Young Life Plano
  • Blog
  • Social
  • Young Life
  • Wyldlife
  • Camp
  • Giving
  • Calendar
  • Golf Tournament

When the Hard Times Come.

3/24/2017

1 Comment

 
Picture
​On Monday night, I got be a part of a club and it was awesome. Our area combined with all of the other areas in Collin County to throw the most fun club with 500 of our new friends. For the first time in a while, I wasn’t the person giving the talk, leading games or running sound.  I was right there next to kids, pressed up against the stage and experiencing club with them. We screamed our lungs out and danced so hard that I was truly sore the next day. I loved experiencing something new with them and linking arms with some of my dearest friends.
 
That club was so special to me because, in this semester of Young Life, we have experienced really hard, difficult things. The hardest one was a car accident that took the lives of two girls from Shepton and critically injuring a third. The third is a rockstar of a girl named Kendall. Kendall and I went to Frontier Ranch together and I have experienced some great adventures with her and her sister Kaylyn. The one word that I can use to describe the swirl of emotions that I’ve felt for weeks on end is: sad. I was sad for the families, the friends and the Plano community. Even now, my heart continues to break as we mourn, and pray and support one another.
 
In the weeks following the accident, Kendall has made great strides in her recovery.
 
The days following the funeral were filled with one continual question from students and friends of the girls: Why? Thankfully, the Lord has given me a platform to address questions, fears and doubts and share the truth of God’s word. The Monday after the accident, I stood on stage at Club and explained that I didn’t know why, but I do know that there is more to the story. There is more of something that we cannot see.
 
We turned to scripture and talked about how Jesus met Mary and Martha both in their anger towards him and in their sadness towards their brother’s death. You see, Jesus was friends with their brother, Lazarus. So, when he found out he was sick and chose to stay where he was, the sisters were confused. When Lazarus died and Jesus wasn’t there, they were angry. They knew the power Jesus had; they knew that if he had come, he could have saved him. When Jesus did show up, Martha yelled out in anger and Mary broke down in tears. How did Jesus respond to their emotional responses? With Martha in her anger, he talked her through it and explained His purpose. With Mary in her sadness, He wept with her. All along, he knew there was more to the story. Jesus knew that they would learn to trust him in a new way through their anger and their sadness. They needed to see that Jesus was, indeed, all powerful, that he was for them and that he cared deeply about them. Jesus ultimately offers salvation in a different way: he miraculously raises Lazarus from physical and spiritual death. Why was it this way? Ultimately, God was glorified and Mary and Martha and those people learned a deeper love and a deeper understanding of who God is. It doesn’t make it easier, but it does help us understand that God is for us and with us.
 
I still don’t know why this accident happened. I still don’t know why it had to be this way. What I can tell you is that in the weeks following the accident, my Young Life friends have come to a deeper understanding of who God is. They have come to know the depth of His love, they have come to ask some of the hardest questions, and they have been well acquainted with grief and hurt. They have watched and experienced God in a way that has moved and transformed them, and they have been on their knees pleading for Kendall. I don’t know why it had to be this horrific, but I do know God has more to the story. I do know that there is something we cannot see and in the midst of it all He will meet us, just as he did for Mary and Martha. In this heart breaking semester, I have had a front row seat to watch him work in the dirty and messy parts of life and it has been one of the most beautiful things.
 
On Monday night, I danced and screamed and sang with my friends and remembered this is why we do Young Life. When life gets really, really hard, we get to enter into the muck and, for 2 hours on Monday nights, we get to scream at the top of our lungs. So, I’ll keep planning club, and figuring out the sound board that I know nothing about and getting rejected from lunch tables at the school because I’m that awkward twenty-seven year old that they don’t understand. This is worth it. When the battle is raging and the hard days are coming, I get to root myself in the grace of Christ and invite them into a relationship with Jesus Christ. 
1 Comment

The 2015 Ski Trip Adventure! (video included)

1/4/2016

1 Comment

 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year
from Plano Young Life!

