2019 Young Life Love Stories

By Young Life Alumni and Friends
Mar. 20, 2019

We serve as Young Life volunteers and staff members so our friends can hear about Jesus. Sometimes the Lord also uses this ministry to bring two people together, and we love to celebrate these lifelong relationships! Here are some of the stories we received:

“My husband, Jake, and I met through Young Life new leader training during our first semester at Grove City College. We got to know each other throughout the year, but really hit it off when we were both leading camp trips at Rockbridge that summer. We started dating a few months later and continued to lead throughout college. We met in 2013 and got married last November!”​ — Jamieson Gordon​

“I had just started dating my wife in early 2001 when she invited (and paid) for me to go to Family Camp at Wildhorse Canyon. About a week before the camp, I realized that my son had a soccer tournament that same weekend. I was so very close to calling and apologizing for not being able to go — but I didn't. Instead, I went and met Jesus. Suddenly, we had Him in common. In September 2003, we were married by our area director (Todd Tardie) and another pastor (we wanted two pastors) and have been happily together ever since. Young Life and Wildhorse Canyon will always hold special places in our hearts.”​ — Mike Plotycia

“My fiancé, Zac Ross, and I met on summer staff at Castaway Club in 2017. Both of us were last-minute signups; I signed up about three weeks in advance, begging the office at Castaway to have an open female spot, and he signed up one week in advance after taking his Young Life boys there.

After our session ended, we both went home — I to Colorado and he to Missouri — and began chatting. Within a month he had come to visit and we began dating shortly after that. A year-and-a-half of long distance dating later, he popped the question. Now we are engaged and he is preparing to move to Colorado to continue onto seminary! We are so thankful for Young Life and Castaway bringing us together!”​ — Joslynn Shamis

“In June of 2013, I boarded the bus to Young Life camp, ready and excited for an amazing week ahead at SharpTop Cove. A few minutes into the bus ride, I started a conversation with the cute boy across the aisle from me, which turned out to be the best decision I ever made. Zac and I talked for hours on the long bus ride from Michigan to Georgia, passed notes back and forth, and right away we both knew who our ‘camp crush’ was going to be that week. Throughout that week at camp, we went on the zipline together, played soccer and beach volleyball with our friends, and had honest conversations with each other about what we were learning about Jesus and the ways we were growing in our faith. On the bus ride home, we sat next to each other for the entire 14 hours, talking the whole way.

“We dated our last two years of high school and continued to become more involved with Young Life. We both became WyldLife leaders our senior year. We went to separate colleges (The University of Michigan and Hope College), where we both became WyldLife team leaders. Although we were leading from separate sides of the state, we often had the chance to lead at camp the same winter weekends and took every chance we could to be involved in the ministry of Young Life together.

“Now, six years later, we are engaged and so excited to start our new journey of marriage together in a few months. We are both recent college grads, beginning our careers and loving the chance to finally do life together after four years of long distance. We are both leaders in Northwest Grand Rapids, where I am on Young Life staff as a staff associate. We are so thankful for the impact the ministry of Young Life has had and continues to have on both of our lives, and so grateful for the gift to serve together. When we met at camp, we had no idea that six years later we would be serving as leaders together, that I would be working for Young Life full-time, and that we would be planning our wedding and preparing for the rest of our lives together. God's timing is perfect, and we are constantly in awe of the Lord's good, good gifts.”​ — Carolyn Williams