Young Life Cleveland West

Metro Christmas celebration with our volunteer leaders and committee. What comes to mind as you reflect on the Year 2018? We recently sat down with our leaders and got to share many of the great victories, tough losses, and examples of faithfulness we've seen this year. One of the major highlights has been the growth of adult involvement and support for the Young Life ministry on the near west side of Cleveland. In case you're new to Young Life, one thing that makes it unique is that many of the local ministry leaders are volunteers who have been trained by the local staff. These volunteers sacrifice a lot of their free time after working full-time jobs to meet with and mentor students at their local school. Needless to say, we love opportunities to honor and encourage these volunteers. Our committee did an incredible job of doing so at our recent Christmas celebration. Our leaders were shocked as they left not just with some goofy "white elephant" presents, ...

What does the name Joe Thomas mean to you? If you’re a Cleveland sports fan, Joe Thomas is a hero. He’s a future NFL Hall-of-Famer, an 11-season Browns center who never missed a play in 10 seasons. He holds the record for  10,363 consecutive snaps--- and  he never competed in a Super Bowl. Not even close. Joe represents something our world doesn’t see enough of: faithfulness, loyalty, consistency, and commitment to something you may not see the direct results of in your seasons of play. Young Life Cleveland has been reaching out to kids for 48 seasons thanks to donors like you. Like Joe, your faithfulness and loyalty contribute to results that don’t get Super Bowl attention, because what’s eternal can’t always be seen. Let us give you a peek into the work you’ve made possible:  This fall started a new weekend camp at Camp Fitch that we hope will become a tradition for many years.  We had over 100 kids from the Metro area go and they playe...

Thank You! In this season of Thanksgiving, we are so thankful for our faithful  Young Life supporters!  Thank you for reading, praying, laughing and rejoicing  with us as we pursue kids for Christ. In the spirit of Giving Tuesday, we would love if you would consider making a donation to Young Life to support the work we are doing in our eight current ministries across the near west side of Cleveland. Your support will help our 3 full-time staff, one part-time staff, and 25 volunteers to sustain our current work with kids. Your gift will allow us to set our sights on the next group of kids and even the next community.  Today's donations will launch our Year End Giving Campaign, with a goal of raising $60,000 in new donations. This will help us raise 50% of our annual budget by January 1 and let us focus our energy more fully on meeting with and serving local teenagers in your community. Thank you again for partnering with us as we walk alongside adolescents t...

For 48 years Young Life has been taking Cleveland kids to Fall Weekend.  Over the years it’s ranged from super rustic and cheap get always (back in the 70’s) to hotel weekends in the 80’s and early 2000’s.  Regardless of where we take kids, they have a ton of fun, but more importantly, they will ALWAYS here about our only hope in Jesus.  This year we had about 300 kids (about 85 locally) go to Fall Weekend at our latest camping destination of Camp Fitch (near Erie Pennsylvania).  We played in the mud, drank hot chocolate, played in more mud, did field games, and played in the mud…and it was amazing!  Kids enjoyed four Young Life clubs, sang songs, played games in skits, watched their leaders compete (shout out to Kristy Reid for representing and winning the leader title this year over the young bucks), and heard Dan Bender from Huron share the message of Jesus Christ.  Andy’s Autowash Lorain Ave in North Olmsted, sponsored our 2018 Golf Scramble ...

A few weekends ago Alex and I got to bring 10 of our friends from Cleveland State with us to College Weekend at Rockbridge. We were a small but mighty group in a room of 500 college students from Virginia, Maryland, and Ohio.   It. Was. A. Blast.   There is something about getting away from the pressures of life and school to just be together. Of course— it helps when the space is beautiful, the food is great, and the laughter just keeps coming.   We got to hear about and discuss together who the person of Jesus is, what He has done, and how He loves us and desires a relationship with us. We had the opportunity to sit in silence for 20 minutes (under the most stars we’ve ever been able to see— incredible!) and we were invited to consider what a life with Christ would look like.   As I was driving a friend back to her apartment Sunday night I asked her what she was walking away with from the weekend and she told me, “I think t...

I've heard it said that time and energy are the two most valuable, and limited, resources in the world. That is a well-known reality among Young Life leaders. While some of their peers spend slow evenings at home watching the same episodes of their favorite Netflix series for the 4th or 5th (or 10th) time, Young Life leaders are at the big soccer game or concert, talking with and cheering on students they've been spending countless hours with and a lot of energy on, to get to know them. Keeping up with the fast-paced lives of students means that leaders are usually eager for opportunities to slow down and experience real, meaningful rest. That being said, we cherished every moment with our volunteers on our annual overnight retreat this Fall. In just 24 hours, we packed in opportunities to sing worship songs, share stories about the semester so far, and spend time reading the Bible and praying together. Not only that, but we had some fun playing a surprisingly competitive scr...

"Clubble" kickoff and paint war blows everyone away! Last Monday, we had our "metro" kickoff club event, where we packed about 150 students from 7 local high schools into a giant bubble, made a mess inside with a paint war, and capped it off with a great message by Fairview volunteer leader, Madeline Nieder. With heavy rain in the forecast, we had to adapt last-minute and cram this 50 ft. long, 20 ft. wide, and 12 ft. tall bubble inside the Rock Point Church building in Westlake, which only added to the crazy experience. The only thing that matched the energy inside the bubble that night was the buzzing conversation about it in each school the following morning. This past Monday, we started local clubs in our individual communities and were thrilled with the momentum it carried as more kids are coming to experience abundant life and hear about Jesus Christ, who we believe is the primary source of the life, fun, and adventure that every kid longs for.