A New Semester and a Short Post

David Sicher and Committee Chair Jane Jacobsen

As winter begins its long melt towards spring there are a bundle of new beginnings on the horizon. Winter sports are wrapping up and giving way to spring sports, the random bursts of snow are beginning to subside and give way to 70 degree days and a new semester has begun! For us that means two things.

First it means a brand new semester in yearbook with a whole new batch of kids. While it has been great getting to know the group from last semester I'm even more excited to get to meet a new bunch of 'photojournalists'. As the book is only a few months away from completion its creation continues to be a blessing to me and an avenue to meet many new students. Secondly, it means a VPS student for Young Life. VPS stands for Volunteer Public Service and is a class that FCHS students can take for course credit. They can either VPS for a teacher at the school or for an organization. I got a call this week from David Sicher, a Senior who we've gotten the chance to know well and wanted to know if he could VPS for Young Life. This means that every day during 3rd block we have a high schooler that is helping us organize, plan and build Young Life in Franklin. The idea came out of nowhere but we are stoked at the opportunity.

A Group We Took Monday Night to Hidden Valley YL Club

Also with a new semester comes the resurgence of Young Life Club in Hidden Valley. While we are still building towards are own club, we are taking kids to HVYL in the meantime, this time taking four who hadn't been before. They also invited us to participate in their Dodgeball Tournament next week which should offer some hilarious pictures. Again we got to see kids be blown away by what went on in club. While it is hard to be patient in waiting for our own it is such a blessing to be able to have kids see what a full fledged club looks like and to have vision for their own in the months to come.

Lastly, Ben and I are excited to be heading up to Rockbridge to Prayer Overnight this weekend. This is an annual tradition in the Commonwealth Region that brings together leaders, staff people, committee members and even some sharp high schoolers to pray and fast together for a day at Rockbridge. One of the coolest aspects of this time is that we pray for schools that do not have Young Life yet to be reached. While we know that Young Life is not the only avenue for these places to see Jesus, we know the blessing that Young Life can bring and hope that every kid gets the opportunity to hear the Gospel in a way that reaches into their life in a real way. The names of the new schools are posted on the wall and those that want to can grab a school with the agreement that at some point during the year they will go to that school and pray for it. This week after Hidden Valley's club I got to meet a high school girl who had gone to prayer overnight the year before and had grabbed Franklin County's name off the wall and had been to the school to pray over it. It was a cool moment for both of us to see the power of prayer and how far we had come in only a year.

Neutral Turf

We Didn't Have Someone to Take Our Picture So We Took a Panorama Picture and Passed the Phone. It Worked!

It's very helpful when somebody tells you the perfect way to describe a situation you are experiencing. This week I talked to Steve Schmitt about everything going on in Franklin County and he gave me a perfect illustration. The way we work in Young Life is we go to kid's 'turf'. This means showing up wherever kids are going to be and often revolves around the school. More often than not this is what we are talking about when we are doing 'contact work'. However, Steve put it differently. When we hang out with kids there is a spectrum. When we hang out with them where they are normally at we call it their turf, and when they come to something we do, like club or campaigners, that is our turf. However, there is something in the middle that isn't either one of ours; neutral turf. This is anything outside of the first two categories; a restaurant, going to the movies, riding around town, playing ultimate frisbee, basketball at the YMCA, the list goes on. This week put neutral turf in perspective for me.

The Franklin County Men Hit the City

As a fan of football I was excited for the playoff
games. Ben and I decided to invite a few guys over to watch the games on Sunday. We have done great at meeting kids on their turf, but we are trying to crack the neutral turf barrier and hang out with kids outside a school setting. However, when Sunday rolled around we only had two guys show up. This was discouraging, but we had a blast with the guys that came. In the midst of throwing frisbee, tomahawks and watching some good football we got to talking about our experiences with watching pro games in person. I told them I had gone to a Charlotte Bobcats game with my brothers last season and that it was cheap. Within seconds of telling them that one had already pulled up tickets to the game the following day; only $10 each. As an added bonus they didn't have school. We told them that if they could fill up a car full of guys to go, we would drive them down and make a day trip of it. A few hours later the plans were all laid out to pack seven of us in a car and head to see the Charlotte Bobcats take on the Houston Rockets. It's funny how when we feel our most inadequate the Lord does something sweet.

We Snuck Down and Took Some Court Side Pictures After the Game.

