“You Were Made For This.”

Young Life of the Grand Valley fosters local youth with the idea of being made to love Jesus.

By: Julia Blanchette

Young Life is a worldwide organization that is evangelistic in nature and has implemented itself in 100 different countries throughout the world. This Christian ministry has a mission to introduce adolescents everywhere to Jesus and assist their growth in faith. The organization first originated in 1947 and is notoriously known for owning 26 summer camps scattered inside and outside of the United States. These camps are solely focused on spreading the love of Jesus and building relationships within faith.

Young Life is made up of four separate outreach programs which cater to adolescents in a multitude of age ranges. These four divisions cater to middle school, high school, and college students, with one additional division focused on reaching teen mothers. 

Young Life of the Grand Valley is the sector of this ministry that is available to adolescents in Grand Junction, Palisade, and Fruita. The organization aims to make faith accessible for all students by hosting biweekly meetings on school property. Meetings are run by a team of volunteer leaders with a desire to disciple youth. Each meeting consists of community-building games and a brief religious message.  

Sammy DeYoung is a Young Life college leader and a current student at Colorado Mesa University. She has been a youth leader for three years and completed a formal training process to receive her position. Within that training, she, amongst other leaders, was introduced to the ministry’s unique way of reaching students. 

“Our main philosophy as leaders is that we go wherever the students are,” DeYoung said. “We hope to encourage students by letting them know they do not need to go to a church to reach God because God will reach them wherever they are at.”

Leadership for Young Life is structured with a multitude of layers. For each region Young Life populates in, there is both a regional and area director. The regional director for the west end of the Grand Valley, where Grand Junction resides, is Jon Sundstorm. The area director is Luke Feather. Both of these individuals are tasked with supervising and guiding the leaders who serve the local schools. 

Young Life of the Grand Valley is one of the smaller regions of the ministry due to its geographical population. High school youth leader Natalie Alsum views the smaller population size as a positive. 

“I would describe Young Life of the Grand Valley as a family when referring to our gathering dynamic,” Alsum said. “I feel as if the kids know and love each other very well, and even the kids they don’t know are welcomed in right away.” 

For many, adolescent years often come with many new challenges instigated by growth. Adolescents begin to undergo both physical and emotional changes at a high rate of speed. According to the Centerstone nonprofit health system, nearly 90% of teens have reported having experienced some form of peer pressure. This highlights the need youth have for creating healthy friendships and relationships. 

“Young Life is one of the best ways for people of all ages to find lifelong friends and an overwhelming community within a shared love for Jesus,” Alsum said. “The youth leaders I work closely with do a wonderful job nurturing Christ centered friendships between students.”

Young Life of the Grand Valley regularly serves the local youth, as each division holds a recurring bi-weekly meeting. These local leaders pray over youth and make personal relationships with students as frequently as possible while also planning fun events for students to enjoy. The local leaders recently coordinated a large cornhole tournament at Canyon View Vineyard church. 

Young Life of the Grand Valley is only one small region of the entire organization. Young Life, as a cooperation, has multiple outreach projects outside of school youth groups and summer camps. The organization has worked on printing and donating Bibles to kids in Africa and the Middle East. In 2022 alone, 82,000 Bibles were donated, and 42,000 additional copies were created to be handed out in the coming months.