Picture
We hope you had the merriest of Christmases and the happiest of New Years! This December, we took a crew of juniors and seniors to Crooked Creek Ranch for our annual Young Life Ski Trip and IT. WAS. AWESOME. If we had to rate it on beautiful weather, amount of laughter, inches of powder, awesomeness of Club or time with friends it was definitely a 10/10. Some of us (me included) learned how to ski and experienced scary, yet courageous moments facing our first greens. Others dominated black diamonds and terrain parks, and a few simply enjoyed being in the snow and enjoying time with friends. All of us got to head back to what can only be compared to Narnia to have Young Life Club every night. 

There is something special about getting away to a new, beautiful place and experiencing adventure with your friends. I don't think it was just going skiing or just being at a Young Life Camp that made Ski Trip what it was. It was the community and the gift of doing life together combined with learning more and more of who Jesus is every single day. When Jesus walked with his disciples, he referred to so many things around him to explain the Kingdom of Heaven, our need for a Savior and the Love of God. From birds to coins to sheep to a Prodigal Son, he used parables and analogies to teach us. On Ski Trip, instead of birds and coins, we had a snow capped mountain that gave us many analogies of what it looked like to follow Jesus. We had to learn to trust our instructors, be patient with beginners, not give up when we were only half-way down, be content with our limits, bring darkness to light, and have thankful hearts to be in one of the most beautiful places on earth. Following JesusLike I said, it was awesome!

Check out the video below to see Ski Trip from a West Plano girl's perspective :)
1 Comment

Light in the Darkness

11/23/2015

1 Comment

 
As I think back over the past three months of Young Life, they have been jam packed, filled with activities, adventures, and lots of conversations.  This semester has been marked by the usual fall happenings of lunches, club, campaigners, pep rallies, volleyball games, football games, conversations over coffee, two different weekend camp trips, a night in cowboy’s stadium for our middle school friends, and so much more.

From the outside looking in this semester has been filled with smiles and laughter that fill rooms across Plano on most every night of the week, but a deeper look would reveal sweet and tender relationships between kids and their leaders that are filled with conversations in which kids share life's joys, celebrations, hurt, loss, and pains. 
 
I’m prone to want to fix things, to save others from their own situations, but as young life leaders we’re called to something different.  We're called to  share life with kids, to love them in the midst of their brokenness, to celebrate their joys, to suffer in their sorrows, and to walk along side them no matter what life brings.  Therefore the pain that life brings in kids lives, is impossible to ignore.
 
As we’re entering into the holiday season, I’m reminded that there is hope.  That all the loss, pain, and hurt kids experience, is overshadowed by the life and light that Christ offers and provides.  In John 8:12 it says, “When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."  This is my hope our high school and middle school friends in Plano.  That they will know and live in the light that Christ provides and that even in the midst of pain and hurt, there is hope!

1 Comment

Young Life In Four Minutes

10/14/2015

0 Comments

 
0 Comments

Frontier Ranch 2015

7/2/2015

1 Comment

 
2 weeks ago today we arrived back in Plano from Frontier Ranch! It may have been a day early, but let me assure you, we got to have the BEST WEEK of our lives! The days were full and went by fast, days full of adventure and laughter and so much fun. We dressed up like Carrots and (Frontier) Ranch, rappelled off the side of a cliff, made new friends and learned a lot about who Jesus is. We say that it's the best week ever because it really, really is. 


Young Life camp was one week of the summer where the weather was beautiful every day, where we ate dinner around a round table with good friends every night, where laughter was genuine and deep and ongoing, where adventure waited around the corner, where we felt safe and heard and loved. Young Life camp was THE BEST WEEK OF OUR LIVES! 


