Its times like these that I am amazed at how fast time flies. It seems like just yesterday that I took pictures and updated this blog. Yet here it is, weeks later and I am just now sitting down to share what it is that I have been doing these past few weeks. Since my last update we have gotten into the swing of the fall and tonight will be our fourth week of youth group this school year. So far things have been going well. In addition to my responsibilities with the praise band each week, Brian and I have been sharing most of the responsibilities each week. The first two weeks my job was to lead the game to begin the night and then co-lead the senior guys small group for the last half an hour of the night. Last week I was able to teach the lesson. It was a great experience to get to stand up in front of our group of students and teach. While I can’t say that it went perfectly, it was a great opportunity to begin to improve my speaking abilities.
Praise band has been going great as well. Each week I find myself looking forward to working with a great group of students and just enjoying the time together as they prepare to lead their peers in worship. Every Sunday night from 6:00 to 8:30 we meet. The first hour or so Mark leads the group in devotions. What we do varies, but quite often it is a product of what has been on Mark’s heart that previous week. After that the team that is playing that week gets ready to practice, while the other team is free to go. The next hour and a half is full of music with the intent of praising the awesome God that we serve. I spend most of the night walking around and listening, pointing out little things that may need to change, and helping them to keep the focus on the purpose. I love this part of my job, although it reignites the desire in me to be part of a band again.
Beyond that I have been getting into a routine, which is somewhat tough for me. When I was painting I loved that the environment, work, the total experience changed every week or so. The idea of sitting in my office all day working on something is challenging to my ADD side. Last week in particular I got discouraged by my lack of progress after an entire day of working on my lesson. But I ended up going to a Cross Country meet with Brian and one of the girls on the team was very appreciative of our being there. It was encouraging, here I spent a whole day getting very little done because I couldn’t focus and was having a hard time organizing my thoughts, only to be reminded that I am not in youth ministry because of the office work. I am in youth ministry because I want to make a difference in the lives of students. It was a good reminder.
I also had the opportunity to see Mom and Dad for a weekend. They flew out here almost two weeks ago and I met them down in Washington, D.C. We had an awesome weekend with decent weather and saw just about everything down there. Seriously, we walked so much that my blisters had blisters (ok, not quite, but close). I had never been there so it was a great chance to see our Nation's capital and some of the history that I have only read about. For those of you who haven't been there before, if you want to see the Declaration of Independence, just watch National Treasure. When you see it in person, its a 200 year old piece of faded paper with some barely visible black lines. If it didn't take so long, I'd post pictures, so you'll just have to wait till I get home to see them.
God is stretching me. I am being challenged, placed beyond the boundaries of my comfort zone, and being pushed to grow. But each time God places me beyond what I think I can handle, He reminds me that I following him wont be easy or comfortable. Things are going great. Hope this post was worth the wait.
John
