Winter Weekend Speakers

Winter Weekend Speakers for 2024

Adult participants will be very blessed this year by our very gifted and faith-filled speakers. We are so excited to have Cesar and Andy speaking to you this year.

January Speaker - Cesar Castillejos

Cesar Castillejos is currently serving students and families in Richfield, MN through a collaboration with Young Life and Hope Church. At Hope Church he serves as the minister for preaching and presence. He also has a national role with Young Life as the director of The Servant Leadership Project, a leadership development experience for emerging leaders that takes place in the summer at multiple sites across the country.

Beyond direct ministry, Cesar runs Live Up Speak Life LLC, a speaking, coaching, and consulting firm. Cesar lives in Richfield with his wife Kate and three children, Caliah (7), Cora (6), and Cruz (3).

February Speaker - Andy Swanda

Andy Swanda is a 26-year veteran of non-profit and youth ministry leadership. He currently serves as a Young Life Regional Director over the Twin Cities and Southern Minnesota. He has served as a youth pastor in the local church, a development director of a $5M non-profit, and in three different Young Life areas across three separate decades. Andy’s faith was formed and nurtured in the mission of Young Life when he felt called to “trade in being a bored Christian kid and instead chose to follow Jesus.”

Andy currently resides in Minneapolis and is married to Ashley, who he met while serving on Summer Staff at Young Life’s Saranac Village in 1996. They have been married for 24 years and have two sets of boy/girl twins – ages 21 and 19. All four children are currently in college and much of Andy/Ashley’s free time is spent between Bethel University soccer games, cheering on three of their kids, and visiting San Diego to see their daughter at Point Loma University.

In his free time, Andy loves to read mystery fiction, sip on Starbucks cold brew, watch English Premier League soccer, and go for runs with his Aussiedoodle, Joey.

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