Our YL Journey

My journey began at Sayre where I had an awesome time leading with Jen, Clinton, and Kevin. Thinking back on my time there was really amazing. I was really blessed to have a team that would make time to come see me at EKU {all the other leaders were from UK and EKU was about half an hour from UK}, let me stay at their apartments if I needed somewhere to hangout after visiting Sayre, and had great fellowship with them. From leading at Sayre I knew what a YL team was suppose to look like and the community of believers in Lexington is something I will treasure. I was able to help out with Cheerleading where I got to meet some great girls and had an "in" into the school. It was great going to a basketball game {since they did not have football} and be able to hang out with the cheerleaders. Since Sayre was in downtown Lexington they did not have room for an athletic center so they had to put it right off the highway. This worked out great for me because it was only a 15 min drive from EKU. My sophomore year the Lord put it on my heart that it was time to come home. After many tears of thinking about leaving EKU and coming back home for college I decided that was what God was telling me to do. I think this was the first time that after I made a decision God gave me peace about it. It was not easy telling my parents I was coming back, leaving my great bible study at  EKU, or leaving Sayre.

"The humble will see their God at work and be glad. Let all who seek God's help live in joy"

Psalm 69:32

Once I came back home I got placed at Wyoming HS and got to lead with my YL leader Theresa. I was just starting to come around to YL and Theresa was leaving Taylor to get married so we never really hung out when I was in high school. At Wyoming I was blessed to see kids have a heart for their friends and want to share God with them. I also was able to coach middle school cheerleading for one year and help with the high school team. I meet some very special and rambunctious cheerleaders, but my time with them is something I will never forget. I  also got close to quite a few girls that came around often and I loved meeting with them and discipleship. My team was amazing, I had such a great time at our team meetings. At one time there were 7 people on our team {two married couples}, Wyoming was extremely blessed to have leaders sharing Christ, their lives, and meeting kids where they were at. Wyoming was in the same league as where I went to high school so it felt very homey.

Sayre and Wyoming were both smaller schools but after Kyle and I got married we started leading at Oak Hills, where Kyle had been leading since he got placed. I was extremely excited to do ministry together and where we lived. I was also nervous to be leading at such a big school {2,716 students go there} and I was also going to be the only girl leader a little bit after I started. There were some girls already coming around which was great since I could no longer go to the school when it let out {since I have a big girl job} and cheerleading did not work out {the coach never responded to my emails}. It seems at Oak Hills when students become Juniors and Seniors if they don't make YL their ministry they stop coming, which is what happened to most of the girls that I meet at the end of the summer. As a team, it became very discouraging when there was only one or no kids that would come. We would go to games, musicals, helped at After Prom and would see kids we knew but the relationships would stop at the surface. It's hard to get to know kids when you can never meet with them. We wanted to get parents involved but the students we knew parent's were also busy and could not usually make it to our parent meeting {we did have two parents that came with great ideas}. I had mentioned here how after much prayer we are now leading at Taylor High School.

Kyle's YL journey {from my perspective} had always been at Oak Hills. He had faithfully been there for four years and honestly I don't know how he did it. In those four years they have had few {if really any} kids make the ministry their own. When Kyle first got placed he started running with the Track team where he got to meet a guy that we still see every once in awhile {now that he has graduated}. Kyle did go to camp one year with three guys which was a highlight of his time at Oak Hills. There were a few guys that came around that "got it" but they did not know/want to share it with their friends. The past two years have been the most difficult for Kyle. It has been discouraging to not "see" {since we know he is} God working/not knowing what God wants for YL at Oak Hills. It is always hard when you make friendships with kids and then they become too cool to hang out with you anymore and the choices they make are so upsetting {which could be said about one guy that Kyle got close to}. I sometimes feel like Kyle has not really ever had the "YL

Kyle's faithfulness at Oak Hills shows alot about his character and us going to Taylor has been harder for him. Our flesh wants to make us feel guilty for leaving the school but we know that we are not suppose to be there anymore.  Romans 15:4 is our hope for Oak Hills, we want the strong hold there to be broken so that God's love can be shown and want to keep encouraging Derek and Matt.

"Such things were written in the Scriptures long ago to teach us. They give us hope and encouragement as we wait patiently for God's promises"

I went to my first campaigners at Taylor Monday night {Kyle had to work so he has not been yet} and it felt so good. I have a YL journal and when I got to campaigners I realized I had not used it since I was at Wyoming. I am so excited that we will be sharing the truth with high school kids again. It was also weird being the "new leader" since this obviously is not the first school I have led YL at. I am really excited for this new chapter in ministry for us.