"You're bringing the 2-liters, right?" 17-year-old Kaitlin McCleary questions her friend over the phone. There are a hundred last-minute details that she's working on, making sure everything is set up.

It's a Friday evening. High-school students are typically at ball games, parties or movies. Kaitlin and some friends from her student-led Christian group at Stow High School in an Akron, Ohio, suburb are hosting an evangelistic outreach at her house.

They've never done this before, and Kaitlin doesn't know if anyone outside of their little Bible club, the Fellowship of Christian Students, will even come. She's planned other events before, like birthday parties, and enjoyed it, but this is different. She's hoping her peers will encounter Christ in a new way.

Three months before, Kaitlin began talking with Shawn Basone, a staff woman with The Coaching Center of Student Venture, a branch of Campus Crusade for Christ. Through this resource, leaders of all ages are trained over the phone on how to be used by God to turn lost high-school students into Christ-centered laborers.

Shawn got Kaitlin's name from one of her teachers and was encouraged at Kaitlin's enthusiasm. "The [club] is small and dormant," says Kaitlin. "I wanted to expand it, reach more people."

A handful of Kaitlin's girlfriends from the Christian group come early to her spacious two-story home to help prepare for the evening. They are more than just moral support for her; they are leaders too, with a vision similar to Kaitlin's. The teen was also excited to see Shawn, her phone mentor, come and encourage her, something Shawn isn't normally able to do. But she and Kaitlin live only 30 minutes apart.

The girls pour chips into a bowl, write numbers on paper squares for a game and set up the 2-liter soda bottles that will serve as bowling pins later that night.

At 5:58 p.m., the doorbell rings. A brother and sister walk in. "We recently moved here," says the girl, the older of the two, as Kaitlin leads them to the kitchen where other girls greet them. The boy shyly stays by his sister's side, never taking off his letter jacket.

The girls strike up a conversation, trying to make them feel welcome. Before the event, at Shawn's suggestion, Kaitlin and her friends role-played with questions that would make the guests feel comfortable, like, "What do you like to do for fun?" or "Do you play any sports?"

	Shawn coaches Kaitlin in planning an evangelistic party.

The doorbell continues to ring. More and more students trickle into the kitchen. Even Mr. Moyer, the teacher who sponsors their Christian club on campus, pops in.

Every Friday morning, the economics and government teacher shows up to his classroom before 7 a.m. so Kaitlin and the other students in the Christian club can use his room. Though he can't—and doesn't—participate, every club of this sort on campus needs a faculty sponsor. He's careful not to impose his views, but honors the Lord in allowing the students to meet.

"Anything I can do to help the kids with their faith," he says. "Kids like Kaitlin have a heart for Christ and their friends."

"She is a classic example of the kind of people I like to coach," says Shawn, who is selective with whom she spends her time, because The Coaching Center tries to find people with influence at high schools—whether college students, 50-year-olds or high school students themselves. "She leads and is not afraid of what others think of her."

After a few conversations, Kaitlin and Shawn began planning the outreach.

"I worried about if people don't show up," Kaitlin says, since she had invested so much time in the event. "I talked with Shawn," she says, "and she calmed me down." The coach has held or helped others host hundreds of outreaches in the past, and told Kaitlin some of her strategies. Plus, Shawn prayed for her and with her, reminding her that this is God's event, not hers.

Shawn was right. Kaitlin is encouraged by the number of teens. By the time six pizzas arrive, 24 teenagers mingle with each other. They are from different cliques, some of them meeting for the first time.

And though Kaitlin's trying to have realistic expectations, she hopes that someone will accept Christ, or at least indicate that they are interested in hearing more about how to have a personal relationship with Him. It would be a great start to the changed lives they are hoping to see at Stow High.

As the event gets underway, the teens head outside to Kaitlin's driveway to bowl with pumpkins, rolling them toward the 2-liter bottles. Dressed in the latest trends, with worn jeans and furry hats, the students divide into teams and laugh and joke while they watch one another. After half an hour in the cold air, Kaitlin announces that it is time to head back inside for a talk.

Kaitlin planned and hosted an evangelistic party.

The speaker is Kaitlin's youth pastor, Steve Garcia. While sitting cross-legged on the floor, Steve asks a boy to go to the other side of the house then tries to talk with him, but they obviously have difficulty hearing each other. Steve explains sin creates the same effect with people and God. However, he says, "Even if you have taken 1,000 steps away from God, it's only one step back."

His message seems to resonate with the students. Later a college student tells how he encountered Christ in high school. Kaitlin knows him because Shawn also coaches him on how to influence others for Christ. After both talks, Kaitlin and her friends hand out comment cards, an idea from her mentor. It's an easy way to find out if anyone's life was changed, and also to begin contacting the teens later. Everyone fills out a bright yellow card and turns it back in for a drawing.

Before they draw names, they play a game similar to Pictionary, and while the students laugh and talk in the living room, Kaitlin escapes to the kitchen with Shawn. They plop down on the stairs and scan the comment cards.

To Kaitlin's amazement, a number of students marked that they were interested in learning more about God. Just in case people might be interested, Kaitlin already invited everyone to join her and the other leaders at Arabica, a local coffee shop, on Sunday to talk more.

Shawn notices that one girl marked a different box. "Kaitlin," she exclaims, "one of the girls accepted Christ!"

"What?" Kaitlin throws her arms around Shawn in a hug. "Can I see?" she asks, grinning. "This makes it all worth it!" Then she gives Shawn a high-five.

Later Kaitlin and her friends meet with the other students who want more information. A junior explains that the event at Kaitlin's really helped him grasp spiritual truth. "When the guy talked about God, it made you understand a relationship with God better," said Kalman Kovacs, who went to the coffee shop to hear more about Jesus.

This is just the beginning. Kaitlin and her friends will continue to host events, and invite students to participate so they can learn more about God and grow closer to Him. And she's doing it with Shawn's help.

Contact the writer at jennifer.abegg@ccci.org.