It was August, and the local Young Life area director asked if I’d consider being a volunteer leader at St. Clairsville High School that fall. My answer was “I don’t really think I’m cut out for this.” After all, I didn’t play guitar and the thought of singing and wearing costumes felt a bit too out of my lane. My friend Julie though was a leader. I had watched her pour her time into preparing for club, going to high school softball games, and she was leading a discipleship group that involved Twizzlers and fruit dip each week.
One day she invited me to tag along — just like a good Young Life leader would. I’ll never forget laughing with those St. Clairsville girls who were full of energy as they talked about school, their friends, their music, and favorite movie lines. I’ll also never forget watching Julie, my friend, gently and naturally turn the conversation toward Jesus. These girls had a lot to say about Jesus and so did Julie. By September, I was leading alongside her.
That semester, our club was buzzing about Fall Weekend camp. Each week, kids scribbled their names on a poster board up front letting us know they were planning to go. I remember sitting with Beth, a junior who had just moved to town and was trying to find her place. I asked if she wanted to come. Her hesitant “I don’t really know” sounded a lot like the answer I’d given about leading. Over the next few weeks, I kept seeing her outside the same school doors after school, and we started hanging out with some other Campaigner girls. Even as the weather turned chilly, we walked to Dairy Queen almost every day. One afternoon, over Blizzards and fries, Beth told us her mom had agreed to pay the deposit for Fall Weekend.
On a cold, rainy Friday in November, we loaded up the vans and drove two hours to Fall Weekend. When we got there, it was pouring, and by the end of the first day the camp could have been called “Camp Mud.” I remember wondering why I was spending my free time running around a muddy field playing freeze tag. But what left a bigger impression on me was the speaker talking about Jesus, our sin, and our need for him. That Saturday afternoon, as rain kept us cabin-bound, the girls started talking honestly about who they thought Jesus was. Later, Beth pulled me out onto the porch and said quietly, “I want to follow Jesus like you and Julie do. I really want to follow him.” We prayed together right there. That night, when she heard the cross talk, her tears were uncontainable. And the next morning, when the chance came to stand at the say-so, she rose and promised to follow him.
That spring, Beth graduated early. She had been part of Campaigners, but finances and other priorities kept her from joining us at Lake Champion for summer camp. Over the years, I have lost track of Beth. I don’t know where God has taken her, but I know where God has taken me. God used that fall weekend as a foundation in my own journey. I’m grateful to have been a part of Beth’s story and the ongoing story of Young Life as together we bear witness to the work of God in the lives of young people in the middle of this muddy world.
