Meet Jalyn!

Meet my friend Jalyn!  I met Jalyn four years ago when she was a freshman in high school through Young Life and I have LOVED every minute I have gotten to spend with her.  Jalyn not only has a contagious joy about her (you will see it through her sweet laugh in these pictures) but she also loves Jesus in a beautiful way.  Jalyn has decided to follow Jesus and give up all else.  For anybody that is difficult not to mention a high school student.  She has taken the verse where Paul describes being set apart for the sake of the gospel to heart and is living it out!  I am encouraged by seeing how she loves Jesus.  I just loved getting to take some photos of her and she put up with me literally taking 1000 photos of her!  I just couldn't stop she was so easy to photograph and the location was my FAVE ever!!  I am sorry for the massive amount of photos I just couldn't decide!

Enjoy!

  

 

I just love this laugh!!

 

I love the Hokies

For the second year in a row I have gotten to take some of my high school friends to visit Virginia Tech.  It makes me so happy to get to share this wonderful place with some of my Young Life friends.  The fact that they can see the place where I developed these amazing friendships and learned how to walk with Jesus is such a gift!  Andddd not to mention they are considering going to tech so I get to talk about its amazingness all weekend long!!!
We went in the fall but it was an absolutely beautiful day and the pictures were so sweet I had to share them!

I love my job!

We just had our annual Young Life Banquet here in ACo.  I am exhausted and have been crashing ALL weekend! 
But really I do LOVE the Banquet. While there is a lot of work put into it and I never know if it is actually going to happen... The Lord ALWAYS makes.  The night turns into a celebration of what He is doing in the county, the lives He is changing and the transformation He is bringing.  I absolutely LOVE getting to be a part of this!  I really feel blessed to have a job that I love and a job that has a great purpose!  I am 26 years old and I am doing what I love?  How did that happen?
One thing that I was really touched by this year was our leaders.  I know all areas have great leaders but I really believe we have the greatest leaders ever.  We have some adult/Career leaders and some college leaders which is fun to see the two worlds combine.  They literally give up their life in order to step into a high school to share Christ with them.  How many people want to go back into high school?  I know very few people, but they choose to!  It amazes me!  And I am so thankful for them!  One of our amazing leaders made a beautiful video to highlight the relationships between these high school students and their leaders.  You just see the relationships as you watch the video! 
VIDEO
How great is that?
It is an awesome video but also just makes my heart smile at how they have literally taken the verse you must lose your life and are living that out!  Because they want life to the full with Christ so they GIVE their lives away for the sake of Christ! 

I was in "Character" for the funny portion of Banquet when the video was playing on the screen so I had to keep my emotions under wraps (sort of) but I would have been in tears if I wasn't dressed up as Jenny the Stage hand.  I am thankful for these leaders and for hundreds of people across the county that will support this Ministry to happen! 
Here are some pics!

A few from our "Photobooth" at the Banquet

 These are our AWESOME leaders!!

#fellasleepmidconversation

This is a super late post, but I went to a Young Life camp for work crew weekend a couple of weeks ago.  And as usual it was awesome!
It seems like ever work crew weekend we have something happens and it ends up that we are extra exhausted for some reason.  Work crew weekend is when we take high school students to the camp for the weekend and they serve all weekend the campers that are there.  They literally work from sun up to sun down.  Well, we had some sickness this weekend and that kept certain people up all night long.... which is terrible, but no matter what all of these kids worked their tails off!  I mean they were exhausted.... exhausted enough that some fell asleep in mid- conversation... that was actually me... I was real exhausted I just can't keep going like these young-uns anymore haha!
It is always such a sweet thing to see high schools students give up their relaxing weekends at home to go and work hard all weekend long.  Everyone of them took the verse to become living sacrifices literally.  And to serve in the way Jesus did!
It inspires me!  To be in a place where it is so others focused.  It just reminds me of what Heaven is going to be like.  A place where Jesus is ALL OVER everyone!  You can't walk into camp and not know that it is all Jesus!  And that is going to be heaven.  You will have others that really love, like really love others!  I believe that camp is like heaven on earth and it always gets me excited to go home and seek to show others that sweet slice of what it will be like.  The love that is all around you.  To love others in a way that it gets them excited to be in the presence of that true LOVE!  I heard a speaker one time at the end of a month long assignment at camp.  That is the point when everyone is sad to leave such a filled with Christ place.  A place where fellowship and true community has been present.  The speaker spoke about how we are not called to live in those bubbles, but to experience them, love them, grow from them and then go home to spread it.  To love others in a way that they experience that wonderful person of Jesus Christ!  To show the joy that comes from encounters and moments with Christ!  To show how fellowship is one of the sweetest things on earth!  And to bring these things into our everyday lives.  This isn't something that we will only experience in camp settings or once we get to heaven but something that can be experienced day in and day out with Christ!  He is all around even out of the bubbles but will we recognize Him?
I got to see Him at camp and now get to see these sweet teenagers loving others so that their friends can experience Him as well!
I REALLY have the best job on the planet!!

"Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in, aim at earth and you will get neither!"  CS Lewis