YL Capernaum Everywhere

We love how ministries are always looking for ways to better what they are doing! Check out Orlando's name tags for club. Love the photo on there for everyone to see! Such a great idea!

My experience at NorthBay this summer was great and beautiful. I served this summer on summer staff. It felt great to serve others and serve Christ. I loved to serve the middle school students because it made me a happy person. I was really glad to see Christ in all the campers. And It was cool that the campers saw me in Christ’s world. My favourite part was work crew and summer staff’s night because when it was my turn to say my name, where I am from, and what my job was, then all the campers were cheering for me because I was the light of Christ for the campers. How I knew that was because I heard God’s voice. One day, my summer staff boss asked me to share my testimony with our team. When I started to write my story down, it was hard for me because I never did that before in my life. But I still did that because God wanted me to open my heart for the team. A few days later, I shared my testimony with them. Everyone on my summer staff team was happy and had a big smile bec...

Have you ever questioned your value? Your worth? Have you ever questioned if God could really use you or if you’re too broken, too inadequate? I can speak from personal experience and say that if you have asked these questions, you’re not alone. Often when we question our worth or our value, when we question whether or not God could actually use us for a great purpose, we connect that with our performance. We work so hard to get others to like us – to get God to like us and be proud of us. When we succeed, we feel great. But when we fall short, we find ourselves in despair. I know this cycle is all too familiar to me. And then Jesus invites us to “Come and see,” to spend time with Him and see life through His eyes. I think God is on a mission to dispel in us the myth that our worth is somehow connected to our performance. This summer God chose to send this great and mighty message to me and many others through the humblest of packages. Liz is a 20 year old bundle of infectious energ...

Thank you James for sharing your story! Being on Summer Staff at Lake Champion this past July was the best experience of my life by far. It was better than any vacation I've been to so far, mainly because of the Summer Staff crew. They were strangers from all over the world that quickly became friends, and by the end of the month, we were family. At first, I was really nervous about making friends and fitting in. However, being united as followers of Jesus allowed us to become so close so quickly. Being brothers and sisters in Christ made everyone a lot more open with each other, which I’m not really used to. However, everyone amazed me by how open they were to sharing their testimonies and the hardships they’ve been through. Not only that, but I really got a better picture of how Jesus’ forgiveness has no limits by listening to everyones stories. It really challenged me to be more open with people, as God can use the work He is doing in people’s lives to encourage, inspire, a...

by Brad Mowry, Eastern Division Capernaum Coordinator I remember the doctor’s words clearly, “It’s a girl.” My wife said, “Really?!” She was convinced we were having a boy. It was our first child and we decided to wait and be surprised by the gender. Holding Hannah in my arms that morning, I could hardly believe I was a father. I began to dream about all the fun times we would have. I was young, but I could picture growing old and Hannah growing up. I pictured birthday parties, soccer games, prom nights, and someday walking her down the aisle to give her away (to some guy who probably didn’t deserve her!). Five months later all those dreams shattered as the doctor told us, “She has brain-damage and is probably blind.” Like a piece of paper sucked out of a car window, those dreams slipped out too fast to grab them. We moved on without those dreams: birthday parties included only family, there would be no soccer, no prom, no aisle to walk down and no guy – deserving or not – to who...

During our Capernaum Pre-Conference at YL75, we had the privilege of hearing from Young Life’s Senior Vice President, John Wagner. John has a strength and tenderness that is unmatchable. He can weep while he delivers a message that punches you in the stomach… all for the glory of God at work within our hearts. John was vulnerable with us, as he shared snippets of his story. His story of welcoming a son into the world who has Down Syndrome. A birth that quickly seemed like a defeat, but a life that has brought fullness, joy, truth, learning, grace and community in ways that they could have never imagined. David has taught many lessons in his life but one that John challenges us with is authenticity: what would it look like if as believers we were honest? Honest authentic believers. Imagine that ministry.   And more than anything, listen and soak in his heart of gratitude. You, you the one reading this and watching this video, this message of gratitude is for you. Th...

We are so excited to have a guest writer, Moges Beressa, International Regional Director from Young Life Ethiopia, contribute to our blog!  For additional information, check out this blog written by Moges and Suzanne Williams (Southern Div Capernaum Coordinator) about Moges' vision for every leader in Ethiopia praying for a relationship with a kid with disability! It was 10 months back when we found this rehabilitation center in the capital city Addis Ababa. The center is run by a local NGO called ALEMACHIN. This organization works for the whole country helping kids who are born with deformed hands and legs. A hospital near by the center (Paulos Hospital) does all of the surgery for kids and the rehabilitation center takes care of them until they fully recover. But, as we observed many of them stay forever because their parents or relatives never come back to get them. These kids were left by their parents or relatives and used to beg by the side of the road for their...

At camp, each night there’s a fun game up on stage in which campers are chosen to participate in front of the whole 400+ people at camp. Last Monday night one of the campers, who was having a great time at camp but who doesn’t like loud noises and is a bit socially awkward, was chosen to come up on stage. He bravely walked up there, with his leader close behind him. The game on this particular evening involved the camper laying down on a scooter while holding a laundry basket. Meanwhile his leader was to push and pull him while he used the laundry basket to scoop small, colorful balls from the middle of the stage into their corner. The team that gathers the most balls wins. Gradually teams were eliminated until it was just our friend and his leader and one other team. They battled and the other team was really good at this game; they were scooping up lots of the little colorful balls and their pile was overflowing. Our team was hanging in there, but their pile was substantially...