the Lord’s quiet work

When we had All-Area Christmas Club this past December, I didn’t know what to expect. I definitely did not expect that I would meet a freshman girl who would turn into a consistent, faithful part of Pioneer Young Life. She had been invited by a friend who ended up not coming, so all alone, she walked into a random house full of strangers playing chaotic games. I felt like I was pulling teeth as I tried to come up with more questions to ask her, but one word answers and shrugs were all I got. She seemed overwhelmed, uninterested, and so shy the entire time. I left that night thinking, “there is no way I’m going to see her again and there is absolutely no chance she will ever come back to a YL event.”

Surprise, I was wrong. As soon as I got home, I opened my phone to a text from her asking when the next event was, because she wanted to invite her friends. That opened the door to being able to hang out one on one, and get to know her better individually. Soon, she was coming to Pio basketball games with us, happily chatting in the stands (although the one word answers and shrugs didn’t completely disappear). 

Over the past semester, I’ve had the sweet opportunity to spend time with her, talking about freshman year classes (biology is the worst!), sports that we don’t understand the rules to (basketball), and the boys she thinks are cute (a necessity!). When I was recently out of town for Spring Break, she texted me almost every day asking when I was going to be back in Ann Arbor so that we could hang out. It has been such a gift to get to meet her friends, and just slowly become a part of her life. I never would’ve thought that the quiet girl hiding in the corner at Christmas Club would turn into such a sweet relationship in my life, but I am so excited to see how the Lord continues to move in it.

— Caitlin Boyd, AA Pioneer Young Life Leader