Progress, Patience, People and Preparation.

Talking Life with Brendan and Troy in My House

These P's are the themes to my time in FranCo right now. The first is progress. Progress is being made. In past weeks it has moved at a break-neck speed. Lately it has slowed down to what seems normal. That's a good thing. As we move forward in establishing ourselves within the community and within the school we are being recognized. That awkward "Who is that guy?" look is slowly fading off the faces of our high school friends and many more people are understanding what Young Life is. We are meeting kids left and right and building relationships. We are moving forward.

However for myself, this takes patience. I don't know when I got the idea that everything should be immediate. Biblically we are called to be workers of the harvest, a year long process of toiling through intense physical labor for the joy of the harvest which comes once a year. If I work at something for a day and there isn't a harvest I wonder what I did wrong. But I'm learning. I'm learning that building relationships with kids take time. I am slowly getting to know kids in yearbook. Slowly getting to know the kids that we took to club. Slowly becoming recognized in the school. The other night, for the first time, I wondered what the heck I was doing at a volleyball game. I had been there the whole time and only had a few brief conversations with a few kids. What was the point? I realized though that I had to rest on the truth that I was there in Christ's stead. I have no idea what He accomplished by my being there. Even if it seems like nothing, my call to obedience doesn't change. We aren't to be fair-weather followers. And I'm being a brat if I get whiny when a kid isn't my best friend and asking questions about Jesus after one day. Pump the breaks, Nagle, just sow seeds.

Troy and Brendan joined Me In Praying at the School

The third theme has been people. I am incredibly thankful for the people in my life. In the past few weeks I have been visited by a lot of the people who support myself in this venture of Young Life in Franklin County, be it through prayer, friendship or financial donation. The joy of sharing this incredible vision we've been given has been beautiful. To have people experience the beginning signs of fruit in something they are investing their hearts in is an awesome thing. While we have been received with open arms by those in Franklin County, we are backed with the prayers and support of those all around the state and even a few scattered throughout the world. My hope is that everyone supporting me would want to come visit, partially because I want to see my friends and family, but more importantly because I want to share this vision; a main reason also for doing this blog.

Our Incredible Fall Weekend Flyer, Cudos to B. O'C.

Preparation is the final theme. We've talked about preparation for the banquet, which continues to make progress, but the thing I am currently most excited for is our Fall Weekend. Every fall young life areas get to take kids to a Young Life camp for the entire weekend. Kids get the opportunity to disconnect from a world of noise and expectations and just be themselves. You'll see on the flyer that it says "The Best Weekend of Your Life Guaranteed." and it will be. It is an absolute blast. Camp is carefully and thoughtfully planned out from beginning to end to blow kids expectations away. The greatest part is that for the first time, a lot of kids going will get to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ in a way that makes sense to them for the first time. While last year a small group went from here through a church, this will be our first official Fall Weekend with Young Life. It will also be my first time leading on a weekend. Putting things together for the trip is no simple task, but the process is one that gets me more and more excited everyday. We are given 20 spots to take to Rockbridge this year, but I'm hoping to be able to take 30 or more kids. My vision often outpaces my situation, but I want to pray big. This has the opportunity to be a huge boost. It also is a chance for kids to make eternity-altering decisions. And nothing is worth laboring for more.

Relationships

My Buddies and I in Kansas for #carrindiewedding

One of the biggest reasons I love Young Life is that it is a relational ministry. The community that comes from it is one that continually seeks to understand what a community rooted in Christ should look like. If it weren't for the group of guys I got to run after Jesus with in college, my life would look a lot different. I certainly wouldn't have as much wisdom as I do. Relationships are important.

My girlfriend, Becca, is someone who continually pushes me to know and love Jesus more. There are countless things I have come to learn about Jesus just from hearing her talk about her life and from the way that she treats me. Relationships can allow us to realize truths in our walk with God that are only head knowledge until we truly experience them in another person. For me there are times where Becca shows me love or forgiveness in a way that makes me think "Oh, that's what Jesus meant", or "Oh, that's how Jesus would have acted". It is crazy to me that God works in that way, but it's a beautiful, beautiful thing. We were meant to be in community. Those are just two examples that I've been getting a lot from recently. Again, relationships are important.

