You Were Made For This.

(These are the ramblings of Joel)
At Young Life's All Staff Conference in Orlando, Denny Rydberg, Young Life's president, revealed a new logo for Young Life. Of course, I'm kind of partial to the way we chose to reveal it to you - much cuter! There are apparently many reasons for the change, and one of the reasons that made the most sense to me was that the circle "YL," or the "bug" as YL staffers recognize it, has a translational problem for our international ministry. The "Y" and the "L" don't mean anything to people who don't speak English. For this reason, the board decided to go with a new logo that doesn't use a clear "Y" and "L" but instead uses arrows that resemble the familiar YL. Denny described the left arrow as pointing towards God and the right arrow as pointing out towards kids.


The part I'm most fond of concerning the new logo is the tagline which sits just below it. It reads, "You were made for this." Don't get me wrong, I don't think anyone was necessarily "made" for Young Life. However, I do believe everyone was made for a relationship with the Extravagant Lover, our Abba Father, and I love that we can convey that message in our logo. Our hope in Young Life is that everyone who comes in contact with our ministry, especially our high school friends, will be drawn into the life-giving love of Christ. We were made for this!

The logo takes a little getting used to, but we thought it was easier to get used to when you've got a beautiful little girl modeling it. Mary Kate is growing constantly, and she has begun to stand (for a good 5 seconds!) on her own. She's still very fond of Bo, and she has begun to look for him when he's not around while saying "Buh." We've determined that this must be her real first word. Sometimes she says it very clear, and sometimes it comes out as just a hard "B" sound. Either way, she's clearly referring to Bo, and we're excited to hear her well on her way to being a fine orator!


I can't get over how much I love this little girl! She's the prettiest baby in the world! What an incredible gift from God. Thank You, Abba, for our Mary Kate. Let's all go back to the top and enjoy the pictures again, without being distracted by silly old Daddy!