Las Vegas Youth Take to the Slopes
Contributed by Youth and Young Adult Ministry of Las Vegas
From January 19 to 21, the Las Vegas Youth and Young Adult Ministry (YAYAM) made its first trip of 2018: a weekend of skiing and snowboarding at the Brian Head Ski Resort in Utah.
With guidance, a safety prayer from Jonathan Jesper, and detailed planning from our youth pastor, Josh Yanai, the trip went off without a hitch.
Around 20 people, ranging in age from 14 to 35 years, attended, and all were enthusiastic, with such comments as “a great start to the rest of the year” and “the break my young body needed.” For many of them, it was the first time to go skiing and/or snowboarding. Nevertheless, they were not deterred; instead, they were even more determined to attend.
On Friday, January 19, we arrived at the Las Vegas Family Church at around 4:30 p.m. to prepare sandwiches and snacks for the trip. At approximately 5 p.m., Jonathan Jesper offered a powerful prayer of safety, asking God and True Parents to be with not only those in attendance but with everyone who would be on the roads with us. After the prayer we began our 3.5-hour drive. We spent the night at a property in Utah that Josh had rented from a family who were away on vacation.
Early Saturday morning, we arose with the sun to knock the snow off our cars and begin our journey to Brian Head Ski Resort and Lodge. On the way there, we drove into an intense blizzard. There was so much snow blowing in the air and ice on the roads that almost every car on the roads was slipping and sliding. We were worried that it wasn’t safe enough to continue to Brian Head, and some of us wanted to turn around, but, by the grace and protection of God and True Parents, all our vehicles made it safely to the summit. We skied and snowboarded until 4:30 p.m., when the lodge closed, then made the challenging drive back to our lodging outside Cedar City.
On Sunday morning, we packed our belongings and made our last trip to Brian Head to do some final skiing and snowboarding. Most of us were exhausted from the day before, but we still wanted to end the trip with a little more snow.
We offer our sincerest thanks to Mrs. Mimi Morse, Uncle Herbert and Aunt Takako Brown, Mrs. Marja Davis, Big Brother Thanh Le and all other Las Vegas Family Church members for their donations to help make this trip possible!
We also give a massive thanks to our leader, Joshua Yanai, for organizing all the behind-the-scenes details! Also, we want to give a massive thanks to all the drivers—Josh, Kobe, Chungbom, Jonathan and Caleb—for keeping us safe on those difficult roads! Finally, we thank our Heavenly Parent and True Parents for protecting us and guiding us safely!!
Stay tuned on familyfed.org for more from Youth and Young Adult Ministry throughout the year.