I Took Becca to Her Dream Location: A Puppy Farm

When looking at Jesus' life it is a beautiful thing to see the vast multitude of people that he affected. The relationships that he created on Earth were ones that affected people for their entire lifetimes. He wasn't limited to his peers though, when you look at who he has significant interactions with you see people of different ages, different ethnicities, backgrounds, occupations, etc. Jesus was known in a community. Relationships are important. All of this translate to what has been going on in FC.

As previously stated many times, I have a fantastic committee. As a leader at Tech I didn't get to interact with our committee much, only at picnics and other Leader/Committee events where our 80 person leadership split time with our committee. I knew they were great and essential, but not how absolutely crucial they were. In Franklin I get that. And while they do great work, the aspect of their servitude I am most thankful for is their ability to connect me to the county relationally.

My Cheeseball Pic from the Article!

You've read about pastors breakfasts, rotary meetings and school board presentations. All of these things have been set up by or aided by my committee. I've met literally hundreds of people since being here. I was even interviewed by the local paper because the man who runs it will be a table host at our banquet and was sought out by our committee. (Here's a link to the article!) Because of that article, I've been getting phone calls from people around the county wanting to know more about Young Life, and have people who I've met since say they remember me from the front page of the paper. It is a crazy web of relationships that stems from a group of people sold out for Jesus.

Due to all of this, Young Life is becoming a truly Franklin County movement. It isn't moving into the community and making its mark, but rather being welcomed into the community and partnering with it for every high school kid. It's awesome to see and to be a part of. This was never more obvious to me than during our table host meeting. Each year in areas that have Young Life there is a banquet. This usually happens in the fall, and ours this year is November 15th. Our aim in the banquet is twofold. I think its biggest victory will be in the fact that everyone who attends will be given a taste of what Young Life is. The banquet is going to fun. Its not a stuffy black tie event, it is run, in a lot of ways, like a Young Life club. It also doubles as a fundraiser. Yes, it does take some coin to do Young Life, and our banquet will allow us the opportunity to invite people to partner with us with their resources.

Our incredible, wonderful table hosts

Just like anything else, the banquet is relational. We aren't sending out flyers or emails, taking out ads in the paper (though the article does mention it) or renting billboards. Instead we personally invite people. It starts with out committee who for the past couple months have been asking friends, coworkers and family if they would want to be a table host at our banquet. The role of a table host is simple, to 'sponsor' a table at the banquet which simply means filling up the seats at an eight person table. For them to then bring people who they would want to gain an understanding of what Young Life is and what we are doing here in FC. This past Tuesday night we had our table host meeting where our 23 table hosts met with our committee and we got to share with them our vision for the banquet. Because each person represents a table of eight, and we know we will have some overflow, our hope is to fill 200 seats with Franklin County residents excited for kids hearing the Gospel. The ripples that this will have will be massive and impactful. Who knows what the Lord has up his sleeve for this one. Like I said, relationships are important.

Club.

What a wild week its been. I've been everywhere from Roanoke to Richmond to Lawrence, Kansas. But the best part of all? Last Monday night Ben Brodin and I took 4 kids from FCHS to a Young Life club run out of Hidden Valley High School. While the picture to the right couldn't be of lower quality, it is a victorious picture. It is a picture of the very beginning. The brief glimpse at whats to come.

Before we went to meet our FCHS friends, Ben and I grabbed some pizza and talked about our plan for the evening. We decided not to tell the kids much about what club would be like. We wanted them to be surprised. We wanted them to experience it without any preconceived ideas of what it would be. We told them that they would love it, and it would be one of the best nights they'd have in a long time. But most of all we talked about how amped we were for how the Lord was working. Here we were a little over a month in with a group of kids wanting to drive 45 minutes away to see something that they have no idea about. We were encouraged.

