WOODLEAF 2011

Hi everyone! CAMP IS JUST AROUND THE CORNER! I really cant believe that camp is already here again. This is the best week of the whole year and I am so excited to bring NEW LEADERS to camp to experience Young Life at front battle. YOU are a huge huge part of building HIS kingdom and I am asking for your prayers as we are preparing to go to Woodleaf. This is so important because we cannot do anything without the Lord!

Prayer requests:

1. Please pray for the opportunity for all leaders going to camp to rest. REST is HUGE!! This is going to be a selfless week for each and every leader. Pray that they take a time out for the Lord to really just be still before Him.

Leaders:

Kellie Smith

Kayla Kudla

Blaire Pelvani

Corey Nissan

Greg Gallup

John Keppler

Matt Donahue

2. Pray for the kids hearts that are going to be going that the Lord will soften their heart and if it is in His timing that they will accept Him into their lives.

3. I have two girls going; hilary and brooke. Both girls will be Jr leading at camp. Please pray that they can grow even more serving Him at camp and just the opportunity to witness other kids lives being transformed right before their very eyes.

4. Please pray for the rest of my girls at home that they can be consistent and pray for the younger class going.

5. Please pray that I can have rest and replenishment before going to camp. Pray for my encouragement as well as a leader. Pray for the opportunity for me to BE STILL before the Lord and that I can have discipline in doing it.

6. Pray that the Lord will provide for all the finances for camp.

7. We have one more open spot for the bus. Pray that if it is in the Lords will that there will be one more kid going!

8. Please pray for Holly, Corin and Jordan as they are at Woodleaf at this very moment serving the Lord for a month! Pray that they can find strength in Him.

Thank you so much for all of your support! I am excited to update you when I return from camp!

Love you all!

Lauren

YOUNGLIFE SUMMER

Hi friends and family!

This summer has been amazing so far. I went to a camp in Arizona called Lost Canyon to work for a month. Each week there were about 200-300 students from everywhere coming to experience camp. During my time there I was in charge of housekeeping with 9 other high school students. It was such a humbling experience but a precious time to grow with the Lord. I felt like the Lord really brought me back to my purpose in Young Life, to bring kids to the feet of Jesus and it isn't about me being the best leader or what not. It was a great experience and it was a blessing to be a part of bringing kids to Christ.

I just got back about 2 weeks ago and since then its been go go go! Im so excited to say that 3 of my Young Life girls are going to another Young Life camp to work for a month. This is going to be a ton of work but I know it will be a huge growing experience for them! I am praying that they will learn that they can find all their needs in HIM alone. Its crazy for me to think where these girls are at now in their walk with the Lord. How much they have grown already and just for them to be in community with so many believers is going to be awesome!

We have camp coming up in about a month!! Please pray that the Lord will soften these kids hearts and just show them His love. I was reading this today;

¹ May God be gracious to us and bless us
and make his face shine on us—^[b]
2 so that your ways may be known on earth,
your salvation among all nations.

³ May the peoples praise you, God;
may all the peoples praise you.
⁴ May the nations be glad and sing for joy,
for you rule the peoples with equity
and guide the nations of the earth.
⁵ May the peoples praise you, God;
may all the peoples praise you.

⁶ The land yields its harvest;
God, our God, blesses us.
⁷ May God bless us still,
so that all the ends of the earth will fear him.

I thought this was so encouraging!!! God wants His ways to be known to everyone so he can guide them His great love. Praise God that the kids that are going to camp are going! We have around 46 kids going to camp this summer! Please pray that the financial needs will be met and encouragement and rest for all leaders before going! This is going to be an amazing experience for each and every one of these kids!

Thank you so much for all of your support in Young Life. You are a HUGE HUGE part of building HIS KINGDOM!

Love you all!

Lauren

YOUNG LIFE UPDATE end of the school year!

Hi Everyone! Thank you so so so much for all of your support! I am so blessed to have each and every one of you supporting me in Young Life.

