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WAVENEY ANN MOOREThe youth ministry gives middle and high school students a chance to explore issues and grow in faith.
ST. PETERSBURG - The noise is deafening, a din that comes from dozens of excited teenagers cramped into a room with purple walls, bunting, flamingos, bean bag chairs and a glittering disco ball.
"Yo!" trumpets Luke Yarbrough - baseball cap back to front - into a microphone.
"What's up!" is the response from about 100 high school students sprawled on the floor and perched on benches and other bits of furniture.
The exchange between Yarbrough and the teenagers is a signal, hip-hop code that says it's time for quiet. A few seconds pass. Silence reigns and heads bow in prayer.
"Thank you for another Tuesday night," Yarbrough says in part.
This is the weekly meeting of K-Life, a local branch of an interdenominational Christian ministry for middle and high school students. Those who attend pray, sing and study the Bible. They play outrageous games, such as the one tonight, where toes are maneuvered to feed a friend - a very good friend, one hopes - a single M&M at a time.
"The games and skits, they are really funny," Courtney Connell, a 15-year-old at St. Petersburg High School, said later.
For her, the club meetings are an important part of her life.
"I go because a lot of my friends go and it's really fun to hang out with them. I go to learn about God."
Jimmy Peters, also 15 and a student at St. Petersburg High School, feels similarly.
K-Life, he said, offers "awesome fellowship with other Christians."
"You can really open up about your faith."
For their part, parents praise K-Life's mentoring program and say the organization helps teenagers combat negative peer pressure.
"It kind of becomes for them a place of refuge, another option . . . a better option than a lot of other things going on," said Phil Dickhaus, president of the local organization's board of trustees and father of three daughters involved in the program.
Bonnie Strickland, who has two children in K-Life, said she became intrigued by their commitment to the organization.
"They were passing up movies and parties and other events because they wanted to go to K-Life," said Mrs. Strickland, who now sits on the local board with her husband, Tom.
"I attended a meeting that they offer once a year for parents to sit in. I witnessed all these kids singing, praying, doing silly things, dealing with issues."
Each week, K-Life high school members meet first for small group sessions at BayWalk or in a two-story white house at 232 Third St. N that's rented from First United Methodist Church. Later everyone gathers at the Where House, a former restaurant that is home to First United Methodist's youth group.
The K-Life house, where a blue and white banner hangs, is a rambling hangout with tattered carpets, a pool table, chalk walls, television and PlayStation 2. The girls have painted the ceiling in their room a deep pink. The boys have covered the walls of theirs in the greens of army camouflage.
One recent Tuesday, several young women, two of them volunteer leaders, sat in the pink room discussing possible spiritual lessons for upcoming weeks. Small group leader Julie Halsey, 19, proposed focusing on the temptations and challenges women face.
"I just hope that they will see me as a role model," the Eckerd College student said during an interview later.
"Hopefully, they will be able to come to me with questions. I know that high school can be a rough time. Just being a Christian in high school is sometimes difficult."
Small group sessions are helpful, said Taylor Peak, who is 14 and a Lakewood High School student.
"It's also a place, if you're new to K-Life, where you can get to meet people. You can talk to them pretty much about anything," she said.
Abigail Dickhaus, 15, whose father is president of the board of trustees, agrees.
"It's just fun to get together with kids of your age and grow stronger in your faith," she said.
The St. Petersburg ministry is led by college graduates Matt Jolley, 24, and Yarbrough, 26. The local group's only paid staff, they are assisted by more than a dozen college students and young adults.
Jolley and Yarbrough keep in regular contact with K-Life members.
"We go to their high schools. We go to all their football games and volleyball games and at junior high, their activities and sports events," Jolley said.
While members can drop by any time, the K-Life house is open as a general hangout until midnight at least two Friday nights a month. Organizers say K-Life - an outgrowth of Kanakuk Kamps, Christian athletic camps in Missouri and Colorado - is not meant to take the place of churches and their youth groups. Rather, they say, K-Life is complementary to such programs.
Locally, K-Life got its start in January 2001, the dream of Northside Christian School student Peter Orobello, who died at 14, three years ago. Peter, who had an X-linked autoimmune disease since he was 12 weeks old, had attended Kanakuk Kamps and wanted other teenagers to enjoy a similar experience locally. His mother, Jill Orobello, said Peter's siblings are active in K-Life.
Dickhaus, board trustee president, said it takes about $100,000 a year to run the local group. He said the money is used for salaries, rent, activities and curriculums. Dickhaus' group recently held a fundraising banquet at which the guest speaker was Joe White, national founder of Kanakuk Kamps and K-Life.
"One of our immediate needs, as we see it, is a female staff person," Dickhaus said. "About 60 percent of the kids we have coming are female. That's going to add to our budget."
The organization also needs a new downtown home. First United Methodist, from which it rents the K-Life house, needs the building itself.
"As we look into the future of this ministry, this new facility will be a key factor. We're looking for more than a building," Dickhaus said.
"We're seeking a place where kids can be fed spiritually, where they can worship, where they can discuss common issues that many of them face and what God says about them, where they can have can fun and where they can feel safe while doing all of these things."