The WHY Behind the WHAT in Young Life
My name is Raquel Moldowan and I am a recent high school graduate. Although I knew I wanted to go to College, through lots of prayer and thought about my future, I decided to take a gap year after graduation. I didn’t want this to be any ordinary gap year of staying home to work or signing up for a gap year program, I wanted one that was curated to my interests. I decided what I wanted to do something with Young Life because Young Life had played a huge role in my life and I wanted to dig deeper into that.
I wanted to explore what a career in Young Life would look like. I had experienced so much of Young Life as a student and saw all of the fun and simplicity looking from the outside in, However, my eyes were opened to the depth and intentionality that happens in Young Life ministry from what I saw on this trip.
Here’s what I ended up doing:
I road-tripped around part of the US, spending around two weeks at a time with different Young Life Areas to see the differences in each areas, what each did well, and ultimately if I wanted to go on staff one day. This three-month adventure was on and I dug deep into the big WHY behind Young Life and spent time in places like Texas, Tennessee, Ohio, and more!
The Why to the What.
On this trip, I ultimately learned the importance of knowing your “why” behind anything you’re doing. In Young Life, this is incredibly important, but I saw it in action on this trip. Through prayer, listening to Brian Summerall teach at the TBLC, and talking to many volunteer leaders as well as staff people, I started to understand why we need a why behind our what.
The WHAT of Campaigners
I spent time at clubs, campaigners, and even camp with the team in Lubbock, TX, but the thing they take the most pride in is contact work, and rightfully so! Between silly conversations at volleyball games and taking pictures on the field of my first ever Texas football game, I started to see that contact work was more than strategies and numbers, it was the answer to the why behind why they do what they do.
Young Life is for loving kids. These kids need quality time with their leaders, they need big fun events with raffle prizes that don’t make sense to other areas. Why? Because the kids there respond to that. They feel loved and included by that!
The WHAT of Club
I continued my journey ending my time in Texas and driving through four states in one day to get to Chattanooga, TN. I spent those two weeks, not only meeting some of my now closest friends, but also seeing their Young Life in huge private schools that have boarding students and look more like Hogwarts than anything else as well as public schools and very low-income schools.
As I explored this different setup, their ‘what’ was the same as every other place I had gone. Their ‘what’ was showing kids Jesus, bringing kids to the feet of Jesus, and loving kids well.
Each school, each place, each kid is different. How are you showing that kid that Jesus meets their needs where they’re at?
The WHAT of Camp
On this trip, I had not planned to go to any Young Life camps, just Young Life areas. However, I ended up at not one, not two, not three, but FOUR Young Life Camps. I got to be on work crew at three of those camps and even ended up leading a WyldLife camp trip in Ohio when one of their leaders was too sick to lead.
You’ve heard it before and you’ll hear it again, Young Life camp is an incredible tool.
I have been blessed by growing up in a place where we have a Young Life property close by. It had never even occurred to me that some Areas are too far from a Young Life property to go to for camp, especially for just a weekend camp. I watched as these middle schoolers enjoyed camp at a property that was definitely not a Young Life property. This challenged my idea of camp and humbled me.
Throughout the weekend, I started to see it: the ‘what’ of camp is different in different places. It might be a Young Life property, it might be a church camp, or it might even be someone’s barn.
Camp may look different but the WHY of it in this case is the same: bringing kids to the feet of Jesus.
Three Months, 4,385 (ish) miles driven, and 72 days later, I am so grateful for the experiences I got, the people I met, and the deeper thinking that sprouted from this trip. I am forever grateful for this experience and am so grateful for what it taught me as a leader and a friend. It taught me to dig deeper.
Don’t just do something just to do it, ask the why behind it. If there is no answer to that question, maybe alter it, change it, or curate it to loving the people around you and showing them Jesus the best you can.
If you know a recent graduate looking to do a gap year experience, and experience the why to the what around Young Life, contact your local Area Director and get involved!
If you want to contact Raquel and learn more about her trip and how she structured this experience with the help of local staff, reach out to her here: raquel.moldowan@gmail.com