A short update - more information, pictures and videos soon to come!
Christmas is now over, but the holiday season is still alive and well in Onalaska Young Life. We have completed 7 days of our Christmas Madness Meltdown - Thorbecks Dive-in Theater, Halo Tournament, Christmas Movie Marathon, Christmas Party, Gingerbread House Building Contest, Bonfire, and Photo Scavenger Hunt. We took 3 days off for Christmas, and are picking up the madness again today. Almost every day I woke up during the madness, I would wonder "why in the world did I plan 12 days of madness?" I was in survival mode - get through the day, sleep, survive the following day. The provision of strength and grace from God is beyond comprehension. Each day when I would get to our event, I would be filled with endless amounts of energy. All of the events went better than I could have hoped. Some days we had over 40 students - one day we only had 10. And each day, we had exactly the amount of students that God wanted us to have at that event. It was an amazing time to bask in the sufficient Grace of God, contemplate the true meaning of Christmas, and further build relationships with the students.
My favorite event so far has been the bonfire. The night was a perfect blend of good food, good company, sharing time around the fire, and a good old game of Human Tug-of-War (two teams, one on each side of a rope that is on the ground. The goal is to pull the members of the opposite team onto your side of the rope - the team who succeeds in pulling all of the other members of the other team to their side wins. Not a game for the week and frail). It was loud, it was crazy, the fire was warm, and the beef stew was to die for. It was one of those moments where you could just tell that God was dwelling in that place. There was a very strong sense of His Peace that night.
One of our goals for the 12 days of Christmas was to reach out to students who usually don't attend the events we already have going. Almost every day so far we have had new students attending the events! It has been so exciting!
The food that has been donated for these events has been such a blessing. Everyone goes home full and happy! Thank you so much to everyone who was a part of the effort to provide food. You have no idea the extend of the blessing that you have been.
Thank you all for your prayers and support! We have another 5 days back to back with more events. After we have completed our madness, I will be posting pictures, videos, and more information about the event. Please continue to pray for the students and the upcoming events!
Grace and Peace,
Bethany
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