Regional Leader Retreat

What a great group of leaders!

This last weekend was the annual South Coast Regional Leader Retreat. South County took 12 leaders up to 1,000 Pines Christian Camp for an epic weekend. It was awesome to be there with close to 500 other leaders from our region, which includes pretty much all of Southern California south of LA.

Grant, Bailey, Caleb, Shay, Hannah, and Andy

The weekend started with club. It was great to get to be a part of a Young Life club made for leaders, and as with all clubs, it was a blast! The program team did a wonderful job showing us how to make people laugh, by making us laugh, and then the speaker, Larry Anderson, was incredible. Club was a real treat, and we all walked away with smiles and lots of ideas for our own clubs this year.

Club time!

South County and Coronado Young Life teams dominated paintball!

Free time was filled with things ranging from a high ropes course, to paintball. 8 of us decided to play paintball and had an absolute blast playing with and against the leadership teams from San Clemente, San Diego, and Coronado Island.

Inspiration point shenanigans.

One of the best things for me was watching our team get to know each other. There were a few leaders who didn't really know anyone coming into this trip, but walked away feeling like a part of a great family. Seeing these leaders get to realize how big the Southern California Young Life family is, was also great. They got to see that they are not alone, that our area is a part of something much larger.

Young Life is a good time, every time.

The theme for the weekend was that Young Life is about Jesus. Everything we do flows out of our relationship with Jesus. While club, and campaigners, and program, and everything else we do has its place, if all we are doing is introducing kids to Young Life, we aren't really doing much. Jesus is the center, and if that isn't the case, things start to fall apart.

Almost 500 leaders from around Southern California singing praises to our loving Father.

This leader retreat was a rallying point for our teams. Both the WyldLife team, and the Young Life team are excited about what is coming this year. They are excited about growing closer to Jesus as we grow close to our high school and middle school friends. They are excited about bring Jesus' love into the schools and communities of South Orange County this year, and they are excited about being a part of a mission that seeks to glorify God through loving kids in Jesus' name.

The program team that did all the skits spent the weekend trying to figure out what the letters YNWA stood for. After the weekend was over we came to learn it stood for You'll Never Walk Alone. This is so true. We just spent the weekend with almost 500 other people that love kids and love Jesus and want to be a part of something that helps kids find their way to Jesus' feet.

This was illustrated perfectly when leaving, Josh's car got stuck in his parking spot because of some soft sand. Multiple leaders from multiple areas quickly swarmed the car and pushed it right out.

To say the least, I am VERY excited about this year of ministry, and being a part of the mission of Young Life in Southern California!

What a team!