Young LIfe Retreat 2011 (Pt.2 The Devotion and Leadership Session)- Legacy of Miracles

Posted earlier this week was the media content most commented on after the session. Here is the link for the live leadership session contribution from the Young LIfe Michiana leadership team. http://vimeo.com/19236560

May it be a blessing in your personal missions and a tool to empower you in your calling to be a branch in Christ.

TEAR OFF THE LABELS

Wonder if Labels are important? Imagine coming home from an hour of grocery shopping only to find as you open each item over the week...the labels were wrong!! Unfortunately, that could never compare to how horrible it is when a child is living by internal labels others and ignorance have given. I often wonder what their response would be if my ancestors of slavery could hear my young brothers today calling each other the "N" word, "dog" and "boy"? Worst yet my beautiful sisters, I hear you calling each other labels like B's and farm tools and yet you wonder why your esteem is bleeding. Maybe someone has labeled you...(ADHD, Drop Out, Nerd).

Here's some TRUE soul food marvelously spoken to music for THE HERO in you..YOU ARE GREATER THAN THE WORDS YOU HEAR, GREATER THAN THE THINGS YOU FEAR..IT'S NOT CLEAR NOW BUT ONE DAY YOU'LL BE ABLE TO BREAK FREE AND TEAR OFF THE LABELS.

Young Life Leader Retreat 2011

It's a real privilege to serve with special young adult heroes called to saving Young Lives. Here is the video media content we shared including the "Excuses" video clip and "Completing the Mission". The actual live video of leaders participation will be blogged over the next few days.

HERO FUNNY BONE 2

HERE IS ANOTHER EPISODE OF CAPTIONS FROM THE IMAGINATION CONTESTS...

1 Posted by Cherie Dorning on 1/9/2010 11:03:13 PM

I warned you!

2 Posted by Anna Coffey *WR Alumni (Jan '09)* on 1/9/2010 11:52:07 PM

"Paparazzi Be Warned!"

3 Posted by Crista Darr on 1/10/2010 12:37:34 AM

To mount up with wings like eagles gets a whole new meaning.

4 Posted by dave spaite on 1/10/2010 12:57:28 AM

I told you not to take my picture befor I put my make up on!

5 Posted by Spano on 1/10/2010 1:01:16 AM

War Eagle!

6 Posted by Josh Bruce on 1/10/2010 1:04:27 AM

Frodo, the fellowship has been compromised. I must take you back to Rivendell.

7 Posted by Kathy L. on 1/10/2010 8:12:39 AM

Capture me on film? I capture you for real!

8 Posted by Kathy L. on 1/10/2010 8:14:02 AM

Oops. Another one. "Scratch a little more to the left and down."

9 Posted by Bondi on 1/10/2010 8:16:36 AM

As usual, Gandalf arrives late and brakes something.

10 Posted by Eric H on 1/10/2010 8:17:04 AM

You dolt I said NO mayonnaise!

11 Posted by Deb Simon on 1/10/2010 8:42:04 AM

Here, let me get that itch for you.

12 Posted by Karin Elder on 1/10/2010 8:42:55 AM

I have been looking forward to mounting up on wings of eagles. Think I changed my mind.

13 Posted by Mark on 1/10/2010 8:47:02 AM

CUT!

14 Posted by Sarah on 1/10/2010 9:37:10 AM

Mike was suddenly grateful for the 5 extra lbs. he had gained during the holidays. Good luck getting me off the ground, buddy!

15 Posted by Kelly H. on 1/10/2010 11:09:59 AM

"God gave ME the eagle eyes, not you & your silly camera on the ground..."

16 Posted by Jen S on 1/10/2010 11:36:30 AM

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA #13 IS THE BEST!!!!

17 Posted by Rozy McCormick on 1/10/2010 12:52:33 PM

"No please, I don't want to be a leader, I'm a chicken not an eagle, I'm a chicken!"

18 Posted by Valentina on 1/10/2010 12:54:36 PM

Finding small rodents and rabbits in short supply during winter, this bird went for the next best thing... the paparazzi.

19 Posted by Suzanne on 1/10/2010 3:15:26 PM

Bird: "Man I really have to get my eyesight checked! From a 1,000ft up this looked like a large rabbit."

20 Posted by Jen Schwab on 1/10/2010 3:48:03 PM

Bird: "No, I will NOT be signing your photo release."

21 Posted by Elysa Mac on 1/10/2010 4:40:30 PM

You will soar with eagle's wings...whether you like it or not.

22 Posted by **mArC** The Schifano Tribe on 1/10/2010 7:13:12 PM

"I'm so sick of this. Maybe missions isn't that bad after all."

23 Posted by Gene Newton on 1/10/2010 9:12:18 PM

The Eagle Has Landed!

24 Posted by Brett Oliver on 1/10/2010 9:33:17 PM

These spiritual attacks sure feel real...

25 Posted by Jeff H on 1/10/2010 10:57:48 PM

Film THIS!!

26 Posted by Cheryl Trudel on 1/11/2010 6:58:22 AM

"C'mon big guy! You want a picture, I'll show you a panorama your camera can only dream of but never capture. Work with me here..."

