Week 1 was Great

Last week marked the start of a new school/Young Life year. A steady flow of University of Toledo students came back from summer break to resume the college grind. It was fun seeing new students taking pictures of buildings on campus, amazed that they had finally arrived (but they stuck out like sore thumbs!) College freshmen are just so easy to spot.

With the start of the new year, anyone involved in Young Life knows that the first week of college is crucial to the growth and success of a Young Life area in a college town. With all of these new students, we know that this week is the time that college freshmen all over the U.S. will be trying to find out where they fit in on their college campus. They will be exploring life away from home without mom and dad probably for the first time. There will be no one there to wake them up for class in the morning and no one to tell them to clean their room because it is starting to smell. We feel that one of this week's major decisions is whether or not they will decide to fall into the party scene or whether they'll run from it. We decided we wanted to give college freshmen an alternative to partying. We, along with many other Young Life areas around the country, loosely ran a "Rush YL" week.

 Going into the week we had a list of college freshmen that came from local YL areas around Ohio who were attending the University of Toledo. Our plan was to target them. We wanted to make those new freshmen feel apart of our YL leadership team at UT. Monday and Tuesday we tried to connect with our current leaders while trying to "by chance" bump into the kids on our list. Wednesday was the UT activities fair. A day consisting of every campus organization setting up a table to tell new students about their group on campus. The Young Life table was hopping all day. We had tons of kids sign up, expressing interest in joining our training program for new leaders. Later that evening we had a great cookout of coney dogs from Rudy's Hot Dogs.

Jonah getting in on the Activities Fair

I mean it wouldn't have been a YL event without the catch phrase

Sean explaining Toledo YL to a new student

Thursday we got together in the middle of UT's campus to play Ultimate Frisbee and had a great turnout. Friday was a long night but a ton of fun for Young Life in Toledo. It started where our leaders can be found every Friday night--at local high schools amongst the student section, mixing it up with kids, sharing life, being a friend to the friendless. It was the Ketterman family's first opportunity to attend a Perrysburg football game. It was a little different not being in Springfield but as soon as the first kick was made, we felt right at home. When the games were finally over that night, we reconvened on Toledo's campus to have a Pizza Party and hangout with new students. When it was all said and done, I made it home around 2:00 am. A night well spent.

Perrysburg vs. Bowsher 2012
Perrysburg is now 1-0.

I was spent after that marathon night but the weekend would continue. Saturday and Sunday we had the opportunity to take all of our current Young Life leaders to a lake in Michigan. We wanted the weekend to be a time for us to be together, a time to dive into the Word, and a time to cast vision for the rest of the year. We accomplished everything we set out to do with the weekend. It was amazing! I feel like I could go on and on about how great it was but I'll let a few pictures do the talking.

The fellas fooling around on the lake.

The girls hanging out before tubing.

Danny and Sean riding on Loch Erin

Tiffany, Emily, Shana and Amy getting ready to kill Mable.

Strole tossing the old pigskin.

Please be praying for Toledo as you read this. Pray that we will love Jesus well and that well will love each other well. Pray for our new class of incoming freshmen/potential new leaders. Pray that the Lord will break their hearts for the lost adolescents of Toledo. We start First Year Fellowship tomorrow evening at 9:00 pm. If you think about it, say a prayer for us as we meet these new folks.