less-than, not right.

Jesus restores. Jesus brings life. Jesus brings truer love than we have ever known... and it is extremely powerful.

Ladera Ranch WyldLife... A Tiny Boat and a Big Storm

7:15, on a typical Friday morning in Ladera

First, I want to apologize for this being so late. Last Friday I was in Marathon, TX getting ready to run a marathon with my dad. It was the first Friday I have missed since we started WyldLife in Ladera last March, and the leaders (who are all volunteers) did amazing!! I could not be more proud of this team and each of the leaders that sacrifice their time to come and care for these kids.

Extreme Duck Duck Goose

The game they played was a brain child of Bryce. It was an extreme version of duck duck goose. I'm not really sure how it went, but it sounds like everyone had a blast.

Duck, duck, duck...

After the game they split into small(ish) groups and looked at the story of Jesus calming the storm. Its found in the book of Matthew 8:23-27, and Mark 4:35-41, and Luke 8:22-25. In this story Jesus and his closest followers have just been at Peter's house (one of Jesus closest disciples) where Jesus healed many people. The crowd started getting big so Jesus told the disciples they needed to get into a boat and go to the other side of the sea. This sea was a very large lake surrounded by mountains. Even today, fierce storms can come up very quickly on this lake because of the way the mountains are formed around it.

This is what happened that night. Jesus and the disciples were about half-way across when a storm came up. These storms are so brutal that they can easily sink a small boat like the one they were using that night. As the disciples started to react to the storm, working furiously to bail out water and keep the boat afloat, they began to fear for their lives...  and as they caledl out to Jesus for help they noticed that he was taking a nap.

Jesus was asleep!

The disciples were working to save their lives, fearing that they wouldn't be able to, and as everything seemed to be falling apart, and as death seemed to be coming fast... Jesus was asleep.

There have been times in my own life when it has felt like this. There have been times when it seemed like life was falling apart, when everything I have held dear was breaking apart, and as I cried out to Jesus... there was no response. At the very moment when I thought Jesus should show up and bail me out, he was nowhere to be found, and my response is often a mixture of fear, desperation, and anger.

The disciples responded in the same way. Mark tells us that the disciples rebuke Jesus, saying, "Teacher, don't you care if we drown?"

DON'T YOU CARE.

These disciples, who have given up everything to follow Jesus, are now wondering if Jesus even cares. They are in a boat that seems to be going down in the middle of a giant lake with land nowhere in sight, and Jesus is sleeping.

Jesus woke up, stood up, rebuked the wind and the waves saying, "Quiet! Be still!" and suddenly everything was calm. The water was glassy, the air still, and, besides from the dripping water coming off of the disciples clothes, everything was suddenly quiet. Jesus then looked around at the disciples, wet, tired, and bewildered, and asked them, "You of little faith, why are you so afraid?"

Why were they afraid? Because they were in a sinking boat about to drown. As far as they knew from every other experience they had, there was every reason to be afraid... but Jesus was still with them, so there was nothing to fear.

The truest thing in the world is that Jesus will never leave us. This means that even when it seems he is nowhere to be found, he is right by our side. He may be quiet, he may not respond to our commands for him to come and bail us out, and sometimes he may even let the boat go down, but he is with us the whole time, so we have nothing to fear.

In my own life, the biggest boat I had for a very long time was my family. About 10 years ago this boat got swept up into a terrible storm, and I screamed at Jesus to wake up and fix everything. I questioned his love for me, and I questioned his power to rescue. That boat did go down. My parents got divorced and my family fell apart... and Jesus was with me every second, every step of the way. What I didn't know then was that Jesus was going to use that to bring me into a much deeper relationship with him that I could never have imagined. My faith in his ability to redeem and restore was going to grow in ways I could never have imagined, and I was going to love and trust him, because of that, in ways I could never have imagined. Honestly, I would never have moved to California, and never been called to do WyldLife in Ladera Ranch if that boat didn't go down.

