Orange County Dodgeball Tournament 2015

Throughout each semester, we have a number of events that add some adventure into our group.  Last year, the annual OC Dodgeball Tournament was a fantastic night of games, team building, and winning (of course).

This year, we were able to take a group of 15 students and 5 leaders to represent South County.  The guys dressed to kill, the girls dressed for style.  We arrived early and began sizing up some of the other teams: San Clemente, Irvine, Tustin, and so on.  After some verbose trash talking, we began the fun of throwing rubber balls at one another as hard as we could.

In the end, we didn't win any championships, but we did all win free ice cream!  It was an evening to remember, and a great night to be in YoungLife.

Ladera Ranch WyldLife: The Bonfire

Bryce and Riley showing Jackson and Matthew how to roast a hot dog!

Last night we had a bonfire to end all bonfires! Matthew Patrella came with a truck full of wood, and so many more kids came than I was expecting. It was a blast!

Always a good time hanging by a fire.

We started the evening just hanging on the beach. Some kids played whiffle ball, while another group started a football game, and still another group decided to go for a swim. Everywhere I looked kids were having fun with leaders. It was awesome.

Is there a better way to spend an evening?

After a while we started roasting hot dogs over the fire. Sometimes an open fire roasted hot dog just hits the spot, and Paden and Reese both agreed with me. I think Paden ate 5 and Reese had about 6. All the kids had fun making their hot dogs, and luckily, even though I was expecting 30 kids max, I bought enough for 50.

Ben, Jake, Henry, and Andrew decided to take a dip! Not too cold for them!

After the dogs we moved to s'mores. I love watching people gather around a fire, and so often really good conversations can happen as everyone is roasting marshmallows over a fire.

Drying off by the fire.

We ended the night playing a game called "cross the river." Its a super simple game but the kids love it, and it gives us leaders a chance to get to know them more.

Paden became a pro at roasting dogs!

Overall the night was a success. Sometimes all kids need is an evening where they get to be kids. It can be easy for me to think that I need to be talking about Jesus at everything we do, but I was reminded last night that pointing kids to Jesus involves much more than just talking about him. Hanging out with kids, getting to know them, letting them get to know you, and being with them even when things get kinda crazy points them to Jesus without using words. When we do that, we are acting like Jesus. He wants to be with us, he wants us to be with him, and he always stays close even when we go totally crazy… even when we make the worst decisions or completely ignore him. Showing kids Jesus' love is so much more than just talking about it.

That's why we do things like having bonfires, and letting kids run around like crazy middle schoolers on the beach!

The girls had a blast too… and that sunset was amazing!

Capernaum Loving Big Air

This month the High Rollers club enjoys March Madness as much as the next person. Although Capernaum does it a little different. This year our March Madness is trying out a few new things.

Week 1: Movie Night
Week 2: Big Air Trampoline Park
Week 3: Eating Dinner Together @ Bravo Burger
Week 4: American Idol Club

Below are some of the highlights from Big Air. For those who don't know what Big Air is, it's an indoor trampoline park that has many different things you can do (as seen below). The best thing I think was the giant dodgeball game we had to end the night. It was so great that everyone was playing and there was no time for pics, ha.

It was a super fun night that we will have to repeat again soon!!!

-Dave

Friendship Lived Out

I know a high school student named David*.  David is a good student, a decent athlete, and a fun guy to be around.  Most of his teachers don’t know his name, but he has a group of guys that he hangs out with during lunch.  By all appearances, David leads a normal life for a teenager filled with academics, sports, and social gatherings.  However, David doesn’t have many people in his life that he feels close to.  In fact, there are only a handful of people on the entire planet that David trusts enough to talk about his feelings, his doubts, and his painful times.

David lives in my neighborhood and we hang out multiple times per week.  He comes to YoungLife events, we go to the movies with other guys, he visits my house for dinner.  One afternoon, David told me that he had something important that he wanted to talk about.  He came to the door, looking nervous.  We sat at my dining table and I asked him, “What’s up?”  David went on to tell me that he had met a youth pastor who had invited him to their youth group meeting.  David wanted to go, but was scared that if he went he would no longer be welcome at YoungLife.  I chuckled a bit and explained to him that we are here for him, and that I would gladly drive him to that youth group, which happened to be led by a friend of mine at a local church.  We went on to talk about faith, life, and what it means to love yourself as Jesus loves you.

As David headed for the door to leave, he turned around with another nervous look on his face.  “Josh?  What are we?  Like, what is this that we’re doing?”  I laughed a little more and told him simply, “This is called being friends.  I learn from you, and you learn from me.”  He liked that.  David told me that he doesn’t have many friends that act like this.  “Well,” I said, “we’ll just have to find you more friends.”  As David left my house, I realized that this act of understanding and caring for my friends is what ministry is.  This is what YoungLife is.  This is what love is.

*Name changed to protect identity.

-Josh

Marco Club craziness

We had an awesome time last week at club. Filled with lots of funny games Like seeing who can drink the Coke the fastest through a giant straw working as a team it was hilarious, high-fives,and the word being brought by one of our leaders Kelly Martnick. Kelly spoke about his Zacheus and how God wants to be in each one of our lives no matter who we are or what we've done. It has been really fun having a bunch of new kids coming to check out what a wyldlife is all about and to see how much fun they're having and the connections that are growing with their leaders and their understanding of who Jesus Christ is and what he's done for them in their lives.