Maybe you thought the only place you could get fried pickles, fried twinkies, fried mozzarella balls, fried oreos, & fried potatoes was at the state fair?? Well, for those that came to Young Life last week that was exactly the meal everyone had!

Sometimes in the spring there is just too much to compete with & instead of just being another thing to compete with during busy times we try & spice things up a little to keep folks involved. Since it was the night Kansas was playing Memphis for the big championship game we knew lots of people would be interested in watching that game so we provided a great place for the kids to come watch the game, hang-out with friends & leaders, & eat fried food - what more could you want?

Of course, we couldn't just watch the game, we had to give the night some kind of Young Life twist, we called it "Basketball & Fry Club." We told everyone they could bring some kind of food they wanted to fry & we would try it. We had the basketball game going on inside & the large turkey frier set up outside. We made some really good fried Twinkies, potatoes, pickles, cheese & oreos. The kids tried to fry jello & some other things, but in the end we did not discover too many new things that tasted that great fried.

Fried Twinkies -nice & hot!

The night was great & it was a really fun time to hang-out with kids. We had some new guys come that had never come before. One kid came, signed up for camp, & has come to 2 work days since!

Last weekend Cody & I left late Saturday afternoon to meet my parents in Austin for the Capital 10k. It was a short but fun trip. We were able to hang-out with them on Saturday night. We ate a great pasta dinner & finished just in time to go watch UNC advance to the final four!

This was probably only half of the people that were there for the race!

Dad & I ran the in the fun run & Mom was supposed to be in the walking run, but I think she ended up beating some of the runners. I think this was the last time we were dry, it pretty much rained the whole time.

Cody was nice enough to save us a table at Gueros - this great little Mexican restaurant not too far from the race site, where we ate lunch. Anyway, the weekend was great & it was so fun to run a race with my Dad!

April is the month that I feel like everything that could possibly go on in the world of Young Life is going on. These past couple of weeks we have been having YL clubs, Wyldlife clubs, starting a new club, collecting stuff for garage sale, planning our upcoming golf tournament, getting kids signed up for camp, & making commitments to Windy Gap (Young Life camp) & Carolina Creek (Wyldlife camp) on how many kids we will be bringing this summer. All that to say things are going well, the plates are spinning all around us & I hope we can keep them spinning until the summer. I forgot to mention the flower sale we had to raise $$ for camp, it was a hit - thanks to all who purchased from us!


And of course the campership work day would not have been complete without a drive by, throwing water balloons at the young life guys working in a lady's yard :)

Lately with our Young Life club I feel like there have been lots of ups & downs. One week we will have loads of kids, great conversations, tons of fun games & laughter & then the next week we will be wondering where everyone is. Last night instead of doing our normal club we went out on a scavenger hunt. This was not exactly planned but because of stuff going on that evening & the kids we had there we did a spontaneous scavenger hunt. The night was a lot of fun & today Cody & I talked to kids who said they heard YL was so fun last night & they were sad they had to miss. At first I was disappointed b/c I thought we had a great club planned, but I went to bed thankful for the change of plans. During the scavenger hunt all of the leaders got the opportunity to ride around town with different kids. We got to know them better, built memories together, & then went to Braums afterwards. Cody had some great conversations with guys that he had not gotten a chance to talk to & we even went to some kids houses last night & were able to meet parents & in the end I am thankful for the night the Lord gave us with these kids.


I also realize I have not blogged about Wyldlife is a long time. Most kids we have coming to Wyldlife love it so much they would do almost anything to get there. On a WL day we will have kids calling the office as soon as they get out of school to make sure they have a ride, or they will just wait at school until a leader comes to pick them up. One girl who comes almost every week with her sister stayed home this week so she could stay on myspace. This might not sound serious to some, but we really are fighting a battle against media, Internet, etc. We have more & more kids not wanting to give up their myspace time to come to club or camp! Please pray for more leaders & that we will have wisdom in dealing with all the different kids that come.

A Little R & R

I love breaks from normal & this week Cody & I were able to have a few days of rest & relaxation & it was great. We started off the week celebrating our one year anniversary! Can't believe it has been a whole year since our wedding. I have loved thinking about our wedding, we both had so much fun. This year has been full of new journeys together, new friends, a new job, a new place to live, a new church, it's been a great first year.

For our anniversary we went to Austin for a few days. We spent one night with Matty, Cayce, & Madison & had a blast eating pizza & playing wii. We spent the next night at a hotel downtown, we spoiled ourselves.