Just because we're not in the mountains anymore, doesn't mean the adventure has to stop! Since we've been back we've had Summer Campaigners and Camp Follow-up making the awesomeness of Camp continue. We've gone bowling, went to THE Thunderbird Roller Rink, treated ourselves to Bahama Bucks and sand volleyball! Up next... we leave for another week at Frontier Ranch next weekend! 
1 Comment

Through the Eyes of a Senior

5/28/2015

0 Comments

 
Senior year, wowza. The time definitely flew by, like everyone always warned. But I also have had some extra time on my hands. Time to reflect and time to cherish what I’ve put into my past 4 whirl-wind years of high school. Here’s a glimpse of what I’ve learned:

As I’ve witnessed at Plano West, a lot of the struggles of high school students (well, myself definitely) involve identity. “Who am I?" or "Who do I want to appear as to others?” are questions at the forefronts of our minds. The answers are what a lot of us are searching for, maybe even subconsciously. We’re longing for something or someone to define us and make us feel important. Maybe that longing can be satisfied by a boyfriend or straight A’s, but what I’ve come to find is that kind of fulfillment is oh so temporary.  

My personal identity crisis led to look for approval and a sense of belonging in good things like school, boys, leadership positions, etc; but nowhere did I find more belonging than at Young Life.  Freshman year I was hooked. Really cool kids went to Young Life and we had so much silly, genuine fun and the leaders always seemed to care about how I was doing. I subconsciously began to put my identity into Young Life, spending all my free time there and hanging out with my Young Life friends. I felt the happiest when I was there and something about my time at Young Life was different from the rest of my activities. The people seemed so joyful, so care-free and my leaders’ constant pursuance to get to know me was so odd but refreshing! Clearly, I found a different kind of acceptance at Young Life and it wasn’t until at Frontier Ranch that I realized why that was. It should’ve been pretty obvious because we talked about it at the end of every club and campaigners…. But, this maybe it was this guy named Jesus! He is love and my leaders love me differently than any other people I had met… Oh. Yep. 


Jesus is why Young Life was different from anywhere else, He is why my leaders love me so well and why we have joy. While I believe Young Life is one of the greatest things you can do in high school, its purpose is to point to something greater, to show kids like me that there is something (or maybe I should say someone) bigger than our earthly titles or things that we can put our identity in. Jesus, people, we can come unfulfilled and broken and find life and a perfect identity in Him.

So, through the eyes of a senior, I would like to thank Plano Young Life for all the laughs, memories and friendships that have filled my high school days. But more importantly, thank you for showing us what unending love and perfect identity we have in Jesus. That He is fufillement forever. 

Love, 
Lauren Sharrock 

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: 
The old has gone, the new is here!"
 2 Corinthians 5:17
Picture
0 Comments

Humble Beginnings

4/13/2015

0 Comments

 
Sunburns are fading and golf clubs have been cleaned and our 5th Annual Golf Tournament has come to an end. As my friend Jim Carey with Gleneagles would say, it was a day that began with “humble beginnings.” With thunderclouds rolling out in the morning and clouds in the early afternoon, it ended up being an absolutely beautiful day.

Golf Tournament ranks in my top five favorite times of the year. I love the atmosphere that the day brings. It is so much more than a day of golf: it brings fellowship, laughter, and an overall calm- because, when you’re with your friends and scores aren’t the end of the world, who can have a bad day on a golf course? We got to share the mission of Young Life and what we’re doing in Plano with men from across the Metroplex. We got to tell them about our privilege of bringing kids to the feet of Jesus and the joy of sharing the good news that there is a man named Jesus who loves them and wants to be in a relationship with them.  

I can’t believe it’s over and I miss the atmosphere of the day already, but we can’t wait until next year! With humble beginnings we started the day and with humble beginnings we start relationships with students all over Plano in the hopes that they would know more about this amazing Love.  Thank you for those of you who came and supported us. Your support makes Young Life possible and we are so grateful for you! 

Picture
Picture
0 Comments

7 areas + 500 tshirts + 1 club room = All-Metro Club!

3/26/2015

1 Comment

 
Y'all. It felt like we were at Frontier Ranch! Music was blasting, the gaga-ball pit was packed, knock-out basketball games were never-ending, hundreds of shirts were sold at $5 a piece and over 500  kids came from across the Metroplex for the biggest Club of the Spring. 

