Finding a Place to Belong - Apple Valley FCA

When Khanaila Kielo graduated from Apple Valley High School, she never imagined she would return. In fact, she was convinced she wouldn't.

As a student, she wasn't involved in much and struggled to find a place where she truly belonged. Everything changed when she attended college at North Dakota State University. There, FCA was impossible to miss. "I saw how it affected those athletes," Kielo shared. "It began to affect me too."

Through FCA, she experienced the impact of authentic community and conversations centered on faith. The ministry filled a void she hadn't even realized existed.

Years later, life brought her back to Minnesota and eventually back to the halls of Apple Valley High School as the school's strength and conditioning coach. Returning wasn't part of her plan. But once she arrived, she noticed something familiar. "I was seeing them lacking something that I also did lack," she said.

Students were searching for purpose, belonging, and answers to deeper questions about life and faith. Kielo felt God stirring something in her heart.

One day, a simple conversation with football and track athlete Caiden Mitchell confirmed what she was sensing.

Caiden noticed a reference to 1 Corinthians 10:31 on Kielo's backpack and asked about it. One question quickly turned into many.

"After I gave him the answer, he started to ask me every single question in the book," Kielo recalled. "When I saw him yearning to know more information about God, I just knew they needed a space where they could freely do that."

That space became FCA.

With a vision taking shape, Kielo began looking for students who could help lead it. She wasn't searching for the loudest voices or the most popular athletes. She was looking for young people whose actions revealed character.

One of those students was senior football and shot put athlete Kirubel Teferi. Kirubel remembers Kielo approaching him after practice and asking if he would be interested in a leadership role. What he didn't know was that she had already been watching how he treated others. One rainy day after practice, Kielo noticed Kirubel stay behind with another athlete who was still finishing a bleacher workout. Everyone else had left.

"It was just them two left in the rain," she said. "I said, he needs to be a leader."

The same pattern emerged with sophomore volleyball and track athlete Emily Plummer. Emily and Kielo happened to be leaving school at the same time one day and struck up a conversation. They talked about faith, and eventually Kielo asked if Emily would consider becoming an FCA leader.

Those individual conversations became the foundation for something much bigger.

Today, FCA at Apple Valley is led by a growing team of student leaders who are learning what it means to follow Christ and influence others.

Each week, adult FCA leaders invest in those students through Bible studies, service projects, mentorship, and leadership development.

"We have meetings with our small-group student leaders once a week where we actually have a Bible study," said FCA Huddle Leader Kylie Peterson. "We pour into them, we do service projects with them, and we show them what leadership actually looks like."

Then comes the multiplication.

"After that, we empower them to go out into the school and lead those larger group huddles and small group huddles as well."

What began with one coach recognizing a need has become a ministry reaching students throughout Apple Valley High School.

It's a reminder that God often works through simple conversations, faithful relationships, and people willing to say yes.

For Kielo, the school she never planned to return to has become a mission field.

And for students like Caiden, Kirubel, Emily, and many others, FCA has become the place where questions are welcomed, leaders are developed, and lives are being transformed by the Gospel.