Kelliann Palu, Shannon Stetler, Fred Weatherly, Howard Lewald and Mark Statema (l-r) “act ridiculous for the Gospel” at the Young Life banquet Tuesday in Bishop. Video by Dave Balcom
By Dave Balcom Publisher 10-15-2009
Young Life came to Bishop seven months ago, but Tuesday night, the non-denominational ministry launched its fundraising stage with a banquet attended by more than 140 local residents. Young Life uses volunteer leaders to reach out to adolescents where the adolescents play and without judgment. The goal is to create a real friendship that will eventually allow a mature discussion of faith. Tera Cox, a member of the Young Life startup board in Mammoth which held a similar fundraiser earlier this year, spoke to the audience about Young Life’s influence on her life. “Young Life practically raised me,” she said. Her father was a staff member for Young Life, and her mother was a volunteer. “But what really mattered was how the volunteers took a real interest in me and what I was doing. I knew I would always be welcomed.” Betty Wagoner is a member of the startup board in Bishop who had never heard of the program before being invited to an informational meeting at Whiskey Creek where she was invited to “find a seat on the bus.” Since then she’s done homework, and has even visited one of the organization’s summer camps at Marysville. “I invite all of you to join me on this bus,” she said.
Scott Lisea, regional director for the Gold Coast and Central California, explained the Young Life philosophy: “Young Life will thrive here if the people here come around the idea that all kids deserve the opportunity to develop a relationship with Jesus Christ.” He emphasized that Young Life’s 600 missions in 50 countries are all local. “It’s not some big organization from Colorado Springs; it’s right here.” Young Life was started by a Jim Rayburn, a Presbyterian minister in 1941 Texas. The program is built around clubs where youngsters meet to hang out and have fun all the while being exposed to Christian concepts. Today there are more than 19,000 adult volunteer leaders. Tuesday night Eddie and Jen Davis and Arnie and Kelliann Palu were introduced as volunteer leaders. Eddie and Jen are candidates to become the area’s first paid Young Life staff. The Bishop startup board is Jim and Cheri Davis, Kathy Henderson, Mike and Jan Horn, Kelly Larson, Betty Wagoner and Fred Weatherly. One of the mainstays of club activities are the “skits” that cast the students and adults into sometimes zany behavior, and one example Tuesday night put YL Area Developer Mark Statema, aka Buford T. Huddlebutt, on stage with Kelliann Palu, Shannon Stetler, Fred Weatherly and Howard Lewald. With music playing, Statema led the group through the words and “choreography” of his trip to the “Chalfant general store” where they purchased a fan, a yo-yo, a rocking chair and a washing machine. The audience roared its approval. Bob Ludwick, a 30-year volunteer with Young Life and the father-in-law to Bishop’s Kelly Talbot, was the keynote speaker. He had this to say about the skit: “Being ridiculous for the gospel is one of the great opportunities of Young Life.” Ludwick told the audience that he sees the work of Young Life leaders as “fly fishing for Jesus.” As in his sport, leaders must: 1) gear up, get equipped; 2) know and go where the action is; 3) know what’s on the menu (become experts in youth culture); 4) be patient (he described how some leaders go through their entire careers without ever having one of their young friends find a relationship with Jesus); and 5) when you get the chance, when it finally happens, after gently nurturing your young friend through the first years of his faith, you must, as you do with trout, return the youngster to the river of his life. The budget for Young Life in the Eastern Sierra is $80,000.
