Help for Young Life Leaders NOW

One of my good friends went to be with the Lord Monday night after losing his battle with a very aggressive cancer. His name is Troy Gray, Tempe, AZ Area Director, he was 29 years old.

Back in the mid-90’s Troy never went to my Wyldlife club, I guess the huge clubs and the fact that all his friends went simply weren’t enough to get him to come, I’d always give him a hard time about that over the years. But he went to Arcadia High School Young Life, the same one I went to years earlier, and his life changed through the power of Jesus and wonderful leaders like Dick and Kathy Mason, Mike Olson, and many others. Troy went on to be trained and discipled by our Area Director in Scottsdale, Rick Wilson, and later to become his intern after graduating from ASU. I was a few years ahead of Troy, but our paths have been very similar. He is also best of friends with my brother-in-law and some of my other close friends. Troy went from a sketchy teenage punk, that happened to be fantastic as basketball (he was a star in high school), to an incredible man of God, wonder husband and father, and an admired and top-notch Area Director, and he still kicked my butt in basketball too.

I’m not going to say much more, but I do want to say that I miss him very much, I love him, and I am excited to see him in a few years (whenever the Lord returns or He takes me home).

Here are a couple fun memories:

Woodleaf Program 2005 (with Joey and Laura Colletti)

A Hilarious Contact Work Training Video (with Tanita Maddox)

Troy speaking about Young Life adventures about a week before he found out he had cancer

Hey sorry if you got the last post that I deleted from ylhelp. It was meant to go on my personal blog. I try to keep my opinions separate from the resource-focused stuff on ylhelp.