Kyle shares his Young Life Story

(My precious husband had the honor of speaking at this year's annual Young Life Banquet.  Held last night, we celebrated 75 years since the ministry has been introducing kids to Christ.  "Grateful.  Joyful.  Hopeful."  Below is his speech.)

For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Kyle Dingle. I have been married to my beautiful wife Meghan for ten years and we have 5 children together. I am a 5^th grade teacher at Maugansville Elementary School and I love Young Life.

Before I found out about YL, I was your pretty typical kid. I grew up here in Washington County. My parents, who are awesome, are sitting at my table tonight. They taught me all the right things growing up like how to be polite, to do well in school, and how to fix anything. My brother and I have a running joke that no matter what our significant others are interested in buying we say, “Well, heck I can build one of those.” Thanks Dad for that.

Most importantly, my parents thought it was important to make sure that I went to church. Our Sundays usually consisted of church, followed by lunch and hanging out at Grandma’s house, which was just a walking distance away. I come from a huge family, and church was certainly something that was instilled by our grandmother and great grandmother from birth.

However - during those dreaded, hormone-filled teenage years - I began to resist attending church. Often, I put up enough of a fight that my poor mother would relent and allow me to head down to grandma’s house early. I should also just take a moment to publicly thank my Aunt Robin who couldn’t be here tonight for putting up with me and a bunch of other teenage boys in a Sunday school class and trying her hardest to teach us some bible stories. There is a special place in heaven for her!

I think those early years in church helped me to develop a morality and a general understanding of God that I am incredibly grateful for. However, there was something unappealing to me about church. I don’t think it really had anything to do with the church, but more about what I knew about God at that time, and what I didn’t understand about Him yet.

It was right about this time in high school, that my dear friend Matt Seifarth invited me to Young Life.

My earliest memories of YL were heading to someone’s house, hanging out in their living room, singing songs, playing silly games and hearing a quick bible story. Not too long after my first visit, I started hearing about this summer camp program they had. It seemed pretty cool and Matt was going, so I figured I would go too. The summer after my sophomore year of high school we headed to Saranac in upstate New York. This week is often guaranteed to be the best week of your life, and for me this couldn’t have been more true.

Raise your hand if you’ve been to a Young Life camp. For those of your who haven’t, I cannot adequately describe what has been prepared ahead of time for the hundreds of high school students who will be showing up for the week. We were entertained with silly skits, played amazing games, water-skied, went parasailing, ate tons of food, and laughed our heads off with one another. We were surprised every day with something new the camp had put together for us and I couldn’t believe what I was experiencing.

Behind the scenes, a group of leaders had orchestrated the events of this week for the sole purpose of introducing every single person to Jesus Christ. Each night hundreds of high schoolers filled the Club Room and we sang songs together, participated in games, watched skits, and finally got to hear a very clear and concise message about a God who loved us very deeply and wanted nothing more than to be in a relationship with us. Over the week, the messages helped us to understand how sin had separated us from God and that God had a plan to save us from the consequences of our sin. Like I said, I had grown up in church, but I had never heard this Good News so clearly presented. 

On the final night, the speaker gave us an opportunity to respond to this gospel message. He sent every kid out into the camp and asked us to be silent so that we could talk with God. I’ll never forget sitting on a huge rock, all alone, asking God to forgive me for my sins and telling Him that I wanted to be in a relationship with Him. In John chapter 9, there is a story of a blind man that was healed by Jesus. Because Jesus performed this miracle on the Sabbath, the religious leaders at the time were upset and they began to question the man who had been healed. He was very honest in his account of what had happened. He said, “All I know is that I once was blind, but now I see.” This was exactly how I felt after camp.

I think one of the most beautiful things about Young Life - and the reason that I’m still cheering for Young Life tonight - is that wasn’t the end of my time with YL. My leaders didn’t say, “problem solved,” and then washed their hands of us. Regardless of the decision made at camp or any time throughout the year, Young Life leaders are committed to meeting kids where they are and being the greatest friend they can be. I read a quote recently by author and Pastor Timothy Keller, he said “God sees us as we are, loves us as we are, and accepts us as we are. But by his grace, he does not leave us as we are.” Young Life leaders model this truth about God so well.

My Young Life leader Aaron Hopkins started having a morning bible study with a small group of guys in his home before school. I want you to really take in what I’m saying. He opened his home to half a dozen guys at 6:30 am and prepared a bible study lesson with us. His dear wife Maria would come down the stairs in the morning before work and be greeted by 6 high school guys saying, “Good morning, beautiful!” on her way to the bathroom in the morning. How many of you are ready to do that?

We had weekly bible studies for girls and guys together called Campaigners. Matt and I were even invited to attend leadership meetings on Sunday night at the area director, Brian Jensen’s, house. We were asked to work behind the scenes in planning the weekly club meetings where we would invite out all of our friends to have a blast and hear the gospel. There were also Campaigner weekend trips and leadership retreats.