So we met in the parking lot and all six of us climbed into Ben's car and began our excursion. As you can see from the picture, we took two girls and two boys. As of now we don't have any female leaders in the area so to have two girls be interested already is huge. I don't want to say it was 100% because of Ben's rugged good looks, but from the picture in the previous blog I think you can deduce yourself that it was a larger factor. We found the address without much of a problem and walked in together to a house smack dab in the middle of suburbia.

Hidden Valley holds their Young Life club in a house. The house was big and beautiful, and as we walked in we quickly found ourselves in a sea of shoes. We took off our own to add to the pile trying to wrap our heads around how many people must be here based on the shoes. We heard loud music coming from somewhere downstairs and we followed some fellow club-goers down the stairs into the biggest club I've ever seen.

At the end of the night, Fetzer told me there were about 140 kids there including us. As we waded through the throngs of people, trying to find a place where I could talk to our group we had tons of kids introduce themselves to us. By the time we reached the back, the one area of the room that was even remotely open, Fetz came around the corner and introduced himself to all of us. Fetzer is the face of Young Life in Roanoke, and more specifically he runs the Hidden Valley club. Fetz is a rock star at getting people to buy in to whatever is going on. As he sat there and explained to our kids what club would like that night I felt blessed that we were hearing from someone who knew Young Life backwards and forwards. Our kids were all about it.

For the next hour or so we sang stupid songs at the top of our lungs, played games, watched skits and other things that sound absolutely lame when you try to explain them. I think if I told a kid we would be singing Taylor Swift songs at club it would be a great way to prevent them from coming. But I remember looking around the room seeing kids go absolutely nuts. The quarterback of the football team singing with an arm around some random freshman kid belting out "You Belong With Me". Ridiculous. And at the end Fetz gave a quick talk about Jesus and His calling of the disciples. He likened it to the football team and how you would expect Jesus to call the best and the brightest. If you were to put a football team together you would go around finding the biggest and most skilled guys. If you were trying to change the world you might do the same. But Jesus was different. He used what was ordinary to show that He was the real deal. He took a handful of fisherman, tax collectors and zealots. He calls all of us, no matter how we look at ourselves. And at the end he said a quick prayer and invited all to Bojangles, a HVHS Young Life tradition following club.

As we drove home we got to talking about everyone's favorite part of club. For some it was simply how crazy it was, for some it was how welcoming everyone was and for some it was the talk. They wanted to know when we could start this. How could be bring this to FCHS? Where could we have it? They wanted it bad. I told them that we could start meeting and looking at what this might look like for us. To say the least they are on board.

But the highlight of my night came when Ben and I got to tell them why we wanted them there. We didn't want to just show them an awesome time, we wanted them to hear what Fetz had to say. We got to tell them that we didn't just want to run a program, but that we wanted to give them a chance to hear the best news the world have ever known. The Gospel. That was the reason Ben and I were going to football games. That's why we were at FCHS as often as we could be. We didn't want them to get lost in the hype of club and miss the message.

So moving forward, we've got a lot of work to do. We have an incredible group of kids that is ready to get rolling. They want to go again in a week or so and bring their friends. They want to start meeting, a meeting we will call campaigners, weekly and going deep into what all of this means. The Lord is moving in big, big ways.

In conclusion, please continue to pray that the Lord would be guiding us. This is a ship that is moving very, very fast now and we want to be steering it with diligence. We don't want to get caught up in hype, but to slow down and allow the Lord to guide us. He will. And it will be incredible to watch.

10 Days Crammed Into a Short Blog

Ben Brodin: YL leader extraordinaire

I think this is a great picture, literally, of what is going on in Franklin County. This is Ben Brodin, FCHS's first official volunteer leader. Friday night Ben and I got to go to the FCHS football game against Christiansburg. Unfortunately, my alma mater was the victor against my new home, but there was much more going on than a simple football game. Again Ben and I found our seats in the student section, this time knowing many of the kids names and being greeted as if we belonged. We met knew kids, caught up with some we hadn't seen in a week, and continued to build relationships. This week's theme in the student section was camouflage, Franklin County's favorite color, hence why Ben is in his finest camo jacket with camo duct table attached his deer antlers. This is what can be referred to as a "Total Young Life move".