On Monday night, high school kids from Frisco, Allen, McKinney, Richardson, Melissa,  Sherman and Plano rushed into the Watermark Plano sanctuary-turned-Club-room for an epic night of Young Life. We went "bananas," spontaneously body surfed, played ultimate body twister, sang at the top of our lungs, slam-dunked fish and heard the truth of the Gospel with new friends in a new place. It. Was. Awesome. 

As Brad took some freshmen guys home, they couldn't stop talking about how much fun they had at Club. When he told them that every single night at Frontier Ranch has a YL Club just like that, they spent the rest of the ride home talking about what friends they could invite to experience in Colorado what they had just experienced on a Monday night in Plano, TX. How great is that?! 

It is Jesus' constant invitation, "Come and see!" Come and see fun and community and joy. Come and see that He is God, that He loves you and that you are made to be in relationship with Him. Come and see! 
1 Comment

Spring Break!

3/18/2015

1 Comment

 
This time last week I was in Jasper, Georgia with some of the senior guys from Plano West. We set out on the thirteen hour drive with two objectives: to get away from the fast paced city life and to make memories. We succeeded in both! I have gotten to know these guys though club, campaigners, and football games, etc. throughout the year and it was a treat to spend some time away with them. We fished out on the lake, played Frisbee golf at a Young Life Camp, and spent several hours playing Lord Of the Rings Monopoly. As you could imagine there was a large amount of laughter, snacking, and bickering (we did play Monopoly after all), and we also had some serious conversations about life. 

Picture
Meet the crew! I am grateful to have gotten to know them over this past year, and the thought of them graduating soon is truly a tear jerker. My hope is that we continue to make memories even after they leave for school, and that we continue to have deep friendships forged in the name of the Lord Jesus. 



-Brad Wegner

1 Comment

It doesn't get any cuter than...YOUNGLIVES!

2/27/2015

3 Comments

 

Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Last fall Plano and Richardson joined together to embark on the new adventure of YoungLives - Young Life’s ministry for teen moms.  Twice a month these sweet moms come from all three senior high’s in Plano and all three high school’s in Richardson for club and campaigners.  But don’t be mistaken, club at YoungLives looks quite different than your typical Young Life club.  To start picture children and babies everywhere filling a room with laughter and some tears as babies are passed around, toddlers are chasing each other, while others are trying to figure out how to crawl or walk to keep up with it all.  The night begins with dinner where mentors, moms, and kiddos all gather around tables to talk, share and eat.  After dinner moms and sometimes kids too make a craft that they can bring home that night.  Then finally all kids are handed over to our amazing childcare volunteers, so that their mamma’s can catch a much deserved break during club where they sing, dance, laugh a lot, and get to hear that they are dearly loved and adored by our heavenly father.           
At our first club ever we met 13 precious girls and since then we’ve more than doubled in club attendance, with our last club having almost 30 sweet moms and their kiddos!  Our first few months in YoungLives have been nothing short of an adventure, but some highlights have been an all regional Bunco night, a campaigners Thanksgiving feast, and having Santa Clause come to club at Christmas!  We’ll celebrate St. Patrick’s day in style this upcoming Thursday at club and are looking forward to all that spring has in store, and of course camp this summer where we get to take our babies too!  If you’re ever in need of some love, we have plenty of sweet babies to hold and hilarious toddlers who love to run around and be cuddled, come spend a night with us! 

3 Comments
<<Previous


    Young Life Plano

    Young Life in Plano, TX exists to introduce kids to Jesus Christ and help them grow in their faith.

    We currently have Young Life in West Plano at Shepton, Jasper and Plano West; East Plano at McMillen and Plano East. We also serve middle schools in East and West Plano through WyldLife. Check out the Young Life page for more info!

    Archives

    March 2017
    January 2016
    November 2015
    October 2015
    July 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
✕