Last week we had our last young life club and our end of the year leader party! It has been really interesting to see this year go by. There has been so many new faces in club especially freshman girls! Its so cool to have new kids come into Young Life because I feel like it is so much confirmation and encouragement from the Lord that HE IS MOVING, that there is continually new kids that He wants us to pursue. I felt like God was really setting the foundation of our area this past year. With new leaders and new kids it has been a building year I would say. One of the things I love about Young Life San Clemente is our community with leaders. It is like family to me. I have also gotten the privledge of becoming closer with some committee members which has been awesome.

I just had my last cabin time ( bible study) with my high school girls before I leave for camp for a month next week! It was really cute they brought me cupcakes, strawberry ones to be exact! I love them. I am so so so blessed to have these girls in my life and I have really fallen in love with these girls. There is this one girl that I am very close with, I didnt see her for about a month because of her crazy schedule and I realized that it made me feel so discouraged and so sad. I would continually try to set up times with her to get together but our schedule never matched up! I finally got together with her about 2 weeks ago and I set up dinner for her at a park and we walked in the harbor and just talked about life and I felt like crying because I missed her so much. I felt this huge JOY in being with her that I felt replenished!

It just hit me but this is a perfect example of how our relationship with the Lord is. GOD WANTS TO BE WITH US! Sometimes we become so busy with our own schedules that we loose sight of God because we are so busy with ourselves. BUT GOD JUST WANTS US TO BE WITH HIM and just spend time with HIM! We will feel replenished ourselves by just setting aside that quality time with HIM! He is continually pursuing us, its a matter of us coming to Him for that comfort and encouragement.

"God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort, He comforts us in all our troubles that we can comfort others." - 2 Corinthians 1:3

Young Life is such an amazing ministry I am very thankful to be a part of. I am going to be leaving for camp to serve the Lord for 3 weeks at Lost Canyon in Arizona. It's weird but I dont even feel like I am going. I know God is good and He has things in store during that time to teach me. There are 4 things I am specifically praying for. I would love it if you would pray with me in these things.

1. I graduate in the Fall, I am praying that the Lord will continually confirm my call in Young Life if this is what He wants me to do, If not that He will open a different door for me using my degree in Business.

2. I am praying for rest and just to be filled with His Holy Spirit in abundance.

3. That God will provide peace in my heart with the season I am in.

4. That God will prepare my heart for my Young Life girls graduating next year.

One of my Young Life girls is signed up for Work Crew this summer but she is on wait list. Work Crew is where she works at camp for a month! I am praying that God will open that sport for her to go. 2 of my other Young Life girls are going to be going already please pray that the Lord protects them. Please pray for more kids to sign up for camp as well!

Thank you so much for all your prayers and support, you are all a huge blessing!

Love you all,

Lauren Ngan

YOUNG LIFE UPDATE

Hi friends and family! Thank you so much for your support and prayers in this ministry. Some praises:

-Within the past two months, we have had to new girl leaders! One has a group of freshman girls already!

-WE GOT CAMP SIGN UPS IN! So hopefully this will start flooding in more kids!

-Club has been going great we have a good leadership team and the love of Christ is definetely being shown to these kids!

- God has blessed me with an amazing group of girls, 3 of them will be going to work crew which is them working at camp for a month!

The Lord has definetely been teaching and molding me into a better leader. One thing that has happened to me a couple of times since starting this job is burnout. It is really difficult to balance out your life and Young Life. A couple of weeks ago, I was super stressed out with our Young Life club that we had and Midterms. Corey was out of town and I was pretty much running the show. I had a fear of running club because it was the first time I was going to run it without Corey being there. Going into that club our prayer team was praying that the Lord would provide new freshman boys! At club we were expected to have 40 kids. The Lord provided so abundantly with a group of around 60 kids! It was one of the biggest clubs of the year. It was AWESOME but stressful at the same time. Overall the club went really well, but the next day I had three midterms.

I am in my last couple of semesters of school and I really need to focus on graduating. If you didnt already know, I attend Cal State Long Beach and I will be recieving my bachleors in Marketing in the Fall. My midterms went well however I was completely burnt out with school and Young Life and everything. I realized that I just needed to be replenished and just rest. I feel like burnouts are bittersweet. You are exhausted and feel like you have no energy BUT it humbles you to KNOW that you NEED GOD.

