“Good morning. Would you like a donut?”

This is a normal welcome into the back entrance of the school on Monday mornings. Two leaders from the combined Allen and Lovejoy Young Life, Katy Park and John Wayne Seitzler have spent their early Monday mornings bringing donuts to share with the student body.

“The purpose of [bringing donuts] is just to be here and to be friends with [the students] and to make friends,” Park said. “We bring donuts on Monday mornings just because it’s something fun to do to brighten up the morning.”

Park and Seitzler also come to lunches on Thursdays. Seitzler sees his interactions with the students as an opportunity to share conversation not force assimilation.

“When I come into the school, my goal is not to get people to come to Young Life,” Seitzler said. “I honestly don’t care if those people go to Young Life club or not. Young Life is a relational ministry, which is something that I really love about it.”

Park finds her purpose in working with Young Life to be to encourage and support students during a difficult, transitional period in their lives.

“I am drawn to high school people because they are hurting,” Park said. “High school people feel so alone, but they’re all alone together so I just like to come and walk alongside them and help them figure out how not to be so alone. I think that’s our goal as Young Life leaders.”

Senior Hunter Long developed a friendship with Seitzler through work at the Allen Event Center. While not an attendee of the club, Long still welcomes them to the school for the benefits of monday breakfast and sports talk.

“The relationship I have with John is through hockey,” Long said. “I would say it is through that and not through Young Life. I know [Park] through John; I don’t know her really well.”

Seitzler’s desire to work as a high school leader was realized while serving on work crew at a Young Life camp while still in high school himself.

“I just heard the call for youth ministry,” Seitzler said.  “I don’t know if it will be through Young Life forever, but it’s a great avenue for that right now. It’s where He has me right now and it’s a sweet place to be. I’m glad that it’s at Lovejoy and that it’s with these guys.”

Park recognized that Young Life has been under fire because students think it has a misleading mission. She thinks that Christianity is about mercy, not judgement.

“I feel like at Lovejoy there is this stigma that you are either a bad kid or a good kid,” Park said. “We want people to know that Young Life is for every kid and we love every kid and we want everyone to know that everyone is invited.”

Long sees the controversy over their presence on campus as unnecessary. He believes their motive is not to be intimidating or coercive.

“I’ve heard mixed talking about [the leaders coming],” Long said. “They’re giving free donuts out and they are just here to talk about whatever. John comes and he just tries to make friends, honestly. He’s not trying to get anyone to come to Young Life. He is here for [Young Life], but he isn’t trying to really get anyone in.”

Park addressed the critiques of some students whose opinions of them were that they were too forceful in their approach.

“We have no other agenda than to just make some kid’s day better,” Park said. “We want the two of us and the rest of our team to be a fixture of unconditional love. We love [the students], no matter who you are or what you believe or where you come from.”

Seitzler and Park value the relationships they have developed interacting with the students, they see the donuts as a testament to those friendships.

“I think that the [friendships I’ve made] are the reasons we are passing out donuts,” Seitzler said. “We aren’t trying to get you to do anything, that’s just what a friend does.”

Park urges that their main message is acceptance. The leaders see the their involvement with the students as an opportunity for them to be a permanent feature at Lovejoy.

“We want people to know that we love them regardless of any kind of status,” Park said. “I think that’s why we show up every morning, because we just love yall.”