Imagine getting on a bus with other teenagers from different high schools around the Liberty and Park Hill area, and having absolutely no idea where you are going. That is exactly what the Young Life students from LHS have done.
“Last year they got to go to a Timber Wolves game, so that would be cool,” senior Savon Hayes said. “But I honestly have no idea where we will be going, they just tell us what to bring.”
Nonstop is exactly what it sounds. There is absolutely no stopping on this trip, no hotel reservations, no breaks. The students involved go for around 36 hours of straight fun and very little sleeping. Out of all the events Young Life holds, Non-Stop is considered one of the top trips.
“[Previous Nonstop trips] have been a blast, I think this is one of the more fun Young Life trips where students who get involved with this trip are more likely to get involved with our program here at Liberty,” Special Ed Teacher Michelle Jankovich said. “In previous years we have gone to Minneapolis where we went to a NBA basketball game, Mall of America, and the year before that we went to San Antonio, and actually had a Young Life club in the San Antonio Spurs stadium.”
The 2014 trip started off at Epic Elementary on November 7th where the buses loaded up to make their first stop in Columbia, Missouri. The destination was The Crossing at around 2 AM to have the first club.
“Club is like one big party with everybody who loves Jesus where you sing songs and hear about the Bible, then you also get to watch funny skits the leaders put on,” sophomore Kelsey Hampton said.
Following the Club meeting the Young life group headed towards St. Louis where most of the other stops occurred.
“At around 5 A.M we went to Kokomo Joe’s which is a huge arcade with laser tag and go karts, then after that we went to the St. Louis City Museum where we got to climb through a bunch of obstacles and stuff,” sophomore Bennett Swope said. “Later we got to go on a tour of Busch Stadium, then we went to the Zoo and saw a bunch of cool animals. After that we went to a NHL Blue’s game which was really fun, and to finish it off we had another club meeting in Columbia at 1 AM Sunday morning followed by bowling.”
During Nonstop the students traveled on charter buses and stopped around every two hours or less. The bus was the only downtime the students got during the trip and they tried to make the most of the time to save up energy for the next event.
“Everybody tried to sleep as much as they could when we were on the bus but it was hard,” junior Kelsi Garrett said. “People were sleeping on the floor and everyone was too excited to see where we would go next.”
On these Young Life trips the students get to meet a ton of students from other schools and do activities out of their comfort zone.
“A high of the trip was just getting to experience this whole thing and meet new people, along with getting closer to the people I didn’t know as well before,” freshman Bailey Kenny said. “A low of the trip was probably the fact that we got barley any sleep the entire time.”
Sleep or no, the Nonstop trip this year was a success. The Liberty Young Life leaders such as Kelsie Kleinmeyer, Aaron Kleinmeyer, and Michelle Jankovich out did themselves with putting on this chain of stops for the students. One common statement between the group was that Club was one of the best parts.
“For me, my favorite part is always club. It is just an opportunity for kids to be kids again, and kind of get out of their comfort zone,” Jankovich said. “They also get to hear the heart of our ministry and get a glimpse of who Jesus is and I think that is the most important part of what our trip is about”