A FEW GOOD MEN

I would rather be a child at heart proving capable of handling adult responsibility than an "adult" at heart acting out the foolishness of a child. I could hardly wait (like everybody else) for that new found 18 year old freedom to pursue and swim in "adult" material, and "adult beverages" and "adult" language..well, you know? I mean that is our right of passages into being real man and women... right? Well... I did finally fall low enough in my my own life to finally admit in the words of Lt. Caffey (Tom Cruise) in the movie "A FEW GOOD ME"...IT JUST AIN'T SO. This statement came in his opening defense statement for two marines on trial for murder and in essence, on trial for their lives. Though in that movie it was a tough (seemingly impossible) case for him to make in defense of their innocence, It is a clear open and shut case with evidence undisputed that much of what was in my teen years and is today labeled before us on our televisions and magazines as adult is to the contrary destructive childishness. You know, those kind of "oops" type messes and quick sands we all ventured into as kids without any consideration of the dangers, or the ramifications!!! Remember how we never had a thought in our mind about the road this action might be taking us down? Is that really ADULT? So in the first of many segments on this topic, I am make this plea. I make this plea as a person of color to persons of all colors and cultures. The plea is for the truly satisfied life you seek, if not for yourself then for your loved ones. It is simply this: GROW UP. Never before have I stood over so many youth caskets or watched so many tears of mothers and grandmothers in court rooms shed for their children because we can't handle the truth about what truly breeds...A FEW GOOD MEN. Never before have I seen so many young ladies robbed of their innocence and dignity because someone didn't have a clue about being truly "ADULT". When I watch this video, the tanks are symbolic of the army of images robbing the imagination. The army of adult poisons that had me fooled and sought to kill and destroy the true beauty we were all intended to blossom into. Surrender our nation and children to "adult hood" as some know it? NOT ON MY WATCH. We are on trial for their lives. STAND UP...For The Hero In You.

A WHOLE NEW WORLD

In the movie Prince of Egypt, the theme song sang by Alladin to the Princess was a song called a "A Whole New World". It starts with the following promise: "I can show you the world, shining shimmering splendid, tell me Princess now when did you last let your heart decide? I can open your eyes...take you wonder by wonder, over sideways and under...on a magic carpet ride." How is it that a simple movie made for children be so in touch with what it is to live? In a recent biography interview, actor Kevin Spacey (starred in Pay It Forward, another hero movie) to paraphrase that the essence of a satisfied life is reaching peak performance in one's true call in life. Have you heard that voice? It doesn't matter how young or old you are, once you answer with action to it...you enter into a WHOLE NEW WORLD of satisfaction especially if it is connected with service to others. I was challenged during a cross road period in my own journey when I heard one of my mentors say that the only thing more cowardly than someone who breaks a promise is someone so shallow as to avoid making a good one. The following media from my collection shines deserved light in a dark world on the character of a unsung hero proving it's never too late to make & keep a promise, and...that to be a peak performance teacher is never in vain.

"For The Hero In You"

RK

LEAVE A LEGACY

There is not a week that goes by that I find myself hearing comments by people, young and old, suggesting they would rather have lived in some time in the past or wish they could live in some utopian time in the future. Since words and thoughts are contagious, the full blown message is Annie singing "the sun will come out...tomorrow". After giving it some thought, I'm sure it probably could be a sunnier, rosier, and easier if I had a genie or the prolific "Candy Man" who in the song is someone....

Who can take tomorrow
Dip it in a deam
Seperate the sorrow
And collect up all the cream?

I mean, let's face it. Looking back on yester-year or the good ol' days, there is surely some things that are long gone which we don't have today that I want. And surely some things that we have now in a negative way that didn't exist then, that I just don't want to live with today. But if that is as far as our focus can go, we may short change ourselves of one of the greatest blessings that the United States Of America and the freedoms fought by all cultures have given us. That blessing is Legacy which carries more importance in our wonderful intersection of heritages than anywhere else. By one definition, a legacy is something handed down by an ancestor or predecessor from the past. Yet, like everything else, this can be a neglected and unappreciated gift when we become like spoiled children. Not that we don't "honor" with our mouth the past. But our revealed murmuring and victim like attitudes reveal once again how when spoiled we often suffer. And it's not because we "need" more but often because we have neglected or are oblivious to "who" and "what" we have. Do we understand what it is to inherit a country where we have the freedom to enterprise? Do we understand what dreams we are living in today that our some of our ancestors prayed for and some of which they thought were impossible? If we do not appreciate the answers, what possible Legacy can we be giving to the next generation? We will cover more of those specific prayers and hopes from the past in future Leave A Legacy segments. But without dispute, I am thankful for the life that I have in America today. There are great men and women who have gone before me to allow me to live a life more advanced than the parents of this poor Mississippi boy could have dreamed possible. I am walking in their dream. I am living their Legacy. The ques

tion is, what kind will I leave?

"Candy Man"? I have been given, with the gift of this country, much better than that. I (we) have had passed down by in essence the shoulders of "Candy Men & Women" of a prior time. To quote Isaac Newton, "If I can see further, It is by standing on the shoulders of Giants".

"For The Hero In You"

RK