Over the next few years, our Young Life clubs in Washington County grew as we invited more and more of our friends to experience who God was in this crazy fun Young Life thing. My senior year, Aaron and Maria placed a huge whiteboard in their living room and we began writing the names of all of our friends that we wanted to come to camp with us that summer. Every week we prayed for them, and every week we checked off names as they turned in their camp deposits. Matt and I have since looked back at the photos and been like, “How in the world did we get Mike there or Craig there?” Folks, God does amazing things through the work of Young Life.

After high school, I went to Hagerstown Community College, cause mama worked there and I got free tuition. This also provided Matt and I with the opportunity to step out into ministry. We started Wyldlife here in Washington County, which is the middle school version of Young Life. Man, does it live up to its name. Can you imagine having a get together with 80 middle school kids? We did it and I think I still have scars from ending our nights with wrestling middle school boys who have way more energy than they know what to do with! I remember one night advertising that I would eat a live goldfish if we got 100 kids to club!

After HCC, I headed off to college at Towson University. It was there that I met my dear wife Meghan. Her twin brother Matt was my roommate and close friend. My Young Life leaders helped me to understand who God is and his redemptive plan for my life so I wasn’t interested in partying or sleeping around in college. I was interested in learning to be the teacher God created me to be and finding my wife. For the young people in the room, I want to encourage you that dating completely changed for me when I began to pray for my wife. She literally showed up in my dorm room one night while I was asleep. A dream come true and an answer to prayer.

When I met my wife, she was coming out of an abusive relationship and was hurting, not unlike many young people today. Young Life and my family introduced me to the God of love who showed me how to treat my bride and be a good husband to her. Brian Jenson, the Young Life Area Director, and his wife Kimberly did our marriage counseling in their home. Brian performed part of our wedding ceremony and Aaron Hopkins was one of my groomsmen.

I graduated in May, married Meghan in June and prayed to have a job by August. What was I thinking?? The Lord made me wait, but I was officially hired at Maugansville at the last minute - on Meet the Teacher night. So, I went to school, arranged some desks, went home, showered and came back to try to convince a bunch of parents that I knew what I was doing. I’ve been loving life in 5^th grade at Maugansville elementary ever since! I realized I’ve been teaching for awhile this week when one of my students looked at me and said, “You have gray hair in your beard.” Kids are so honest. I looked back at him and said, “You just failed Math.”

  

After I started teaching and with Matt and me both back in town, we got plugged back into leading Young Life. We started leading at Williamsport High School with the help of Randy Buchman. I was fortunate enough to get to coach cross country with Randy and begin building relationships with kids. Because of YL, I knew that I wanted to share this message of hope with other high schoolers just like Hop and Brian had shared with me.

Meghan and I always knew we wanted to have children together. We were blessed with our first son Joel on June 3^rd of 2008. He was born 3 weeks early and weighed 7 lbs. 11 oz. I remember his little blond Mohawk and how I couldn’t get enough of cuddling and napping with him.

6 months later, Meghan and I found out that we were pregnant again. Whoops! This time around things were a little bit different. At our 20 week ultrasound, we were looking forward to finding out if we were having a boy or a girl. Instead, we found out that there was a lack of fluid around our baby. We rushed to Frederick to see another doctor who delivered the news. Our baby boy had a condition known as Potter’s syndrome and he would not survive. The doctor urged us to terminate the pregnancy and said that we could do this with a clear conscience knowing that Gabriel would not survive once he was born. Meggie and I took some time to think about it and talk with the Lord. We both came to the same conclusion that we believed God was in control and that our baby was in His hands. Meggie carried Gabriel to term and delivered him. We had 2 precious hours with him while he was alive. In the following days, we planned his funeral, had his service and he was buried at Rose Hill Cemetery. Friends, I cannot adequately express to you the feeling of walking into Fiery Funeral home and seeing a casket small enough for our baby. 

When I received my son’s fatal diagnosis, Brian Jensen called me and said, “We need to get together.” He could have just offered an empty, “I’ll be praying for you,” but instead went the extra mile to show up and grieve alongside me.  Meghan and I have walked beside many other families that have lost children and I can see that without Christ we would have been lost. Instead God has used us, our experience, and His promises to help so many others to heal after losing their children. Meggie over there is quite the little celebrity because of her infant loss blog that she often says she co-authors with the Holy Spirit.

Because of Young Life, I know that I am reconciled to God and will spend eternity with Him in heaven and so will my son. So, we didn’t terminate the pregnancy. We trusted God to continue the work that He was doing in Gabriel’s life and our lives as well.

That was 2009. Since then, we have been blessed with our three daughters Zoe, Ruby, and most recently Gracie! Raising my kids has been one of the greatest joys of my life. My friends are in the same boat. We started a bible study just before we finished college that is still going strong today. We have a group of about 20 adults that are now raising our children together and growing in Christ together. Philippians 1:6 says, “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”

Young Life leaders don’t just work with teens. Young Life leaders build relationships with teens that last into adulthood, help us through our hardest times in life, and matter for eternity. I cannot think of a greater investment that we can make today than helping this ministry continue.