To catch you up, the past 10 days have been a blur. This entry might not be as much of a narrative as the others, but its aim is to give you a few glimpes of whats been going on. I have officially become a "Yearbook Consultant". My fingerprints are in the school system, my background check came back clean (guesst they didn't look hard enough), and I got my TB shot. All systems are a go. Last week I got to help out in class on three differents days and now I know all the yearbook kids, about 25 in all. Kids are starting to recognize me in the school and even come up and talk to me. Honestly it feels great to feel even a small sense of belonging at the school on a social level.

Volleyball games have been another huge way of meeting kids. My buddy Max, pictured in a few previous blogs, and I have made the trek to a couple of away games and its allowed me to meet a lot more kids and even parents. Most of the volleyball players parents know me to some degree which is awesome.

Captaining a Barge

In my quest to explore the entire county I got to help move a barge at Smith Mountain Lake. The Lake is about 25 minutes away from my house, but it is a huge party of Franklin County. A lot of kids that go to FCHS live on the lake.

Last week we were also able to have a Pastor's Breakfast. The goal of this was for us to build relationships with the people who are already doing ministry in Franklin County. While Young Life is certainly a new presence, there are committed people who love Jesus and desire for students to know Him that have been working here for years. As we aim to come alongside them it was important for us to establish a presence with them and be transparent in what we are doing. We had around 10 pastors that shared with us in a time of fellowship before Steve Schmitt and I gave them a brief presentation on what Young Life is and where we currently stand. I was left with an encouraged heart and a lot of people I knew would be praying for our mission.

I was also invited to speak at our local Rotary club. Soon I hope to do a blog about my committee, but for now I'll suffice it to say that they are incredible. They have vision, passion, are hard-working and committed to doing whatever they can for kids to meet Jesus. A few of them are rotary members and wanted me to be able to present Young Life to a lot of the big movers and shakers in the community. While Steve Schmitt had given them a presentation a few months ago, it was great to be able to update them with where we were now and field questions. A lot of important connections were made, and again, it was a great place to build relationships in the community.

The Never-Ending Pile of Thank You Notes ( A Very Good Thing)

With all the incredible things going on I am extremely behind on my Thank-You notes. As I write them I'm continually amazed at how much I have to be thankful for. The last blog was entitled "My Cup Overflows" and it is still overflowing. I couldn't ask for more.

But the Lord has given me more! Tonight Ben Brodin and I will be taking a group of students to a Young Life club for Hidden Valley. Andy Fetzer is a good friend and the Area Director for Young Life in Roanoke. Fetz, as we call him, has graciously opened his club up to us so that we can give our kids a vision for what it could be, and will be, in Franklin. Fetzer runs one of the best clubs in the state. He knows Young Life backwards and forwards and we couldn't be more excited that this club will be the first impression of Young Life that a lot of these kids have. Fetz told us we could expect about 120 kids there from HVHS, as well as us, crammed into one of the HVHS students houses. It will be insane and incredible.

The group of kids going came together without much work from Ben or myself. I told Max that I wanted to take him up to see club because he'd voiced a lot of interest in bringing Young Life here. From there, he told a few of his friends and it got to be 7 or 8 kids that asked us about it. So we decided to try and take two cars and Ben and I could be the drivers.

This could be a huge boost for us. The Lord is bringing along a lot of kids who have a passion for Young Life (even though they haven't even seen it) and a lot of influence in the school. This is big, big stuff. Jesus has big things in mind. Apart from all this strategic talk there is something much bigger going on here. Tonight, at 8 the Gospel will be preached to a group of FCHS kids in a way that speaks directly to them. Young Life is great but its merely a vehicle for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. While I am excited for what this could mean for us, our fall weekend trip,and our future club plans, I want to be much more focused on the eternal significance that tonight will hold.

Dear friends I thank you for continuing to support me in all ways the ways that you are. I hope you continue to see the Lord's hand move here in Franklin and be encouraged. I hope that I will have another update very soon on the huge, huge things the Lord is going to do tonight. Away we go.

