YL Capernaum Everywhere

A guest post by Brittany Mazuchowski.... Earlier this month I had the privilege of watching one of our leaders, Matt, give the talk at Capernaum Club. The scripture we’re focusing on this semester is the sinful woman who anoints Jesus. Matt began by telling a few funny stories about himself as a high school student. He wasn’t standing in front alone though, our friend Alan was standing right beside him, copying his every move and gesture. After he read the woman’s encounter with Jesus, Matt brought up our friend Cade, and showed them what it looks like to wash someone’s feet, what it could have looked like for the woman to wash Jesus’ feet. Obviously he wasn’t using tears, his hair, and an alabaster jar of perfume like the woman from the bible, but instead a bin, a bottle of body wash, some warm water and a loofah. It was such a sweet picture, to see Matt washing Cade’s feet (which honestly, probably needed to be washed- he doesn’t like socks, and hates wearing shoes, takes th...

A guest post by Nkosi Sampindi... We have only had Capernaum ministry in Zimbabwe for almost a year now. It really has been both eye opening and life-changing specifically for my wife and myself. I first got the challenge to reach out to kids with disabilities in January 2014 when I was asked the question of "are you really going after ALL kids?" On reflecting on this I realized that although I've been in Young Life for a while I had not been deliberate about reaching out to any kids with disabilities and had also not encouraged members of my team to do so as well. Fast forward a year later, to today and my wife and I have connected with a lady who is a teacher called Esther Moyo at a special school called Riverside Collegiate for kids with mental disabilities or learning disorders and we have started doing contact work, club and sports at the school. We learned early on that this was not going to be contact work and club as we were already used to because we ne...

Join many areas by inviting all of your volunteer leaders to your Young Life office for a letter writing morning.  Provide coffee, snacks and all of the necessary supplies.  Communicate with leaders, well in advance, and have them bring their laptop, as well as a list of names and addresses that they want to send a letter to. Some areas offer a template for a leader to use (word for word or to adjust to make it personal).  This can be so helpful, as it gives leaders a place to begin from and helps them really communicate the philosophy and vision behind why it is not only important, but crucial even, that our friends in Capernaum have a YL Camp experience.  Whether it be a local area Day Camp, an inclusion week or one of our Capernaum weeks- our friends are getting the chance to hear the gospel in another form, outside of club and spending time with their YL leader.  This is incredible!   Don't miss the gift of inviting your community in to the opportun...

Looking for a great way to meet new kids and parents?! Check out this idea from our friends in Northern, VA... The top two ways that leaders in Northern Virginia are meeting new kids are from special education teachers and parents.  The team has decided that they want these folks to always be equipped to talk to new families so they have put together a great flyer and printed them in mass quantity.  They were able to get nice, glossy flyers from gotprint.com for a relatively inexpensive cost (2000 flyers for $50). The team keeps a box at club and encourages parents to take as many as they want and pass them out to new families! Thanks for the great idea  and for the example  Chris!

Christen Morrow de Ara is hosting monthly calls for us to continue to discuss what it looks like for Capernaum and the church to come together.  Below are the notes from the first call.  You don't want to miss these! We are so excited to be talking about how Young Life Capernaum can work with the Church. As a mission, Young Life has been transformed by our friends with disabilities. Since Nick Palermo began bringing friends with disabilities to Young Life clubs and camps almost 30 years ago, we have seen God at work refining and changing us as a mission to be more compassionate, sensitive, joyful, alive, and a more complete expression of the body of Christ. We want to share our friends with the Church. We want to see the body of Christ in our country and around the world be as blessed, enriched, and transformed by our friends as we have been in the mission of Young Life. We believe that our friends have gifts and abilities that are missing in the Church and that we are ...

What can you do in your area to build momentum?  How can you give the community a chance to "come and see"?  How can you include new folks in what you are doing?  How can you give your friends in Capernaum the chance to do something they never thought they could do? The answers are unique to every area, but many areas of YL are doing an amazing job at this.  One great example is what happens every year in Virginia Beach!  They host their annual Surf Camp.  It's a one day event that involved hundreds of people.  It's unique, it's team building, it's exposure, it's awesome! Virginia Beach staff and leaders invite kids and families to come out to the beach.  They rally hundreds of volunteers and surfers to help out both in and out of the water.  The day is packed with excitement, with cheering and with people experiencing the gospel.  The goal is simple:  "come and see".  One day that build momentum, creates me...

A guest post by Brittany Mazuchowski and Kerry Nall My friend Hannah has been coming to Young Life Capernaum for the past few years. She started out making the long trek from Franklin to Nashville to attend club, despite her anxiety and sensory issues- both of which were heightened at club. The club that Hannah currently attends was birthed out of the growth Nashville was experiencing and meets closer to Hannah’s home. Her mom, Kerry, said that she is so thankful to have heard about Capernaum from other parents who were raving about the experience.   Thanks to parents who shared Capernaum with her, she now tells other families about Capernaum every chance she gets. She says its one of the first things she asks when she meets a new family with a child with a disability because it has been such a blessing for her daughter and her family. How did Hannah’s family go from not even considering camp as an option to signing Hannah up for weekend camp? Kerry would be the first ...