Young Life doesn’t start with a program. It starts with adults who are concerned enough about kids to go to them, on their turf and in their culture, building bridges of authentic friendship. These relationships don’t happen overnight – they take time, patience, trust and consistency.

Young Life leaders log many hours with kids where they are, as they are. They listen to their stories and learn what’s important to them because they genuinely care about their joys, triumphs, heartaches and setbacks.

They believe in the power of presence. Kids’ lives are dramatically impacted when caring adults come alongside them, sharing God’s love with them. Because their Young Life leader believes in them and they learn of God’s love for them, they begin to see that their lives have great worth, meaning and purpose.

This is the first step of a lifelong journey. The choices they make today, based on God’s love for them, will impact future decisions, careers chosen, marriages formed, and families raised. These all ripple from the time when a Young Life leader first took the time to reach out and enter their world.

Joy, Elijah, Sunshine and I would like to thank you for supporting us and our ministry in the South towns of Buffalo. We are blessed to serve and be a part of what God is doing in Orchard Park and Hamburg. Please continue to pray for us and our volunteers as we seek to show high school and middle school students the love of Christ! Pray that we would live out Young Life’s mission to introduce students to Jesus Christ and help them grow in their faith. Pray that every student in our schools would have the opportunity to meet Jesus Christ and follow Him!