So we cared for you. Because we loved you so much, we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well.

1 Thessalonians 2:8

Whether you support my work in Young Life financially or through prayer, thank you. Thank you for your generosity, for your compassion, and your heart for lost and hurting teenagers. I am beyond grateful that I get to experience that compassion and generosity first hand.

It has been such a great year of ministry in Charlotte, and I have been dying to share it all with you and the ways I have seen God at work in this city!

To recap the year, I created this website, and this will be how I communicate everything moving forward!

Featured Ministries

High School Young Life by the numbers

2023

Overview

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

Right after New Staff Training, me, my Young Life leaders, and Committee headed down to Columbia for our leader weekend.

It was a great time to get away with everyone for the weekend and build stronger unity within all our leaders. Had some very cool conversations with leaders and we were able to dream/strategize for the spring semester before we were in the full swing of things!

Started off the year of 2023 getting trained with over 500 new Young Life staff from all over the world!!

We were at Sharptop Cove for the week while experts in youth ministry, Generation Z, and many more came in to train us how to run after lost high schoolers and middle schoolers in our communities! I learned so much and was so encouraged to meet friends from all over the country that are passionate about reaching teenagers with the Gospel.

Back in Charlotte, we started Young Life club back up for the spring semester!

We also started campaigners back up for the year, and I was able to have so many cool conversations with my high school guys about what following Jesus looks like in high school. Coleman Benton continued to ask great questions and really made his faith his own which was such a gift to watch him grow in!

The week after WyldLife weekend camp, we had out annual Young Life banquet. We got the privilege of putting on an entertainment night for South Charlotte parents and adults with high schoolers being the stars of the show!

Towards the end of the night, we did what was called "cardboard testimony" which is where a person holds a piece of cardboard with what they were like before Jesus on one side, and after Jesus on the other. One of my senior guys from Providence, Parker, felt like he should do it and let everyone know how Jesus transformed his life which was so amazing to see him do!!

I WENT TO WYLDLIFE CAMP!! One of the best weekends of my life as I got to lead 8 of my middle school friends for the weekend! Windy Gap was so good to us!! We sang so loud, played way too much basketball, and I got to get really close with all of them.

Some of them were hearing and processing the good news of Jesus for the first time, and it was amazing to have those conversations in cabin time and continue to listen to where they were at as we came home together.

After coaching basketball all season at Providence, and I was left searching for a way to meet new kids at the high school when the season ended. About 3-4 days a week, I would go to the school and walk around the parking lot at dismissal and say hey to my friends and maybe meet a new kid here and there.

One day in March, a teacher approached me asking what I was doing at the school. I told her I was a basketball coach and a Young Life leader at the school, and before I knew it, the resource officer was escorting me off campus. After talking with the principal about the situation, they told me that Young Life leaders will not be allowed on campus unless coaching or substitute teaching. Totally understand their perspective, but we're still praying for the Lord to open the door for us to meet kids at the school!

Club at the school!! In early March, me and my leaders started praying to be able to have Wyldlife club before school on Fridays in the aux gym, and by St. Patty's Day, the Lord answered our prayers! Two teachers at South Charlotte Middle reached out and told me they would love to help with WyldLife and be and support us in any way possible which was a huge blessing!!

April

Despite our difficulty in being present at Providence High School, April was the most fruitful month of club we had seen all year. Six of the players that I had coached in basketball started coming to club regularly and really leaning into what was being said about who Jesus was and what he was like, and two of them even signed up for summer camp!

This was one of my favorite months of being on staff where I really got to watch kids breathe easy, have fun, and let their guard down at club, not worrying about the many areas in their life they were feeling pressure to perform or be someone they weren't. For that hour every week, they just got to be a kid and nothing else mattered.

We wrapped up the school season at Providence with Senior Club and Ice Cream Olympics the week after!! At Senior club, we had 70 kids which was our biggest club of the year!!

After wrapping up the school year, I had the privilege of doing program for Charlotte's family camp at Windy Gap. I was a pizza tycoon who unfortunately failed to turn Windy Gap into a pizzeria, but had a bunch of fun as I tried!!

I WENT ON ASSIGNMENT! For the month of June, I got to be a work crew boss at Southwind YL camp in Florida where I got to lead 3 amazing high school guys with such a big heart for the Lord: Jacob, Marlin, and Drew. We were the Outdoor Crew (ODC) at Southwind, so we spent our days blowing off sidewalks, taking out trash, pulling weeds. At night, I would get to know them better and why they wanted to do work crew. We would talk about life back home, how to follow Jesus back home, and what they were going to be taking with them once we left.

I got a front row seat to watch the Lord transform these men more into His image. They served humbly, loved people well, and always worked so hard. These three guys and the month I got to spend with him has been my favorite part about Young Life staff so far!!

WYLDLIFE CAMP!! Four days after taking my Providence guys to camp, I hopped back on a bus to take South CLT middle schoolers to camp at Rockbridge! Most of them were 8th graders, so it was so cool to get excited for them to be a part of Young Life at Providence this fall!

YOUNG LIFE CAMP!! Sharptop Cove was amazing!! I got to bring 14 of my closest guys from Providence to camp, and we had the best week of our lives!! 3 of them, Nate, Charlie, and Finn all made a declaration that they wanted to get serious about following Jesus which was so amazing that I got to walk with them in that. From our camp trip as a whole, we had 16 kids surrender their life to Jesus out of the 51 we took which was so encouraging!!

Prayer Requests

• Pray for Nate, Finn, and Charlie as they continue to begin their walk with Jesus. Pray that the Lord would bless them and keep them and they would grow in love everyday.

• Pray for me to be able to build/grow relationships with Providence High admin and staff, that they would let us on campus and into the school as visitors for school lunches.

• Pray for our campaigners group of kids, that they would love each-other well and be a light in the school for other kids to be drawn to Young Life and ultimately to Jesus
  

Here's to year 2 !

I am so pumped to start up this next year in a couple weeks!! I truly could not have done it without your support and prayers, and I hope to have your support for this year as well.

One of my favorite parts about being on Young Life staff is that this is your ministry too! The Lord has done amazing things through your generosity and partnership, and I can't wait to see what He has in store this year! I will send out the next update at the end of October!

Thank you!

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