My Cup Overflows

Here is FCHS looking like a good pasture!

For our Young Life training we have a certain list of books that we have to read. One of them is an in depth look of Psalm 23 from a Shepherd's perspective. Its fantastic. In Verse 5 David says that his 'cup overflows'. This is a statement that I've learned to love and its the only way I know how to describe what is going on in my heart in response to the Lord moving in Franklin County.

Yes, this is yet another example of a big, big thing the Lord has given us. It has almost become tiresome keeping everyone updated because of how much goodness is being poured out on us. Its almost too much to handle in the best way possible. There are many different biblical examples of different people seeing God and sheilding themselves from Him because He is just too good. That was such a strange concept to me until recently. Not because I feel even close to what they experienced, but because I can see how the relentless goodness of the Lord can be overwhelming. I'm not complaining.

Enough introduction, the moment we have all been waiting for finally came. For those of you new to the blog I would suggest reading from the beginning. I know get long-winded at points but I think it will be well worth your while. For those of you who know what I'm talking about, we got our decision from the schoolboard. Let me preface.



An impatient 22-year-old

As an impatient 22-year-old not wanting to wait weeks for a response I decided to set up a meeting with Principal Decker. We set Thursday the 20th at 10 a.m. as our time and I showed up 20 minutes early not wanting to miss it. She called me in and we shared in some small talk before she got to the point. The schoolboard had liked our presentation. They felt comfortable allowing Deb to set whatever parameters she felt would be work our for all parties involved. So, in some senses, we were back to square one. The ball was in Deb's court.

*Sidenote: This is something I would have seen as a negative if it weren't for the wisdom I've gained from men much wiser than I. While it may seem that we were right back where we started, just two weeks later, there are so many positives that came from the situation. First of all, the entire schoolboard knows who we are now, and is for us about as much as they can be. Secondly, the Lord's timing is perfect. All the things that have happened the pass week and a half happened outside the school. Lastly, the Lord loves to teach me patience. And I need that. And He did. Anyway, back to the narrative.

Deb said that she felt comfortable with the parameters we talked about a few weeks ago. This meant starting slow. No going to lunches for now, no hanging out after school ended, but if we wanted we could go the route that FCA does and have meetings within the school on club days. For those of you that know Young Life, thats not quite the way we operate. Our goal in going into the school isn't to form a club, but to build relationships with kids that will carry outside of the school. We aren't there to proselitize in the hallways, but rather to meet highschoolers where they are at. It wasn't quite the response I was looking for.

But the Lord is good. He knows what He is doing. And sometimes it takes weeks or months or even years before He gives us what we ask for. Sometimes He doesn't because He has something much better in mind. And sometimes He gives us more than what we wanted five minutes later. The saga continues.

At some point in our meeting Keith Pennington also joined us. You'll remember Keith as the Director of Curriculum who also joined us for our first meeting. If you don't remember that its probably because this is the first blog post you read and you need to go back and read from the beginning! Trust me already. Deb made and offhand comment to Keith about a meeting they had with the two teachers who are running the yearbook later that day. The teacher that had run it in previous years had left, and these two new teachers were left with the task of producing it and teaching the class with little or no experience in yearbook.

The FCYL Office, with a CHS chair.

In my time at CHS I took yearbook as many times as the Guidance Department would let me. Liz Hollie was one of the best teachers I've ever had and I would have done anything to hang out with her more. Also, yearbook class was easy. I had mixed motives. But, by my senior year, I was made co-editor along with my dear friend Mary Marcenelle. But enough about my outstanding accolades.

I suggested to Deb and Keith that I could help out with the yearbook. Deb looked at me and said "Would you really? We meet with them later today, we could introduce you to them and see how you could help." Before I started doing backflips about the possibility of gaining an 'in' at the school, we finished our conversations and I left the school for an hour before meeting with the two teachers later in the day.

As I came in Deb and Keith introduced me to the two new teachers, and left us to talk. The first introduced herself as Mrs. Deems and opened the conversation with "I've been praying for you. We needed help with this and needed someone with some experience."