First dance - one year ago

We ate Amy's Ice Cream - we had to do it b/c we had it at our wedding, but neither of us actually had any that day!

Amazing dinner & special dessert
We also went to see my parents & my mom had the top layer of our cake ready for us to eat. It was still so yummy :)
Cody trying to be funny, while I was trying to have a sweet picture of us cutting our cake.
I am sad our little vacation is over, it is always so good to go home & chill with mom & dad. Hope everyone is enjoying Easter / March Madness weekend.

Greater Things Have Yet To Come

The new blog layout is in honor of spring (here just in time for spring break), St. Patricks Day, & our anniversary. I love that spring is here, the beginning of so many new things, & everyone seems to be a lot happier when the weather is nice outside.

We finally got to have the much awaited "Body Snatch" scavenger hunt this week at YL. We had 45 minutes allotted to kids for the scavenger hunt they were to go & get as many people as they could to come to club. For each person they got, they got a certain number of points for their team. For example, if you brought a student already in their PJ's it's 50 points, a student who has never been to YL before 150 points, etc. We had drivers lined up to take the kids around town & we had one team come back with almost 2,000 points. It was so fun to see new faces at club, as well as kids who had not come in a long time. We had kids run in & get kids from the dinner table, a group of kids picked up 2 boys eating at McDonalds, & one group even went & got some girls from cheerleading practice - everyone had a blast.

When we got all the kids back at the club room, we did a 20 minute club & then took everyone home. During this club we played a fun game show, sang a song, watched a camp video, & listened to Cody tell the kids about Jesus. I love listening to Cody give club talks b/c he holds the kids' attention so well & he speaks great truth in such a loving way. This week he talked about Jesus being the greatest Dad anyone could ever ask for. He told the story about the prodigal son & then talked about how no matter what our relationship with our earthly father is like, we can have a relationship with our heavenly father & this relationship will be filled with love & with acceptance. As Cody ended his talk I was praying for the kids sitting around me in the crowded room. Out of the 13 kids I was sitting with in the back corner I know that only about 3 of them have healthy relationships with their Dads. Please pray that despite the family lives of the kids in our ministry that they will desire to enter into a relationship with a Dad who won't ever leave, yell at them, hurt them, or let them down.


Everyone should treat themselves to a little spring break treat & go out & buy the newest Passion CD - "God of This City" it might change your life. On the way to hang-out with kids today at school I was listening to it & almost started crying, but I was trying to hold myself together so I would not be the emotional loser at school. Here are some of the words that encouraged me, spurred me on to keep doing what I'm doing, & reminded me that greater things are still to come at the dark high school I was about to walk into.

You're the God of this city, You're the King of these people

You're the Lord of this nation, You're the Light in this darkness,

You're the Hope to the hopeless

You're the Peace to the restless, You are

There is no one like our God

For greater things have yet to come,

and greater things are still to be done in this city

Greater things have yet to come,

and greater things are still to be done in this city

The rains came down, snow even fell from the sky - the weather was just plain nasty & I had no idea who would show up at club on Monday night. We had planned to do our annual body snatch scavenger hunt, but due to weather we postponed it until next week. I was ready to just hang-out with a few kids & maybe not even have club. God brought kids despite the weather, we had a pretty good crowd.
Club pretty much consisted of mostly games as we didn't really have much time to plan as we were planning on having the scavenger hunt. We did play one of my all time favorite YL games - apple on a string. In this game you hang an apple on a string & then have a couple try to eat the entire apple without using their hands, it is hilarious to watch!
At the end of club I talked about John 10. I was trying to talk about how Jesus is truly our good Shepherd, but our crowd was more chatty than ever. I think it was the weather or maybe all the games got them totally wound-up, but we could not get them to calm down for anything! Through all the talking I pray that our students got another clear picture of Jesus, the man who was willing to "lay down his life for the sheep" (John 10:15). I told them how he loves us so much, he is willing to die for us & then talked about what great love you have to have for someone to honestly say you would die for them. I pray that they saw how attractive Jesus is & that their hearts are getting ready to hear the story of the cross, that we will tell them in just a few weeks.
Thanks for your prayers for students. Please continue to pray as we get kids signed up for camp, it seems harder than ever this year as they are all staying so busy. I truly believe that for so many kids camp is life or death - they will have the chance to get away & focus on the one who offers us real life. Thanks!

A few pictures from last week:
Cody got to go visit his baby brother in Wyoming

I spent 3 days at Crooked Creek planning the first session of camp this summer, it will be here before we know it.