A hello, a welcome and an explanation

Hello. Welcome to the first official post on this blog.

You may have seen this link on Facebook or perhaps someone emailed you about it. You certainly didn’t just wake up knowing to come to www.westerngreatlakesyl.com.

But you’re here and you may be wondering “why is the Western Great Lakes Region of Young Life starting a blog? Aren’t there like a million of them already? I can’t keep up.”

(FACT: there were roughly 240 million blogs on the internet as of last April, here’s one more!)

There are lots of reasons for nonprofits to start blogs. Some do it to keep you informed, some do it to better engage their supporters.

We’re doing it because we believe in the power of story.

Stories change lives.

If you scan through the heading of the New Testament you’ll soon realize that whenever Jesus wanted to make a point, he told a story. Things like “Let’s say there’s a farmer” or “There once was a son.” People like stories.

We can send you camp numbers and we can show you thermometers indicating different levels of fundraising progress but the best way to keep you connected with the work of God in our region is to invite you here, into this digital space to gather around for a good story.

Email updates are good but they get lost in the shuffle (so can blog posts so sign up below!!)
Facebook posts don’t last long and it’s hard to tell a story in 140 characters or less on twitter. We love connecting with you in those ways, don’t get us wrong… but we just felt a communication void.

So our solution was a blog.
And Poof! Here is that blog!

So what can you expect from us in this space.

We can promise you four things

1) Encouragement
2) Diversity of Voices
3) Education
4) Storytelling

We have a feeling that hundred more things will happen as a result of this space, but we’re going to start with 4. It’s a nice even number.

And on top of that, let’s start with a story, shall we?

As you may or may not know Young Life was started over 70 years ago, which means that we are now to a point where we can not only point to changed lives, but changed generations.

Just a few weeks ago one of our staff members from the Northeast Grand Rapids Area was opening her mail when she received a note from a donor:

The note was one of support and encouragement, but more than anything it was a reminder that when we change lives, we change generations.

The donor who’d written the note came to Christ at WindyGap years ago and is now a mother of four and a grandmother of one.

“All along the Young Life leaders accepted me for who I was. It didn’t matter if we had spent the weekend partying, we were always welcomed at Campaigners and loved on by leaders.”

Her life was also impacted by YoungLives through the story of her niece and she now directs a local pregnancy resource center, her ears often open to the stories of young girls whose lives stand in need of the love of Jesus.

All these lives changed because years ago someone took a student to WindyGap and loved her Just. As. She. Was.

Young Life changes lives with the love of Jesus. And if you know anything about the love of Jesus, you know that it’s relentless in it’s pursuit of hearts, of lives.

Always and forever inviting us to come as we are and find ourselves deeply loved.

Deeply loved hearts… they love deeply and deep love changes people, families, neighborhoods, communities… and so on it goes.

May this story, this reminder come as a deep breath to you today. May it remind you of the Jesus at the center of every donation and volunteered hour. May this story, bring you back to the beginning in the best of ways.

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