I won't go into all the details, because this blog is already half of a novel by itself. But here is how it works. FCHS is broken up into four blocks. The last block of the day is yearbook class which I can come to any and all days that I want to. If I can't make it, no big deal, any help is great. This also means I will get to know the 25 kids in the class well, including the daughter of a committee member. This also means that I have a reason to walk around the school, meet kids in every group, take pictures at any game and have a legitimate reason to be in the school. It also means that when I hang out with Mr. Janney (again previously mentioned, go back and READ!) at the end of the day after I get done with class, its not a big deal. In fact once I met Deb at the end of the day to tell her what we'd worked out, she told me if I'm with a teacher I can really be there anytime. And now that I know teachers, I will be.

Took my boy AirMax to the HV V-ball game!

OK, OK, praise the Lord. How in the world. It has been less that a month sense I've been here and He is going crazy. Every door opened, prayers being answered, giant, giant stuff. As Alan Janney informed me; "This doesn't happen. I hope you know that." He meant that if you don't see that as God overflowing your cup, your nuts. Hallelujah. I hope you are inspired.



Now, here is a note for those of you whose cups are empty. I know there are points in my life where if I was reading this I would be jealous. I would loook at this and say "OK Lord when the heck is my turn? When do I get to have my ministry be blowing up?" But the thing is, it isn't our ministry. It is us being responsive to God and allowing Him to work in different circumstances. Right now He is teaching me through a time of prosperity. I thank Him for that. In many, many times in the past he has taught me through much more difficult circumstances; death, struggle, lack of money, lack of 'good ministry', etc. The point is, wherever I'm at in my life I want to say "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want." So while it is easy for me to say this now, trust what He is doing. Find what He is trying to teach you. Don't scorn the moment because its not exactly what you want.

OK thats it. Send this blog to people you think it will encourage. I think thats one of the reasons I've had the heart to do this, to encourage.

Friday Night Lights

Starting an area isn't easy. There are a lot of things that need to happen before things can really get rolling. In my time at Virginia Tech I took for granted all the things that happen behind the scenes, committee work, fundraising, establishing a leadership at a college, etc. These are hard things to do from scratch. It has been incredible to be able to watch them get started. However, my passion is for high school kids knowing Christ. So while many things were starting to get rolling, I had yet to meet a single high school kid. That changed Friday.

Friday night Ben Brodin and I were excited to go to the home football game. Ben is a guy who knows Young Life, his dad was on staff back in the day, and he spent some time with YL in Montana. He is great with high-schoolers and loves the Lord. He is an asset to our two person team. He knows some high schoolers from his church, Trinity Ecumentical, so we had a few ins. We headed up a bit early excited for our first real oppurtunity to meet kids. He texted a few of his guys from Trinity that he though might be there, and figured we would meet up with them at some point. We left early so that we could get there in plenty of time and before we even made it to the gates we met one of the guys that Ben knew, Matt, and his friend Josh. As we talked with them for a bit we found out that it was neon night at the game, and that some in the student section would be wearing neon.

As we headed into the game Ben and I were talking about how we wished we would have known about neon night before so that we could have gotten shirts or something neon. Ben turned and asked me "Why don't we go to Wal-mart and grab a bunch of glowsticks and throw them out to the student section." Brilliant! We ran to Wal-Mart, found a neon shirt and bought out there entire section of glowsticks. We put them in a bag and headed back to the game.

At first we weren't sure how to get the student section. It was packed, and there wasn't much room to squeeze in. In addition to that, we didn't know any kids so we didn't just want to creep in behind them. So we decided to take a lap around to see what we could do. At that point I got a text from our very own Cheryle Aldridge, committee member extraordinaire, asking if I was at the game so that I could come meet some high schoolers that she knew. On the way over to meet her I ran into our favorite administrator Deb Decker. I got to introduce her to Ben and chat with her for ten or fifteen minutes about the goings on at the school (no word from School Board yet). She mentioned two kids to meet, one by the name of Ryan Peavy who was leading the student section and would be wearing a cowboy hat.