So at 9 a.m. we hit the road, cramming four seniors, one freshman, Ben and myself into our committee chair's SUV and headed down the road. We had adventures along the way between long McDonald's pit stops and navigating an unfamiliar city. Upon making it to the arena we watched two mediocre teams play from sub par seats and didn't mind one bit. We cheered louder than anyone else while not really caring who won, all the while having our freshman friend shout "Fear the beard!" every time James Harden made a shot. After the game we stopped at Chik-Fil-A and feasted on some delicious chicken while planning our next adventure out. On the way home we got stuck in traffic and made the best of it by jamming out to whatever song we could think of to play on Spotify and regaled our fellow wayfarers with the windows rolled down and loud choruses of classics like Drops of Jupiter.

Some of Us Got a Little Sleepy During the Final Stretch

This was the definition of spending time in neutral turf. We got to know kids away from the norm and make memories that I'm sure none of us will ever forget. The community that we got to enjoy, and the way the seniors treated the freshman guy as an equal, was something that will have big implications for the culture of the school in general. As we look to move kids towards our turf our hope and prayer is that the Lord give us more opportunities like this. As I've been reading in Scripture I again come across the story of the Exodus. After leaving Egypt the Israelites followed the Lord in the form of a pillar of smoke by day and of fire by night. That is crazy. Whenever the pillar would stop, they would too and make camp until it moved again. As it took 40 years to reach their destination I'm sure that it often stopped for longer periods of time. In seeing their persistence in trusting whenever it moved AND whenever it stopped it gives me vision for where we are now. I don't think we have lost any momentum, but I do think we are where the Lord wants us for a bit. I think the pillar has stopped here and we are to dwell for a bit in 'neutral turf'. It's incredible to see the way He takes care of His people. This Monday was an awesome example of that.

The New Year

Craig and I with Young Life President Denny Rydberg

As we look forward to 2013 we do so with excitement and anticipation. We stand on the edge of something big and are making sure we are laying a firm foundation for it. Looking back at 2012 we see the big leaps and bounds that were made towards starting a Young Life club here in Franklin County. As we stand here though we realize we still have a long way to go. In fact, I write this in the middle of a week where our committee and I have pledged to be deep in prayer and fasting as we seek to discover what comes next. While we understand that we have a lot of momentum, we also know we don't have a lot of factors needed to have a sustainable and successful club and so we do want to be very patient. As an impatient person myself, it is especially important for me to slow myself down and understand what the Lord has for us now. It is a wild experience.

Pre-game Warm-ups Before a Home Game

Here in Franklin County we're on the verge of a new semester. For me that means a whole new group of yearbook kids that I get to know. Now Ben and I know over 100 kids and we're excited to have that number grow this semester. We want to build lasting relationships with kids and have been very strategic about that. We decided to go to every basketball game we could rather than just a few. We also wanted to see both the JV and Varsity teams. We've gotten to know a lot of guys on both teams especially during away games where we are the only fans there besides parents. We get to sit with the team and have been thanked countless times for showing up to games as far as two hours away. Our hope is that we're communicating that no matter the distance, win or lose, we're going to show up. If that speaks at all to Christ's character to them, we've done our job.

The Greatest Addition to FranCo Ever: A Brand New Cook-Out

We don't just want to be friends with kids on the basketball team though, or athletes in general. We want to know every kid in the school. As I've been keeping track of the kids we know in the yearbook it hits me more and more how many kids we don't know. We are getting creative with how we meet those kids too. Often when we think of groups of kids in the school we do it around sports teams. We know kids on the basketball team, baseball, soccer, track and football. However, if that's where we stay we miss 95% of the school. We are starting to spread out into getting to know different groups of kids which is scary. We want to know kids that we have nothing in common with. When you look at Jesus' life and ministry he knew people in every type of walk of life from centurions to tax collectors, he was a friend of all. It is such an important thing for us to recognize: Jesus message is for every single kid. When we start club up we want every type of kid in the school there and represented. We want our club to look like the kingdom of God, not a who's who of the school.

Out for Mexican with the Yearbook Kids on Denham's Bday

Where we stand we are desperately in need of prayer. Our biggest prayer is asking the Lord for kids to catch the vision of pursuing their peers for Jesus. We know that even after next year when we'll be adding at least two new leaders (Becca and Kerri) that we are ridiculously outnumbered. Our goal is to reach every kid in the school; 2,200. With four leaders that leaves each of us to run after 550 kids. I'm not sure we can do that. We know that we are going to need kids to come along side us and join us in ministry. Most area's call these kids campaigners. As we move forward this is my biggest prayer. Secondly, we ask for direction. There are so many different ways we could go, and we need the Lord to make it clear for us where we can serve Him best. I am so thankful to have a committee full of people excited to pray and fast about this through the week and for people reading this who will honestly go before the Lord for it. So, I leave you in a place of patience and of waiting. We are excited to see what comes next. I thank you for being a part of it with us.