So much has happened since my last post - incredible stuff. God is so faithful. In the last post in Oct 2012 I shared about feeling burnt out and the lack of physical support in Slave Lake. I took a break from writing for a few reasons. But now I want to share how incredibly thankful I am for all that God has done in the past 5 months.
1) Oct 2012 - Met a wonderful lady by the name of Theresa Rachar, took her to a Young Life Committee conference Oct 19-21st in Sylvan Lake, Alberta. She decided to come on board. Theresa has been a God-send. Literally. She so clearly 'gets' what Young Life is all about and her experience of other committee work, starting different projects, her presence in the schools and her connections within Slave Lake give her all the background she needs to be a Young Life Committee Chair. And then there's her heart. She is so willing to be honest with people about who she is, what her struggles have been, difficult things that God has brought her through and I am incredibly inspired by her faithfulness to always be spending time with God, in prayer and learning from Him. Again - God couldn't have picked a better person.
2) Kathy Dabbagh became my "supervisor". We began having weekly phone meetings. Kathy is a volunteer herself doing a number of other things for Young Life and so it was a privilege to be able to touch base with and gain wisdom from her on a regular basis - particularly because we had decided it would be best to start up Slave Lake Young Life with a junior high focus (an area I had no experience with and was quite intimidated by). Kathy has done years of junior high YL work and was able to really give insight onto why it made sense to start with that age bracket in Slave Lake.
3) Dec 2012 - We sent out our first official prayer/update newsletter for Slave Lake Young Life. It featured everything from stories from the committee conference (Theresa, Jeff, & Ruth Anna's take on it), a piece of Malerie's story on what Young Life has meant to her since she came to Rockridge Canyon August 2012, to upcoming events in January and February.
4) January 11-13, 2013 - A group of six adults (including moi) and one grade 12 student headed down to Camp Caroline, AB for a YL Leadership retreat to get a glimpse into what YL was all about and what leadership looked like. It was a fantastic time and in our Jan 2012 newsletter the group shared what stuck out to them about the weekend - great community, fun games, awesome people, lots of learning, worship time and sincere fellowship. It was a fantastic weekend! Out of that weekend, two of the people that came decided to come on board as volunteer YL leaders.
5) Feb 8-10, 2013 - Myself along with 2 other female leaders and two male leaders got the opportunity to join Edmonton Young Life for Winterblast Camp. We brought 11 junior high kids from Slave Lake. It was a fun-filled, high-energy weekend! The kids had a blast and the leaders had a great time as well! We came home fairly certain that we would have a great deal of these kids coming out to Rockridge this summer.
6) Feb 22, 2013 - Slave Lake Young Life partnered with Grande Prairie Area Director, Dylan Bressey, and a few Edmonton volunteers to host a big Info/Dessert Night in Slave Lake. Theresa and myself had spent the previous months presenting at different churches, explaining what Young Life was and inviting people out to our big info night. Over 70 people showed up. I couldn't believe it! It was an amazing mixture of community members, pastors, teens, parents, and teachers. It was so exciting to see all these people interested in Young Life. It was here that Dylan was announced as Slave Lake's supervisor, taking over Kathy's role. I was sad to lose Kathy but excited to have a set supervisor who would be available to provide training to future leaders and the like.
7) Feb 23, 2013 - On the day after our big dessert night, Michelle and Andy Hildebrand hosted a leadership training session at their place in Marten Beach. Out of that meeting, we now have 8 volunteer leaders (including myself and Jay). Incredible! After the meeting we headed back into town to pick up kids for a YL broomball game and club. There were about 29 people (kids & adults) that came out to play/watch and then up to Joey & Melane Mouallem's house afterwards for club. It was so exciting to be able to give people a taste of Young Life club!
8) March 2013 - Young Life Slave Lake got the opportunity to go and volunteer at a much music dance in SL. It was a great opportunity to get involved and offer a team of adults to help with the event. We saw kids we knew and got to meet more of their friends. On March 16 we had a Young Life hangout event at a local school gym and 20 teens came out. We did a mixture of games and finished up the hangout with hot chocolate and cookies provided by our committee members. It was a lot of fun!
Am working on our March newsletter and looking for every opportunity to fundraise for camp as we hope to take 25 junior high kids and 8-10 senior high kids to Rockridge Canyon this July.
Committee: We now have a team of 4 committee members with 3 more thinking about coming on board.
Leaders: We have ten volunteer leaders ranging from grade 12 to 50 years of age. We have weekly leadership meetings to connect, do training, pray together for the kids we are reaching out to.
From my last post to this one - it's been an incredibly journey of seeing God draw people to Him through Young Life, experiencing lots of growth in my own walk with him and meeting some incredible leaders and teenagers. I really look forward to reaching more kids in Slave Lake, and giving them encouragement and the hope that comes from knowing Jesus and about a God who deeply loves and cares for you.