The truth is, that even if the boat goes down, we are still with Jesus, and we will still have nothing to fear.

But, there are times when Jesus does save, and all it takes is a word. There are times when Jesus calms the storm, and makes things like as if nothing had ever happened. He is that powerful. Either way, Jesus, God, is with us, and his love, power, and ability to redeem never falter.

These leaders are amazing!

Support the Mission in Ladera Ranch

Because Young Life, which includes WyldLife, is a locally supported non-profit, we rely 100% on the local community to rally behind us and support the mission financially. 

I am excited about the future of WyldLife and Young Life in Ladera Ranch. This year, because of the growth we have experienced, the budget includes a part time staff person to open up the possibility of starting ministry at Tesoro High School next year. My vision is to have something for kids that lasts from 6th grade through high school. That would mean that there is a safe and healthy place for kids for SEVEN YEARS. It means that they will have caring adults seeking to be a part of their lives for SEVEN YEARS. It means that they will have positive role models helping them navigate some of the most difficult times of their lives, and someone standing with them through thick and thin showing them what the love of Jesus is like, for SEVEN YEARS.

The Budget for the mission in Ladera Ranch this year will be just between $90,000 and $100,000. This includes one full-time staff salary with benefits, room to hire hire a new part-time staff person, operational expenses, staff and volunteer training, and administrative costs. All of the money donated to support the mission of Young Life in Ladera will go directly to the mission of Young Life and WyldLife in Ladera Ranch.

Fundraising is not something I enjoy doing, it takes time and energy away from doing the actual ministry of WyldLife, but it is necessary. This mission of Young Life does not happen without people in the community stepping up and owning it. Also, this is a chance for members of the community to invest in the future of kids in the community, which is an investment in the community itself. 

By far, the best way to support the ministry is through monthly donations. If we could have 80 people to sign up for $100/month, the entire budget would be taken care of. If we could have 40 people to give $100/month and 80 people to give $50/month the budget would be taken care of. 

I pray and hope that you will join this mission for Ladera Ranch. 

Checks can be made out to "Young Life CA247" and mailed to: 
Luke Bright
24488 Copper Cliff
Lake Forest CA 92630

Or you can follow the directions below in order to give online (by far the easiest way to give). 

Online gifts can be given at Giving.YoungLife.org

1. Go to Giving.YoungLife.org

2. Select the option for "A Young Life Staff Member's Ministry"

3. Click search and enter "Bright"

4. Click the option with my name (Luke Bright) and the area name (South County-CA247)

5. If this is a recurring (monthly) gift please make sure and select that option as well

6. Click "Add Gift"

7. Click "Check Out"

8. Enter Appropriate information as needed

9. Complete Donation

All gifts that are given are tax-deductible, and donors will receive a receipt for tax per poses. 

Please let me know when you have accomplished this so I can make sure it was processed and made it to the appropriate account.

Thank you,

Luke Bright

Young Life South County

LukeBright.YoungLife@gamil.com

949-293-6443

Ladera Ranch WyldLife... Jesus Wept

Friday mornings are great.

It was another fun Friday morning at Founders Park! Along with doughnuts we had a leader bring 80 hash-browns from McDonalds... call it training for Eat the Menu on Sunday night! The kids went crazy over the hash-browns and some of them had a few more than I would have eaten.

Shane and Griffin get ready for Sunday night

"Eat the Menu" will be the kick-off event for "club" this year and will be this Sunday night from 6:30-7:30 at McDonalds off Antonio. I'm asking kids to bring $5 to help cover the cost, but they will be getting much more than $5 worth of food. As gross as "Eat the Menu" is, its a really great way to get messy with kids and they have a blast. I myself am not looking forward to overeating at McDonalds, but if it will help kids see that we are here for them, and help them see that we think they are awesome, then I'll do it for sure.

