Each year, two staff members are recognized with the Senior Staff Award, an honor given by the President’s Office to senior field staff who are still involved in direct ministry with kids.
Rick Wilson
When Chuck Reinhold challenged Rick Wilson to be a Young Life leader in college, Wilson didn’t think he could be one, but he accepted the challenge. And when he was approached about going on Young Life staff just before he graduated from college he still wondered, "Really? Can I do that?"
Now, almost 37 years later, Wilson’s time on Young Life staff has led him from Maryland to Young Life areas in Ohio, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Maryland and Arizona, where he is the area director in Scottsdale and the regional trainer.
"I love working with kids," Wilson said. “And as I have gone on in ministry I have also realized how much I enjoyed giving leaders a vision for a lifetime of ministry. In working with interns, I enjoy helping them look at ministry in ways that have longevity. It’s such a formative time in their lives and ministries. It’s a privilege to be involved with them.”
John Irwin, the regional director in Phoenix, Ariz., said that equipping others for ministry is one of Wilson’s strengths.
“There are some clubs that benefit the whole state, and his is one of them,” Irwin said. “Through Campaigners, volunteer leader development and intern training, he has faithfully entrusted the mission to many. They’ve seen real, trusting ministry in Rick and followed along in the same manner.”
“He serves kids in many ways, but his strength is growing disciples,” Irwin said. “He stays sharp and creative and the Lord surrounds him with loads of kids to disciple, which he does faithfully.”
Marty Caldwell, the senior vice president of the International South Division, said Wilson “keeps trying new things relentlessly to reach kids,” Caldwell said. “He’s still an excellent club leader and runs fantastic camps and does cutting-edge ministry.”
Wilson credits several colleagues who’ve been faithful companions in ministry, including Mark Fordney and Jim Cunningham. “We talk, share and give advice,” he said. “If you’re going to be healthy in ministry, you need a couple of people who you can be completely honest with and who can be honest back to you.”
In addition to his colleagues, Wilson emphasized that his wife, Judy, his daughter, Becca, and his son, Mark, have been faithful ministry companions as well.
“Judy, who has also been a volunteer leader for many years, has been willing and able to set me free to be able to invest in people,” he said. “She’s a partner. That’s made a huge difference.”
RD Wilkes
From Canton, Ohio, to Oxford, England, changes in scenery, culture and even time zones have been a way of life for RD Wilkes during his time on Young Life staff. But the changes he lives to see are those that happen in the hearts of teenagers when they meet Christ. This, he says, is the constant that’s sustained him the past 32 years in ministry.
Wilkes’ connection to Young Life began when he accepted Christ at a Young Life club while he was in high school in Pittsburgh, Pa., in the 1960s. From that point on, he said, “It became my identity.” Tom Hammon, senior regional director for Young Life in the UK/Ireland, attended that same Young Life club and has been a peer, colleague and friend of Wilkes for more than 30 years.
“RD is a man of integrity and a very good friend,” Hammon said. “He is patient, he is wise and he is passionate for lost kids and for Christ.”
Wilkes met his wife of 33 years, Donna, while on work crew at Frontier, and they married five years later. They started a club in Reading, Pa., where they both attended Albright College. After several years serving as volunteer leaders, Wilkes was hired in 1975 as the first staff person there. They served there through the 1970s. Their next stop was Canton, Ohio, then onto Pittsburgh during most of the 1980s and then the couple spent two years developing a club in Oxford, England.
Lee Corder, senior vice president for International North Young Life, has known Wilkes for 25 years and says he appreciates how his friend remains both relevant and faithful.
“Even at 40 years old in Oxford, he was still on the street with kids” Corder said. “Now, he’s working with kids in some of the poorest communities in the United States. He can run a great Young Life club in the Pittsburgh suburbs, in Oxford, England, and in rural West Virginia.”
Chris Buda served with Wilkes during his time in Pittsburgh and calls Wilkes his mentor. Today, Buda is the regional director of the River Region and Wilkes is serving the rural Appalachian community of Philippi, W.Va., which falls under Buda’s supervision.
“He’s had his ups and downs, but he is unflappable,” Buda said. “God called him and he keeps moving forward. Lots of people have come and gone, but he’s still standing. He just keeps going to harder and harder places. But it’s never been about him. It’s the Lord first and others after that.”