So we met with Cheryl and headed back to the student section, on a mission to find Ryan Peavy. It wasn't hard. He's was a big boy with a cowboy hat screaming his head off in the middle of the student section. For those of you familiar with Young Life he was the definition of a key kid. Not knowing quite what to say I told him Deb Decker had sent me to find him so I could give him the glow sticks to throw out to the student section. Upon showing him the giant bag full he, and the rest of the student section went nuts. They were so excited that they insisted that I sit with them and literally pulled me up by my arms into the student section. For the rest of the game I got to sit (stand really) the whole time in the student section meeting every kid around me that I could. I lost Ben in the shuffle only to look down and see him with a  completely different group of kids. It was crazy.

They I asked what I was doing there and I told them about Young Life, some of them knew it from family or friends. Ann Taylor Walker knew about it from her brothers, and we even started talking about Rockbridge. It was truly crazy. One kid, Max Harper (pictured left in his ketchup costume), was so stoked about me being there he told me HE was going to pick ME up the next morning and take me to the volleyball tournament and that we would hang out all day. In all we met about 30 kids, and countless more saw us in the crowd and must have wondered who the heck we were. Talk about going to where kids are at right?

Now I want to stop here and emphasize some things. This is our first 'contact work'. We knew a few kids in a school of 2,300 going into this football game. We had no prior set up, no former leaders to name drop, no game plan. What we did have was prayer and a humbled heart. It took me two and a half weeks to meet a kid, but with the Lord when it rains, it pours. I don't know what it was that made Ben think of glowsticks. There are two many coincidences involved from to to say it was all chance. The Lord is doing big, big things and responding to prayers in real ways. My time walking that very football field praying wasn't in vain. Don't worry about how long the Lord is taking. Don't be impatient or try and do things yourself. Be patient, be prayerful and listen. Follow where He leads.

In conclusion I hope this has been another encouraging update. There will be more soon, I'm having  a hard time keeping up with writing all that the Lord is doing. But trust me, I'm not complaining.

The School Board Meeting!

The Monday of the school board meeting was one where I realized my severe inadequacies. Thank the Lord that he chooses to work through broken vessels.

Steve Schmitt has worked for Young Life for the past 31 years. Currently he is the Regional Developer for Southwest Virginia, but before that he was the Area Director in Blacksburg a position currently held by Dave Sloop. This means that while I was a punk high school kid coming up through the ranks of Christiansburg High School and going to Young Life, Steve Schmitt knew me, or at least knew of me. In college Steve led a Bible study in my apartment and through our relationship he encouraged me to apply for staff and talked to me about Franklin County long before I was placed there. I'm honored that I get to walk through this process with him.

Steve and I talked on the phone that morning, as we would be presenting together, and came up with a basic outline of what we wanted to say. This wasn't Schmitty's first rodeo. He'd been in similar situations and knew what would be good for the school board to hear. We got off the phone and I practiced what I would say all the while checking the clock as I watched 7 o'clock get closer and closer and my butterflies become more and more numerous.

Schmitty came around 5 and we grabbed dinner together after practicing what we would say a few times. We showed up at the school board office around 6:30 and waited outside for a few of our committee members. Jane Jacobsen was the first to meet us. Jane is our committee chair and I thank God that she is. She is dedicated, driven, organized and above all she loves Jesus in a way that drives everything she does. I couldn't ask for a better captain of our ship. Second was Tom Rickard. Tom is the librarian at one of the local elementary schools. He is well known in the school system and an all around great guy. Going in to a meeting with school administration he is a great person to have backing you up. Lastly Al Flora arrived. I'm not sure if there is a person in the county that Al doesn't know. He had a comment for nearly every person that we walked by in the way to the office. It's good to know people that know people.

So in we walked, Steve and I flanked by our Franklin County family praying that the Lord would speak through us and allow us access to the school. Immediately upon walking in I saw Deb Decker, the principal at FCHS. I went up and made small talk with her and ended up sitting next to her as the meeting started. I remained unsure of how sold she was on Young Life, but I was glad she was my seat neighbor. As I looked at the schedule that she handed me, I saw that we were the first order of new business.