Brennan is pumped for Eat the Menu

The game was a relay race. Kids got in 4 teams, lined up, and raced to see which team could blow up and pop the most balloons. As always, there was a catch. First, the balloons had to be passed down the line alternating over the head and under the legs. Secondly, once they got to the front of the line, the person there had to put on an oversized sweatshirt, stuff the balloon into it, and then hug the person next to them until the balloon popped. Sometimes this didn't work and kids resorted to jumping on the ground in a belly-flop like way to pop the balloon... it was pretty funny.

Its all about the love

Maddie getting things done

Passing the balloon 

After the game we broke up into smallish groups and got into the story of Jesus and Lazarus. Its found in the Bible in the New Testament book of John 11:1-44.

In this story a man named Lazarus gets deathly sick. He and his sisters are very dear friends of Jesus. Their house seems to be a place of retreat for Jesus, a home base of sorts, and Mary and Martha constantly come into the story of Jesus in the Gospels. All this to say, they were very close friends of Jesus.

As soon as Lazarus gets sick, the sisters send word to Jesus, hoping, I think its safe to say expecting, Jesus to come quickly and heal their brother. Even the phrase they gave the messenger, "Lord, the one you love is sick," points to the closeness of this family and Jesus, but Jesus didn't leave, he didn't drop everything to come to his friends' aid... he stayed where he was, for two days.

After two days, Jesus tells his disciples that its time to go back and help Lazarus. The disciples weren't very excited about this because the last time they were there a group tried to kill Jesus, and there were people there still planning how they could kill Jesus. The disciples don't understand why they need to go back until Jesus tells them plainly that Lazarus is dead, then they finally realize that Jesus is serious, and, a disciple normally known as "doubting Thomas" rallies the others saying, "Let us also go, that we may die with him."

When Jesus gets to the place where he normally seems to find refuge, there is anything but. The place is charged with emotion. Lazarus has been dead for four days, and people are gathered everywhere mourning his death. When Martha and then Mary hear that Jesus is there, they each run out to him at different times and say the same thing, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died!"

I cannot imagine the emotions here. What must it have been like for them as they watched their brother die, waiting, hoping that Jesus would walk through the door and make everything right. What must it have been for them as they watched Lazarus getting worse and still no sign of Jesus. What must it have been for them as they watched Lazarus take his last breath... and still no Jesus. There is sadness, anger, confusion, and despair in their statement to Jesus, " if you had been here, my brother would not have died." This is not a statement of faith, but of a broken heart.

The response? "Jesus wept."

Jesus did not correct, shame, explain himself, try to minimize their emotions... he broke down. John used some pretty strong language here to say that Jesus broke down. He did just let a tear or two pop out, he was deeply moved with emotion. He didn't minimize anything, he entered into it. He joined in the weeping, in the hurt, in the sadness.

There are so many times I question God when I am hurt, when life seems to be coming apart at the seems, when I lose something or someone close. The temptation is to just put on a good face and pretend that nothing is bothering me. I try to be strong, and while there is nothing wrong with this, and there are times when this is the right thing to do, I don't have to do this with Jesus. I can come to him angry, sad, wounded, frustrated, and clearly questioning... and he doesn't shame, he joins me where I am. He feels my hurt, and he comes alongside me in it. I don't have to pretend around him, I can be undone at his feet.

The story doesn't end here. Jesus tells the sisters to open up the grave, and, again, Martha questions Jesus saying, "by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there for four days." Jesus tells her that if she believes, she will see the glory of God. So they remove the stone, Jesus prays out loud to his Father, and then calls Lazarus to come out of the grave... and he does! After being dead for FOUR DAYS Lazarus walks out of the grave. Lazarus doesn't come to life like a zombie, but back to full life. The Bible goes on to say that people start planning to kill Lazarus too because he is a sign that Jesus is God.

Jesus did come, and he did heal, just not in the timeframe or in the way expected... there was a bigger story happening here, one that would have effects that would change the lives of countless people for thousands of years.