One thing I was reading yesterday was,"

You go before me and follow me. You place your hand of blessing on my head. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too great for me to understand." Psalm 139:5

God has a plan for me in life and in this ministry. God sets that path comes back AND MEETS ME WHERE I AM AT and guides me there. It is so important to have the Lords hand in every aspect of our lives or else it will FAIL. The Lord gives and takes away but gives abundantly MORE each time. We do not know our future but we do know the present, it's a matter of God's hand in the present that will be in accordance to His will.

Please pray for:

- Continual rest with God. That I can really set aside that time and be replenished.

- The Lord will provide a path for Corin Burns, Holly Herzog and Jordan Dixon to go to workcrew.

- That the Lord will provide new girls for me to take to Woodleaf this summer.

- That I can just be patient and TRUST in the Lord and really just wait on Him.

- That the Lord will provide me wisdom for school!

Thank you so much for all of your support and prayers! Love you all!

Lauren

NEW SEMESTER!

HIKING IN LAGUNA

BIG BEAR LEADER RETREAT!

Hello friends and family! I don't think I can ever thank you enough for supporting me in Young Life! It was a great past semester and I am so excited for this upcoming semester to start! During the winter break our area went on a leader retreat up to big bear! It was a great time of fellowship and replenishment for myself and all the leaders. I never have come out of a retreat feeling so connected to the leaders, it was great family time!

At the retreat, one of the nights we had prayer stations. At the prayer stations there were different topics like a mourning wall, praise wall, idol wall, communion... etc. One of these stations was an encouragement station. At the encouragement station I picked up a rock that had Romans 8:27 on it, "And the father knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God's own will. And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them."

As I was looking at all the stations it made me reflect on the past seasons in my life and how the Lord has been so faithful throughout these past years. I was so encouraged and knew at that moment what it meant to take delight in the Lord. That night, before I go to bed I always open up my quote book. The quote that I got from the day was "Don't be scared of your greatness." Meaning don't be scared of the potential you can be and of blessings the Lord will give you. I was journaling my prayers before I went to bed and then I just new I had to read Psalm 37. "Take delight in the Lord and He will give you your heart's desires." On the side note on top of that verse i wrote previously "Don't be scared of your greatness." and a side verse i wrote was Romans 8:27! I WAS SO EXCITED after this but the main thing I realized that when we take delight in the Lord, the Lord gives you your heart desires but you desire God more. I was so encouraged after this retreat!

I have been feeling anxious about the upcoming semester. With school and young life approaching I have been feeling excited but overwhelmed. This past week I had an experience I know it was from the enemy. I had a peace about it and confirmation that I am to just Trust in the Lord. I am so thankful for all of your prayers.

Here are praises and prayer requests I would love if you kept in mind!

PRAISES:

- The Lord provided a handful of NEW LEADERS for our area!

- New groups of kids have been formed for the new leaders

- Replenishing retreat for all the leaders

- 2 of my girls are going to Oakbridge for a Jr Leader retreat next weekend

- Contentment on my heart with the season in life I am in.

PRAYER REQUESTS:

- Continual encouragement

- That kids will start signing up for camp. I am praying that my girls will go a second time around again along with new girls that didn't go last year.

- That God will keep molding my heart and that I will desire His will for me.

- That I will not fear and be anxious

-Spiritual balance in my weekly schedule

- Pray for the kids hearts that every kid will have an opportunity to make a connection with a leader and make that commitment to Christ.

-Pray for male leaders for freshman boys.

- Pray that junior leaders- Holly and Lauren and Corin will be protected and keep thirsting for more of God.

Thank you so much!

Love,

Lauren

Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays! Young Life has been hectic the past month! We are planning our leader Christmas party and our Christmas club for the kids on the 13th along with starting a Jr Leader campaign. Our club is pretty much ran by word of mouth. Kids want to come to club because other people they know are going. I am so excited to start this Jr Leader group so they can really understand the heart of Young Life and really make an impact on their lower classman. It has been overwhelming but I know that this is going to be such a huge aspect in our club! Good news is we have new leaders! It is so crazy how the Lord provides at just the perfect time!

