House Divided, God United
Liberty and West students come together on Monday nights to participate in a program called Young Life, a youth group.
Courtesy of the Young Life website
Members of the West-Liberty Young Life pose together.
Liberty and West don’t see eye to eye on much. They differ in sports, school life, and have different opinions on which school is superior. Out of all of their differences, there is one bridge between the two: Young Life.
Young Life is a youth group that meets every Monday Night from 7:30 to 9:00 at The Big White House or the Found Farm. Every student from both West and Liberty are welcome to come and participate in many different activities provided.
“The purpose of Young Life is to give students a place to connect, belong, and have lots of crazy fun! We welcome all, regardless of belief or background, and accept them just as they are. Every person deserves to be valued, celebrated, and invested in and our volunteer leaders do a great job at that,” said Stephanie Tutson, Young Life Area Director.
Darius Newell, sophomore, has been part of Young Life for three years. He joined Young Life because of his older brother, Dashawn. He wanted to experience Young Life because of all the fun times his brother had.
At the end of the night, everyone comes together for “club”. Club is when everyone listens to a lesson presented by a college leader who shares their life story, how they became involved in young life, and valuable life skills.
“The best lesson I have learned is making everyone feel welcome and feel like they belong,” said Newell.
”[My favorite part is] the people, because you get to know them really well, so I feel like I can tell them anything, and the adults are very understanding,” said Olivia Nelson, freshman.
This is Nelson’s first year in the Young Life program. She was a part of Wyldlife in seventh and eighth grade. Wyldlife is the youth group available to junior high students as well as sixth graders. They meet occasionally at the Big White House from 5:30 to 7:00.
Young Life is a great program to become part of if students need guidance, someone to talk to, or something fun to do on Monday nights.
“If you are going through hard times, you can tell them about a lot of things. They are really understanding, and they are just open for you to talk about anything,” said Nelson.
At Young Life, you get the opportunity to spend time with friends and also meet and connect with new people.
Nelson said, “Most of the people I’ve known for a while since we have gone through Wyldlife together.”
Each year members of Young Life can attend “camp” which includes all the Midwestern Young Life programs. Camp is a week-long trip where participants can spend the week doing free time, and at the end of the day everyone goes to club.
“Camp, it is probably the best week of my life, it’s just so fun, and you meet so many new people there,” said Nelson
After you finish high school, the next program students can become part of as a college student is Young Life College.
“I really want to do [Young Life] in college, and when you are a junior or senior, instead of going to camp you can volunteer at one of the camps, so I am really looking forward to doing that, because I feel like doing that will get me closer to being able to be a college leader,” Nelson said.
