Young Life Love Stories

mar. 4, 2015

​I met Miranda in third period Spanish class of our sophomore year. ​ Miranda accepted Jesus that year after a club. A little over five years later, we were both serving as WyldLife leaders. I proposed to the woman of my dreams after one club at the spot where she accepted Christ into her heart. We are current Young Life leaders loving God, each other and the youth of Silverton. —Hank

My parents, Mitch and Jeannette, met 33 years ago while serving on work crew at Trail West. They stayed in touch and were good friends for 10 years before dating (and I am so glad they did!). ​Their Young Life love story has become a big part of my story, leading me to meet Jesus at an early age and setting a fire in my heart for ministry! I love leading

my seventh-grade girls in Austin, Texas, and I know would not be the same today if not for my parents meeting in Colorado so many years ago! —Katie

In the summer of 2012, Cody and I were both interning at Washington Family Ranch. Cody was at Creekside (the Middle School camp) doing Guest Services and I was at Canyon (the High School camp) working in Retail. Neither of us had any intentions that a relationship would come from this summer. Throughout the summer we became friends through the intern community. One of the evenings all the interns got together to do some country western line dancing and we ended up dancing together. This is one of our earliest interactions that we like to remember, knowing we had no idea we would get married. After the summer was over, we both moved back to our homes and we decided we would keep in touch. We continued to get to know each other from long distance and felt the Lord doing something in our relationship. After five months of talking long distance we did some traveling and met each other’s families and then we started dating. We dated long distance for a year and then I moved to Denver where Cody was going to Denver Seminary and living at the Downing House. After four months of living in the same place and continuing to see God move in our relationship, we got engaged and were married three months later. We are now spending our first year of marriage raising support and volunteering at Washington Family Ranch, the same place we met! We have no idea what is next for us, but we know the Lord has a wonderful plan, as He does for all of His children.—Taylor

Clay and I met in 2005 when we were volunteer leaders in neighboring Young Life areas in South Dakota. Shortly after his area director moved to take a staff position in Las Crucas, New Mexico, Clay also moved down to New Mexico to help with the new area. He stayed in New Mexico until 2012, going to grad school at UNM and serving on student staff for a while in Las Crucas. Meanwhile, in 2007, I took over as the staff person for Hill City. Clay would come to visit his parents in the summer, and we would go on our "annual lunch date"; occasionally he would help out with a summer Young Life event. In the summer of 2013 Clay moved back to Hill City and became one of my volunteer leaders. We started dating that fall and got married this last Thanksgiving weekend, November 29, 2014! All in God's timing! We decided to have a large wedding, just so that we could invite all of our Young Life kids. They served as ushers, gift and guest book attendants, baristas and dinner help! It was such a wonderful day of celebrating God's faithfulness! —Marci

Richie was a Mountain Bike Trail builder and had been traveling the world on different contracts. In 2012 and into 2013, he was staying at Malibu Club for a year while working on a project down the inlet. I had many years of experience serving at Malibu, and in January 2013, I and my then 4 1/2 year-old daughter, Aurora, spent two months serving at Malibu.

And that’s when we met. We sat one night just by chance beside Richie. He started playing a little game with Aurora, and then he and I started chatting. The next night we intentionally sat together, and the next, and the next. We really liked talking to each other. I invited him up to Kanata, where we were staying, for some ginger tea. We sat out on the deck in sub-zero Celsius temperatures in down jackets and talked for hours. Neither of us were looking for a relationship, but the Lord had other plans for our hearts and for our family. He came back to Canada about five months later on July 30, 2013. We knew right away that a new family unit with the three of us was exactly the gift the Lord was trying to hand us. We don’t like to lollygag around, so we were engaged five days later and married September 1, 2013.

Then we got another great opportunity! On February 6, 2014, just five months after being married, we moved to Malibu Club to be camp staff and live here raising our daughter, Aurora, together in the beautiful place where we met. We are honored to be a missionary family on staff, all three of us giving every aspect of our lives to further the Gospel of Peace and Restoration. Richie and Aurora have taken each other on as their own daughter and father and are now practically inseparable helping around camp, unless there are fun interns around. The Lord redeems brokenness! —Michelle

Brian and I had mutual friends in our Young Life area where we are both volunteer leaders. Brian was notorious for asking girls out (with absolutely the BEST intentions) and getting shot down. He asked me out in December of 2012. I, like many others, said "no" to his offer of a date. But, I changed my mind. The wedding is this coming May 31! You know what they say, Young Life, FIND YOUR WIFE! —Sarah

My fiancé, Jon Moore, and I met three years ago at Washington Family Ranch during Campaigners weekend. We were both freshmen working as work crew; I was a baker and he was a server. I remember standing at the end of the sandwich assembly line as we learned about each other and that was when I truly got to know his heart of service. I immediately knew there was something special about Jon.

During our sophomore year, Jon and I both moved into the college Young Life houses and began our lasting friendship. That year, we went once again to Washington Family Ranch for work crew and he asked me if I wanted to start dating. Of course, I said "yes."

Fast forward two more years and it was time to go to Washington Family Ranch again. However, this time Jon convinced me he cannot go because of work and school, so I decided to go along with the rest of the crew without him.

Well, he lied. As I arrived at the camp, I was taken to the adult guest lodge, where Jon was waiting to ask me to marry him. And of course, once again I said "yes." We believe that God brought us both together through Young Life, and we owe everything to Him and the ministry. It is where we met, grew together and shared many precious memories that will last with us forever. —Makaya