My friend Kayla and I had our first jewelry party! It was a huge success and so much fun! We sold half of our product and it was great to see and catch up with people! Our Young Life girls came!

I always feel like the holidays are crazy but one thing that I need to continually remember is this is a time to celebrate the Lord's birth. I am so excited to share with you what the Lord has been teaching me the past couple of weeks!

" But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’"- Matthew 9:13

I was thinking about the word mercy and what that really means in my life and how can I show mercy/compassion for others. I was thinking how serving others is a huge part of this. The next day, I was reading in Isaiah 58 and how it talks about how the Lord says we are fasting wrong, that He wants us to free the oppressed, feed the hungry... pretty much serving others. God doesn't want my sacrifices and fasting but He wants us to serve. The verse goes more on the Sabbath day to keep it Holy. Then it says,

"Then the Lord will be your delight." -Isaiah 58:14.

The word THEN was just so adamant on my heart. When we serve God THEN the Lord will be my delight. A friend once told me that "Happiness comes from happenings but Joy can only come from Christ alone." If we look at Psalm 37, it says,

"Take delight in the Lord,

and he will give you your heart’s desires."

This was so encouraging to me because I feel like the Lord assured me that I am in the right place where He wants me. There are so many times I feel overwhelmed and stressed out BUT knowing this was just so encouraging.

Thank you so much for all of your prayers and support! Please keep praying for my continual encouragement as well as a balance during this crazy time of the year! Love you all!

Lauren

UPDATE!

Hi everyone! WOW this week has been crazy! We had our 6th annual sofa scavenger hunt on Monday! It was really fun and encouraging to see new freshman at club! I have three Jr. Leaders and two of them took the freshman to Starbucks then club after. Its so awesome to see them take leadership within the club. The freshman girls really look up to my junior girls. Its funny how it is kind of like a hierarchy. My girls look up to me and these freshman girls look up to them and so forth. It is definetely teaching me accountability in ALL aspects of my life not just external factors.

Being on YL staff has been a transition in my life. I really feel like the Lord has put this before me as well as school to focus on. But its learning how to focus on Him within focusing on the opportunities that the Lord has provided. I think I have been good about balancing everything out. My grades have gotten so much better, the Lord has provided focus on my studies and the wisdom. Thank you so much for praying for my midterms, they went well!

Spiritually, the past three days have been so encouraging. I was struggling with not having a sincere thankful heart the past two weeks. I felt like the Lord was blessing me with so many things but yet my focus was still on what I don't have. On Sunday, Branches went over what our treasure is that we need to give up to the Lord. He talked about the story of the hidden treasure and how he buried it again so he can buy the land and the treasure. I was thinking about this today.. why wouldn't he just take the treasure? Why did he have to rebury it? I came to the conclusion that it is like a present, if we found something that we loved and wanted we would rather have it be kept new instead of using it and being used. Then it kind of clicked. It is like our faith.

"Let the children come to me. Don't stop them! For the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I assure you, anyone who doesn't have their kind of faith will never get into the Kingdom of God." We are to have childlike faith. By reburying the treasure it is kept new. We are called to have childlike faith, I believe the Lord is really growing my faith in Him and really truly learning how to surrender all to Him. "How can I expect to walk without Him, with every move that Jesus made was in surrender."- Kim Walker

PLEASE PLEASE PRAY that

* The Lord will keep reminding me to have a childlike faith.

* That I can really surrender all things to Him.

*That I can be humbled and take His discipline as an act of love.

*Desire God's will

* I can be accountable in my motives and in my integrity.

*My Young Life Girls- that my bible study AKA CABIN TIME will be reenergized. I have my CT on Thursday morning at 9:30 AM.

*Encouragement- I feel like the enemy attacks me by discouraging me a lot of the time.

*Energy- that I can be spiritually energized for all YL Activities.

*REST- that I can rest with the Lord and really commit to doing it every Friday

I love you all thank you so much!

Lauren