AYM UPDATES | Intersect, Rebranding, Monthlies
Hey! After a brief break, I’m back - and with some important updates!
Intersect: Updates
In the middle of February, AYM took 19 students over two weekends to our annual winter retreat hosted by the Christian organization, Word of Life at our retreat site called Jeness Park! Over 500 students attended across the two weekends and it was full of fun and lots of God’s word!
On the first night, students heard the Gospel plainly and was given the opportunity to make a salvation decision! Over the two weekends, there were 75 first time decisions to follow Jesus, some of which we knew personally! It was encouraging to see the student get excited about the Gospel!
The following two days, the students we given tools to grow in their spiritual life and get answers to their tough questions, like why is there pain and suffering - given by our very own: Brian and Michelle!
On the last day, the students were encouraged to go share the Gospel with their friends, and they all were given an opportunity to make their different spiritual commitments!
In between the spiritual lessons, students got to participate in the EPIC POLAR RUN - think: water slide in the winter. Its pretty cool if you ask me.
Thankful for the 400+ college volunteers and other background workers that made this possible - including some of our own staff, who helped in the kitchen the whole time or helped direct traffic. It inspired a lot of the students to want to help one day!
Here are the different recap videos from both weekends to get a better idea of what all went down:
Weekend 1 group :) Our AYM highs schoolers + a special guest
Weekend 2 group :) Our AYM middle schoolers + another special guest. IYKYK
Re-Branding: AYM Orange County
This one is pretty big - but in case you haven’t noticed already, AYM Irvine no longer exists! As we have been doing more reach to the cities outside of Irvine, we realize that the title “AYM Irvine” is no longer an accurate description of our group! So, in effort to encompass all of our ministry efforts, we are now [drumroll pls 🥁🥁🥁] AYM ORANGE COUNTY! You will start to see these changes in all our social medias and flyers - we are the same group, just a different name :)
AYM Friday’s -> AYM Monthlies
Finally, we are making a change to our normal AYM rhythms this semester! Instead of meeting every week for our typical AYM Fridays, we will be switching to AYM Monthlies. This means that AYM will only being meeting on Fridays once a month. In between the monthlies will be an opportunity for students and staff to get trained up in discipleship and get really trained up in God’s word! You can see our AYM Monthlies for the rest of the semester on our AYM Orange County website. We will still be making it a point to hang out with students outside of this time, so don’t worry - fun will still ensue.
The summer will also come with some changes - so stay tuned for what is in store next!
BONUS UPDATE
One last update: I got married! Earlier in February, the other mentor, Julian, and I got married! It was a special time that we were privileged to invite the students to! I’m so grateful for all of the AYM students and how much joy they bring to my life! I’m happy I got to share such a memorable day with them! Fun fact: This was the first wedding since 2021 in our AYM group :0