God does not always do things the way we want, or the way we think he should in order to prove himself. He does things his way... but we can still ask, and we can still question. The important thing is that we go to him, not away from him. He can handle our emotion, he can handle our questioning, he knows us completely anyway so there is nothing we can hide from him. As we go to him our faith will grow, we will begin to know and trust that he really is as good as he says, and we will come to know that he truly is a wonderfully powerful and loving God.

Ladera Eats the Menu

When WyldLife takes over McDonalds

Sunday night we had our first Club of the year at Ladera Ranch WyldLife! We did an event called "Eat the Menu" at McDonalds. It was a huge success! About 40 kids showed up ready to party, and a disgusting amount of McDonalds was consumed in a frighteningly short amount of time!

It is amazing how powerful laughter can be, and that is one of our biggest tools in WyldLife. We aim to give these kids a place where they can be the messy middle school kids they really are... and be with caring adults in that place. By giving kids a place where they can laugh, have a blast, play games they haven't ever played, and go nuts, we earn the right to enter into their lives and bring the love of Jesus with us. 

Club is about building friendships with kids. It is about loving kids where they are at, not asking them to change in order to earn our love. In WyldLife we set out to love and care for kids in the name of Jesus no matter what their response to Jesus is. We pray that every kid comes to meet Jesus, see how truly wonderful he is, and begin a life-long growing relationship with him... but, if that never happens, we aim to love and care for them just the same.

We will be having Club on the following dates this semester: Nov 2, Nov 16, and Dec 7. Club will be on these Sunday nights from 6:30-8. We are still working on locking down a location (hopefully a clubhouse) and will pass that information along as soon as we are set.

Each team started with this

Game face!

Team 1pigging out

Jay was the one of the MVP's for the night

6th grade boys getting after it

It was a total WyldLife take over

After

Pizza Olympics and Young Life

High school is such an interesting stage of life.  More responsibilities are given to each student, but they are still told that they are not adults.  They want to grow up, stay young, and define themselves as individuals all at once.  They want the most out of life, but they also want to feel needed and safe. These students are told that they are no longer children, but they still want to have fun.

It is into this space that we bring YoungLife.  We want to give these teenagers a fun place where they can express their desires, be cared for by adults, and where they can simply belong.  We build all of this in order to show each student the love of Jesus.  Sometimes it looks a little wacky, like having a race between three different pizza delivery guys, but everything we do is in order to build a place for high schoolers to feel welcome, know that they are loved, and hear about the life that Jesus Christ is offering them.  

In our Pizza Olympics club, we had 29 high school students, games including human musical chairs, a Pizza Delivery Champion named German, the biggest ice cream sundae you've ever seen, and a talk about who Jesus introduced himself as.  All of these pieces seem separate, even disconnected, but each leader and I plan these events around the simple fact that we are building a time and place where teenagers will have the best time of their week.  It's about caring for them, and introducing each and every high schooler to Jesus himself.

High Rollers is Back!!!!!

High Rollers is back in action and having an awesome time! We have had 2 clubs this year so far and had a good times at both. 

This year a new friend named Benny* came to club for the first time. He had happen to be at the bowling alley the same time one of our leaders was there. Our leader had struck up a conversation with the student and his family and ended up telling them about High Rollers. 

Benny showed up to the first club of the year a little apprehensive and unsure of what to expect. He hung outside with the leader that invited him and myself while peppering us with question on what to expect from the evening. As Mark and I answered his questions to the best of our abilities, I was excited for him to experience Young Life for the first time.

As we finally went upstairs to start club Benny eyes lit up, I could see Young Life was something he had never experienced before. That night we played a game that consisted of eating as many mini donuts as possible. I'm pretty sure this is something he has never had a chance to do. The night ended with myself being able to introduce the fact that we would be talking about Jesus at High Rollers all year. I excited for Benny to hear about Jesus and that he means something!

Benny had an awesome night. He was fully engaged and interacted with everyone. Thank you for allowing kids like Benny to have a place to experience life like he has never before! Thank you for helping us provide a place for Benny and so many other students in South County.

*Benny is not his real name
-Dave