March Update...

Young Life in South County consists of four different clubs/ministries. First, we have our typical Young Life Club for kids at SJHHS, Tesoro, Dana Hills, and J Serra. We also have 2 WyldLife clubs for middle school kids at Ladera Middle School, and Marco Forster Middle School, lastly we have our Capernaum Club, for kids with special needs that serves all of South Orange County. In each of these clubs, the mission is the same: introduce kids to Jesus and help them grow in their relationship with him. This month all four clubs were busy loving kids in the name of Jesus, and providing places where kids can come,  be known and loved right where they are, as they are, and hear the Gospel in a way that relates to them. From eating Nachos while watching Nacho Libre, to getting crazy at Big Air, to trading a penny for a unicycle, to playing kick-ball while wearing wacky costumes, kids from all different places and walks of life got to experience the love of Jesus this month through Young Life in South County. Keep reading for an update and pictures from each club...

Young Life SJHHS/Tesoro

The annual All OC YL Dodgeball Tournament was earlier this month. It was so fun. One of our teams took home third, and all the guys had a blast! It was so cool seeing several hundred kids from Young Life clubs all over Orange County have such a great time together! Nachos with Nacho was a great night! A bunch of big school kids came over to Casa de Bright and scarfed on nachos while watching Nacho Libre. Hannah and I got dressed up as wrestlers and started the night off with an epic thumb wrestling tournament. It was a fun night, and we had several new kids come out, including a few new girls! For our Young Life club we have been continuing with Campaigners, and its been great getting into the Bible with everyone. We have been looking at how Jesus said that the most important thing was loving God and loving your neighbor like you love yourself. Kyle has been exploring some of the different implications of this, and has been showing how Star Wars can really help us understand parts of the Bible! Its been great being able to eat and hang together, get into the Bible and hear from Kyle, and then split up into smaller groups and talk about life.

Capernaum

The Capernaum club is seeing some excitement these last few weeks! At the end of last month they went to Big Air and had an absolute blast! About 10 kids came, and a few new faces. Each of these kids got to have a really good time with leaders and friends that truly care about them. It was great to get to talk with parents, most of whom are fairly new to the ministry, about how excited and thankful they are to have a great social activity for their kids to come to.  As we move forward next year, we are looking to move towards a more inclusive model of ministry for Capernaum and Young Life in South County. Rachel and I have a deep desire to see kids with and without special needs come together, have a blast, learn from each other, love each other, and show off the Kingdom of God in a unique way. While Young Life, and even Capernaum, is absolutely for kids that have yet to meet Jesus, we think having an inclusive ministry will be something that will attract kids from both sides, and brings kids to Jesus' feet.

Marco WyldLife

Talk about having fun! Marco WyldLife has been such a blast this month. Because of difficulties getting permission to meet at the park across from Marco on Tuesday mornings, we have moved to meeting every other Tuesday night... and it has really been a great club! We have been growing, and the excitement is through the roof!  At our first club of the month, we had a kid from Syria come out. He ended up loving WyldLife and when the family that brought him to club dropped him off at his house, they were invited in for tea! This kid has loved WyldLife so much that he asked the mom who brought him to club the first time to write in a calendar all the days that there was WyldLife so he would never miss it. Who knows what God is doing here, but it is awesome to get to be a part of it!

Ladera Ranch WyldLife

As always, WyldLife has been busy in Ladera Ranch! Aside from the weekly meetings at Founders Park on Friday mornings, they have had a costume kick-ball club, and a fashion show club! Things are always fun and whimsical for WyldLife Ladera. One of the coolest new developments for the Ladera club is that there are now two amazing girl leaders, Shay and Kara. While Shay has been a great leader for the past year, Kara is new, but comes from Young Life in Irvine, and is incredible. A couple weekends ago, they took a group of girls hiking. For so long Ladera has been mostly a boys club, but now, with Kara and Shay, its exciting to see some really cool things happen for the girls!

March has been such a great month and there is more to look forward to in the coming months. For the next few months we will be focussing a good amount of our attention to getting kids to camp. The hope and prayer this year is that we will send over 60 kids and leaders to two different camps this summer. The WyldLife groups will be going to Oakridge July 26-31, and Young Life and Capernaum will be going to Woodleaf August 1-7. If you are reading this and know some kids who would love to have the best week of their lives with us, please pass this along!