Freshmen by Christen Morrow Ara

I love freshmen. I love contact work with freshmen. There is something so exciting in the air when you walk on campus and meet students who have recently entered what can be a terrifying world of high school and begin to be their friend!  The excitement of new possibilities, new lives transformed, new families touched, new camp experiences on the horizon, and all the life to be had together through friendships built in Young Life Capernaum…. And this fall, our Young Life Capernaum team in Fresno, California has had an exciting new emphasis on freshman. Our club is so alive and full with new friends who are freshmen in high school!

As my husband Christian and I enter into relationships with students, particularly those from Spanish speaking homes, we are having a blast! Our friends are now one semester into their high school career… and can you guess what they are talking about, dreaming about and looking forward to? According to our friend and co-leader (and also their teacher), Mike, Young Life Capernaum club is

the main topic of discussion from the morning after club until minutes before the next club begins! Mike said that they are trying to guess what the next themed club might be, who ‘gets to be last’ in getting dropped off; thus giving them just a little more time in the front seat of the mini van with their leader. They can’t get enough! Here are a few of this fall’s highlights from our freshmen friends: video game nights, pajama club, human bowling, super hero club, movie outings, Starbucks ‘just to catch up’ and riding “shotgun” with their wheelchair loaded in the back and long forgotten.

As we watch many of our older Young Life Capernaum friends transition and into the next stage of their lives and faith journey, we are so excited about a whole new generation of high school kids who are becoming our friends, who are being invited into a fullness (and silliness) of life that they haven’t ever dreamed of, and who will be introduced to the One who made them and loves them! What a privilege we have to start all over again with a new freshmen class and be sure that every teenager with a disability is invited into all that God has for them!

What has been the highlight for your freshmen friends??