Alli Larsen gave a testimonial during the Newberry County Young Life Banquet on how the organization impacted her life for the better.
Courtesy of Tori Steyne
During the banquet, various youths and volunteers came on stage to show how Young Life has impacted them.
Courtesy of Tori Steyne
PROSPERITY — During the Newberry County Young Life Annual Banquet, at Wightman United Methodist Church, Alli Larsen gave a testimonial of how Young Life has impacted her life for the better.
“I have been a part of Young Life for many years now, and many more to come, but it was not always that way. When I was growing up, I grew up in a very Christian household; we went to church every Sunday, went to a program for little kids on Sunday nights and later, youth on Wednesday nights. Pretty much always church, all week,” Larsen said.
Larsen recalled her growing up was fun until she got to middle school.
“A lot of things happened at church, my pastor was asked to leave, and my parents were being asked to step down from their positions,” she recalled. “(That was) my childhood church, I knew so many people, I got close to so many people and it was heartbreaking to leave a place that I’ve known my whole life.”
Also, during that time, while in middle school Larsen said she was in a situation where she was being sexually harassed by people she thought loved her.
“I thought (they) loved me, but when I said no, they clearly did not,” she said. “I never really knew what love was, I was like God loves me, but does he truly because these people said they loved me, and clearly did not.”
During the summer of her eighth-grade year, Larsen’s family began attending Wightman United Methodist Church and that is when she met Tori Harper. She said while singing one Sunday, Harper told her she should attend a Young Life club. Larsen said her first response was “no.”
“They are just going to judge me, they do not even know me, and I do not really even know me,” Larsen said. “She was like, ‘you need to come anyway.’”
Eventually, Larsen ended up going to Young Life and she has not looked back.
“Camp was definitely one of the highlights, I loved it,” she said. “I remember ninth grade year, that COVID year, we didn’t have camp, so we went to the beach and that was pretty fun.”
Larsen added that the group of people she thought would judge her never did and they all were, “perfectly imperfect.”
“We were so close, like a close community. They do love me, and I became closer to God,” she said. “I turn to God for everything, without Tori inviting me to Young Life, I would not be the person I am today.”
For more information on Newberry County Young Life, or how you can get involved, you can email Area Director Cole Harper at coleharper5@gmail.com.
Reach Andrew Wigger @ 803-768-3122 or on Twitter @TheNBOnews.