It's Been Awhile!

Hey all you wonderful South Young Life supporters!

 I know it has been a long time since I have communicated with you about how things are going. It has been a wild and crazy year for me, with a new job and struggling with Mono since the end of September. With that said, it has been an incredible year of ministry.

We have nine called, passionate, driven leaders! The team came along at the right time, as I don’t know how I would have done it with the new job and sickness. The team has really shared the load. We have come together in community and deep love for one another.

We didn’t start Monday night Clubs until January and we have a new clubroom; we meet at the Southeast Neighborhood Community Center on 19^th and Mill. It has a gym and a much bigger meeting room, perfect timing as we were outgrowing our old spot. We have hovered around 60 kids at Club each week, and deep relationships between leaders and kids have been forged. Many kids have begun attending church with leaders and several have come to know Christ!  We have six more Clubs till year-end; pray that the gospel will be shared with clarity and that lives will be transformed by sound of his name.

We are also beginning the camp push. We currently have 44 kids and leaders signed up for camp.  Fundraising is upon us!!!!

Thanks for your prayers and support, even through the lack of communication.

Blessings,

Corey Knudson

Just Reach Out and Touch Jesus

Sorry for the delay in posting this video... I have had a little technical difficulty as of late.

We enjoyed the great outdoors for once due to the glorious sunshine. It is not everyday we get to enjoy cloudless skies. When the leaders were sitting around the dinner table before Club we were thinking that we may not see a single kid at Club. Every kid we texted or talked to had other things going on, but we figured that even if one kids showed up to hear about Jesus it would be all worth it. To our surprise one kid after another began to trickle in, by Club time 35 kids were throwing frisbees, kicking soccer balls, and taking in the rays.

Tonight I shared about how Jesus healed the bleeding women. I said that everyone of our stories is not too far off from the women who had suffered from bleeding for twelve years. We all have had struggles, hardships, and or pain that we have suffered with for much of our lives. Like the woman we too can reach out and touch Jesus. Jesus has the answers, Jesus has the power to heal.

Jesus Is Love!

A prayer this week was that the love of Jesus would be on display at Club. That His love would be on display in the things we do, the conversations we have, and the way leaders interact with one another as well as with the kids who show up. Last night at Club, Jesus was indeed present.

There was once again a handful of new kids. As well as a handful of kids who have begun to make Monday night a Young Life night. It was a joy to watch leaders interact and connect with a variety of kids and go out of their way to make these new kids feel welcome. If you were to stand back and watch, you would never know that these kids are not the best of friends, that they don't run with the same crowd, and that they don't come to Young Life every week, you would have seen the opposite. Jesus is working, knitting hearts together, and forming common ground. Young Life is common ground, a ground where love is found, a ground where Jesus is.

It was exciting to see Kate share the Gospel with such passion, authority, and power. This was her second or third talk ever at Young Life and she nailed it out of the park. You could hear a pin drop; kids were captivated. JESUS IS LOVE! It doesn't matter what you have done, we have all fallen short. No longer walk in condemnation, but go and sin no more.

Everything Is Meaningless

Kids continue to show up on Monday nights and I ask the question, why exactly are kids always coming? We continue to see new kids come every week, kids I would never expect to show up. To many, we probably sing some pretty dumb songs, to many, we play some stupid games, and we give away some ridiculous prizes, yet kids still come. As I think about this question, I am reminded that in every day life kids are faced with pressures of fitting in, being cool, having it all put together, being successful. In Young Life, we offer a place where kids can really just have fun.... child-like fun. It is not everyday that we are free to jump around catching flying balloons, but as little kids we were, and we loved it. Why does that have to change? These kids are accepted, they are loved, they are free to laugh, sing, and play. They are getting touched by the refreshing hand of Jesus, that is why they come. Everything under the sun is meaningless, everything with out Jesus, and where Jesus is, there is meaning and freedom.

St. Patty Celebration

The house was packed with new faces as well as old. I have not seen that many girls at a Club ever! They might have actually out numbered the guys tonight. When girls come.....guys follow, and when girls are engaged and having fun......guys are too. It's funny how that works. It was an absolute blast tonight, from singing Backstreet Boys, to having a spitting contest, to blowing eggs on one another, to having a cheeseburger challenge, kids were all in it tonight. It is especially fun to look across the room and see kids laughing, singing, yelling, and having their phones out taking video. When those things are happening, you know you are doing something right.

Tonight was also the night that Jerrell had the opportunity to be God's mouthpiece up front. He shared about his struggles growing up with abuse, neglect, and suicide. He shared how most of the time he felt like a broken toy with no purpose. He shared the story of Jesus washing his disciples feet and how through that Jesus showed the greatest extent of his love. Jerrell closed by saying that Jesus will wash the dirtiest places in your life no matter what they are, just like the disciples nasty dirty feet. Jesus loves you that much.

God's Work

I must say it is nice being able to have several Clubs in a row, momentum builds, kids start hearing about Young Life, and we see it in the amount of kids showing up. Kids are all about what is trending, what's cool, and they ask the question are my friends doin it? If those things are happening, more kids are hearing about the love of Jesus! And that is what it is all about...Jesus!

We have two senior boys who have begun to lay down some prayer goals, some things that they want to see God do this spring. One of them is to see Club grow too big for our current location. We are at a little over 50 kids right now, if we had 80 show up we would be too big. They have begun to write down names of kids they want to invite to Club. One boy has been praying for his brother to come to Young Life. This week his brother came. Those are the stories that are fun to hear. Stories of kids growing, reaching out, seeking God ,and in turn witnessing God's faithfulness.

Both of those boys were far away from God their freshmen year. They were no where near a personal relationship with Jesus. Now 4 years later their lives have been changed. All because a Young Life leader decided to enter their world, where they were, and love them. Thank you Jesus for Justin and Marcos, what you are doing in their lives, and what is yet to be done.

March 5th

It really felt like the Holy Spirit was with us tonight! From the mixers, to games, to skits, to songs, to video, to talk, it all went so smoothly. Kids were completely engaged and attentive.

Everything we did felt like we did it together. We started out with a mixer called Human Knot, kids grab hands in a giant circle and have to work together to untangle themselves, we sang Lean On Me, and then played an up front game where the girls fed guys gummy worms with there feet. Nasty!

Kevan had the opportunity tonight to lay the framework for who Jesus is. He shared about how in our world lust is a huge struggle and even excepted, sex for everyone is the norm. He shared about David, and how he was a man after God's heart, yet, he struggled incredibly with lust. He shared about how David could only get so close to God in relationship before he would mess up and a huge gap would form between he and God. He related that to how we can feel when we mess up or do something we shouldn't do. But God did something to close that gap, the Word became flesh and walked among us that we may see. Jesus! It was cool to see kids dialed in and listening to Kevan. I even had some great talks on the car ride home!