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2016 Love Stories
mar. 15, 2016
Carly and Nathan
We first met as summer staff at Timber Wolf Lake. Over the next year, we became really good friends and started dating. For the next two summers, we both interned at Southwind. When the program team did the opera for summer staff and work crew, they convinced me to be a part of a magic trick. I jumped up out of a box to no one applauding. The next thing I knew I was being proposed to! We met at a Young Life camp and got engaged at a Young Life camp. I am very thankful for the ministry bringing us together. We've now been married for two years!
Emmi and Luke
My fiancé and I officially met at a Young Life Campaigners weekend in January 2014, while Luke was a volunteer leader and I was on staff. I was leading worship that weekend, and he always says it was love at first sight. It took me a little longer to fall in love, but we dated for one year and three months. On July 22, 2015, he drove me to Saranac Village camp to propose to me, and I said YES! Saranac Village has become very special to us because the summer before we officially met I was on the ropes course as a leader and he was on summer staff. I always joke that I was a hot mess and sweating a lot because of how nervous I was up in the air. We had our first slow dance at Saranac while I was on assignment, and he told me he loved me for the first time on Sail Beach under the stars during a leadership weekend. We are going to be married on February 27, 2016, and we’re SO EXCITED to start life together. We both now lead Young Life together in Webster, New York, where I am on staff and enjoy hanging out with our Young Life kids, watching Netflix, spending time with friends in downtown Rochester, drinking yummy coffee, and talking for hours. We thank Young Life for us meeting and for being part of God bringing us together!
Marywinn and Dicky
He said it was love at first sight! He also said I couldn't take my eyes off of him! The truth is that it was my first week going to club as a volunteer leader. I recognized this young man (I took tennis lessons from his dad) but did not know him. I spoke to him out of politeness, knowing he was "new in town," and because I knew some of his family. In the two years he lived in Shelby with his family, he easily assimilated into local life and played the guitar for club.
One day he invited me to play tennis, so I warned him that I really could not play — only to find out that he couldn't either! It was a disaster and I thought our acquaintance would end there. But as a recent college graduate still living at home while working and saving money, the appeal to "get out" won over and the rest is history. We went to dinner and he had lovely manners and a great smile, and 40 years later, we agree that we are so glad we both were at that Young Life club at Shelby High School in January1976! We married the last day of that same year and Young Life has been a part of our lives throughout our whole journey together! What a ride!
Bailey and Grant
My fiancé, Grant, and I got engaged almost two weeks ago! We are currently juniors in college; I go to Butler and he goes to Purdue. We met at the leaders meeting before camp but didn't talk much while at SharpTop Cove. However, after the week at camp he asked for my number. Soon after, we had our first date at a Denny's gas station between Chicago, where I live, and Purdue. We are thankful for the way that Jesus brought us together and that we both are so involved in Young Life!
Marion and Sally
In the fall of 1971, I moved to Columbia, South Carolina, to serve as the city's first area director. I sent out word to all my Young Life buddies in the Southeast to send me the names of potential volunteers for our new Young Life programs. Sally Craig, a middle-school teacher and a Young Life leader in Greenville, South Carolina, had just moved to Columbia. She showed up at our meeting for prospective workers at the Russell House on the University of South Carolina campus.
It was not love at first sight. Sally ended up at the Columbia High Young Life club and I led the Dreher club, but we became friends over the year as we spent time together at leadership meetings and Young Life camps. Friendship led to love, marriage, and two beautiful daughters and one grandson. That was over 43 years ago and we are still happily married.
Ian and Emily
I am the area director in Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada, and I met my wife through Young Life just over two years ago at a regional leaders retreat. I saw her and thought she was the prettiest woman in the room and I had to get to know her. A few months later we both went to our regional “Work and Grow” weekend at Saranac Village. There on the boat dock we both knew we wanted to date. A year later on that very dock on a beautiful starry night I proposed to her. We’ve now been married for a month!
Millicent and Nick
From Nick: In May 2011 I was off to Lost Canyon where I'd be serving high school students during the best week of their lives as a morning cook. There were about 50 of us serving on summer staff, and little did I know that one of these ladies would end up being the love of my life. The moment she introduced herself I immediately thought, "Wow, that’s an interesting name!" The month went by and we all traveled back home. I had a feeling that this girl would be something special in my life, so we stayed in contact. The frequent texts and occasional phone calls would lead to an amazing friendship. So after getting to know her more, I knew she was the one and I booked my flight to Atlanta. When I got off that plane and found my way to her, my heart stopped and so did time. On October 30, 2015, I got down on one knee and that is just the beginning of our #Lampalovestory.
Alana and David
The summer of 2007 I met my husband at Windy Gap! I was on staff in the kitchen and he was a summer intern. I was always a bit cynical of the "summer love" that happened all around me each year. But, one ropes intern started hanging out in the kitchen that summer and began helping more and more. We had a lot of fun with the other interns and staff that summer getting to know each other. David asked me on our first date as soon as summer ended. We dated long distance, were engaged in December 2007 and married in May 2008!
Getting to know David through Young Life was such an incredible way to meet someone, and Young Life has remained special to us through the years. It is hard to believe we are coming up on our eighth wedding anniversary and now we have a family of our own!
Mary and Cliff
My husband, Cliff, and I met on the train in 1964 where we were both accompanying kids from Frontier Ranch in Colorado back to their homes in Chicago, Illinois. We stayed up all night talking and falling in love. We got married seven months later! We then spent the first five years of our marriage working at Trail West every summer.
Malia and Luke
LUKE'S SIDE: The first time we met she picked me up from the airport to take me to the Young Life camp in Oregon, where we would work together for a month on summer staff. She got lost on her way home from the airport in her hometown and laughed the whole way. I took away a few things from all of this: She loves Jesus, she's the most easy-going girl I've ever met, she's funny, and she's bad with directions. Aside from the last one she sounded like a winner, and the rest is history. We will be getting married this July!