1) Oct 2012 - Met a wonderful lady by the name of Theresa Rachar, took her to a Young Life Committee conference Oct 19-21st in Sylvan Lake, Alberta. She decided to come on board. Theresa has been a God-send. Literally. She so clearly 'gets' what Young Life is all about and her experience of other committee work, starting different projects, her presence in the schools and her connections within Slave Lake give her all the background she needs to be a Young Life Committee Chair. And then there's her heart. She is so willing to be honest with people about who she is, what her struggles have been, difficult things that God has brought her through and I am incredibly inspired by her faithfulness to always be spending time with God, in prayer and learning from Him. Again - God couldn't have picked a better person.
2) Kathy Dabbagh became my "supervisor". We began having weekly phone meetings. Kathy is a volunteer herself doing a number of other things for Young Life and so it was a privilege to be able to touch base with and gain wisdom from her on a regular basis - particularly because we had decided it would be best to start up Slave Lake Young Life with a junior high focus (an area I had no experience with and was quite intimidated by). Kathy has done years of junior high YL work and was able to really give insight onto why it made sense to start with that age bracket in Slave Lake.
3) Dec 2012 - We sent out our first official prayer/update newsletter for Slave Lake Young Life. It featured everything from stories from the committee conference (Theresa, Jeff, & Ruth Anna's take on it), a piece of Malerie's story on what Young Life has meant to her since she came to Rockridge Canyon August 2012, to upcoming events in January and February.
4) January 11-13, 2013 - A group of six adults (including moi) and one grade 12 student headed down to Camp Caroline, AB for a YL Leadership retreat to get a glimpse into what YL was all about and what leadership looked like. It was a fantastic time and in our Jan 2012 newsletter the group shared what stuck out to them about the weekend - great community, fun games, awesome people, lots of learning, worship time and sincere fellowship. It was a fantastic weekend! Out of that weekend, two of the people that came decided to come on board as volunteer YL leaders.
5) Feb 8-10, 2013 - Myself along with 2 other female leaders and two male leaders got the opportunity to join Edmonton Young Life for Winterblast Camp. We brought 11 junior high kids from Slave Lake. It was a fun-filled, high-energy weekend! The kids had a blast and the leaders had a great time as well! We came home fairly certain that we would have a great deal of these kids coming out to Rockridge this summer.
6) Feb 22, 2013 - Slave Lake Young Life partnered with Grande Prairie Area Director, Dylan Bressey, and a few Edmonton volunteers to host a big Info/Dessert Night in Slave Lake. Theresa and myself had spent the previous months presenting at different churches, explaining what Young Life was and inviting people out to our big info night. Over 70 people showed up. I couldn't believe it! It was an amazing mixture of community members, pastors, teens, parents, and teachers. It was so exciting to see all these people interested in Young Life. It was here that Dylan was announced as Slave Lake's supervisor, taking over Kathy's role. I was sad to lose Kathy but excited to have a set supervisor who would be available to provide training to future leaders and the like.
7) Feb 23, 2013 - On the day after our big dessert night, Michelle and Andy Hildebrand hosted a leadership training session at their place in Marten Beach. Out of that meeting, we now have 8 volunteer leaders (including myself and Jay). Incredible! After the meeting we headed back into town to pick up kids for a YL broomball game and club. There were about 29 people (kids & adults) that came out to play/watch and then up to Joey & Melane Mouallem's house afterwards for club. It was so exciting to be able to give people a taste of Young Life club!
8) March 2013 - Young Life Slave Lake got the opportunity to go and volunteer at a much music dance in SL. It was a great opportunity to get involved and offer a team of adults to help with the event. We saw kids we knew and got to meet more of their friends. On March 16 we had a Young Life hangout event at a local school gym and 20 teens came out. We did a mixture of games and finished up the hangout with hot chocolate and cookies provided by our committee members. It was a lot of fun!
Am working on our March newsletter and looking for every opportunity to fundraise for camp as we hope to take 25 junior high kids and 8-10 senior high kids to Rockridge Canyon this July.
Committee: We now have a team of 4 committee members with 3 more thinking about coming on board.
Leaders: We have ten volunteer leaders ranging from grade 12 to 50 years of age. We have weekly leadership meetings to connect, do training, pray together for the kids we are reaching out to.
From my last post to this one - it's been an incredibly journey of seeing God draw people to Him through Young Life, experiencing lots of growth in my own walk with him and meeting some incredible leaders and teenagers. I really look forward to reaching more kids in Slave Lake, and giving them encouragement and the hope that comes from knowing Jesus and about a God who deeply loves and cares for you.
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