After a few quick orders of old business they moved on to new business. Sue Rogers, who we had met before, introduced us and the fact that we would be speaking on behalf of Young Life. We approached the podium that sat ten or so feet away from where the School Board sat. The tables that they sat at were raised about a foot so that we literally looked up to them as we gave our presentation. Many of them, there were ten or so, had painted their framed picture behind them on the wall. They were official. I was nervous.

So our time came. As Steve gave his part he introduced me saying that I was a VT grad to which the room responded with cheers. "Did you think we'd put a UVA grad here?"Steve quipped, giving way to laughter across the board which lightened the mood considerably. There is something to the way Young Life uses humor to allow people to be unguarded. From then on I felt free to just talk, rather than feeling I had to do perfectly.

-Side note: The whole week I'd been reading a lot of Scripture on the Holy Spirit. There are many examples in the Bible where believers come before authorities (most of them wanting to kill them, I realize my situation is a bit different) but they talk about not worrying about what you will say, because the Holy Spirit will speak through you.* This means it isn't our job to convince them. Of course I wanted to be as prepared as possible, but there was no argument that I could make that would seal the deal. That is where prayer comes in. That is where we have to fall on our knees, rely on the Lord and trust that He is going to work for His purposes. So I tried my best to humbly do that and when the moment came, I spoke.

Now, my part was by no means perfect. I said what I wanted to say. Steve concluded briefly and I had the feeling that there were a few important things we wanted to touch on that we left out. However, they gave time for the board to ask us questions.

As people began to ask, some prefaced saying something along the lines of "I want you to know that I'm for you, but what about . . . ". You could tell in their faces that they understood and supported what we wanted to in loving kids. As they asked questions I became more and more thankful that Steve was there. As I said, he had been here before. He understood the questions they had in a way that I couldn't. When they asked "What happens when [insert apparent problem]" He could respond "Well when I was Area Director in Blacksburg, this did happen in [insert school name] and we handled it by [insert super wise solution] and it was positive because we [insert more things that make us look like we know what we're doing]".

The ultimate 'God is with us' moment came as Steve was answering a question and I felt a tap on my shoulder. Note that the rest of those that came to the meeting were about 10 feet behind us, so someone had to leave there seat to get my attention. I turn to see Deb Decker who whispered to me to tell the board what I had told her about my getting involved in Young Life in high school. When the opportunity didn't immediately present itself, she piped up from the crowd allowing me a chance to answer. That was the moment that I knew that the principal of FCHS was for us in a big way. It was huge. The whole board saw her talk to me. The volumes that must have spoken, unreal.

As we finished, we told them what we were looking to do in the school and they said they would discuss is. No timetable for a response, and here I sit a week later and there is nothing yet. We know how busy they are and how many things they need to discuss, we know it could take a while. We know that the Lord is with us, and in His timing His purposes will be accomplished. That was demonstrated so clearly I have no grounds to question it.

The icing on the cake came as we once again took our seats the next gentleman, a member of the football booster club came to give his order of new business. He began with something along the lines of "I know this is off of my topic, but we had Young Life when I was in high school in South Carolina. It brought our school together and gave us a sense of unity. I can't say enough good things about it. But what I'm here for today is . . . ". He went on to talk about advertisements on the gates at the football field, a subject of which the school board had a million things to say about how unsure they were that this thing would work out. In the end, signs on the football field got more opposition than a 22-year-old man coming in to the school in hopes of bringing kids to Christ.

The Lord is with us.

I apologize for how long this post is, how late it is, and my lack of story telling ability. Above all though, I hope that you see what the Lord is doing through the prayers of his people. I hope you are as amped as I am about the doors He is opening in Franklin County. If the Lord is for us, who can stand against us? What a beautiful picture of Christ's love. Thank you for your support friends, more to come soon.

*A great resource for this is Francis Chan's Forgotten God. An even better resource is the Bible, specifically Mark 13:11 and Luke 12:12)