In youth ministry, you are guaranteed at least three things during the summer: ridiculously crazy schedules, lots of fun, and some sort of camp/CIY. It's only half way through the summer, and I have experienced all three already....with more still to come!
We leave for CIY in a few weeks, but I was able to take some of the junior highers to camp in June. We had a great time, and it was really great to spend extra time with some students that I only see a couple hours a week. I dominated about 10 jr highers in swimming pool wrestling, and convinced a scared girl to jump off the doc. All in all, it was a great week. Yet, I had two major things that stuck out to me during camp....
First off, I was reunited with my old youth minister, David Logsdon, and his family. Bettina spent the whole week at camp (what a trooper) and David popped in every once in awhile. Their two oldest kids, Jalen and Brenna, were campers that week. I stayed in the same dorm has Jalen and witnessed the sneaky instigator work his magic. I was a Action life group leader (fancy name for family group leader) for group 12, properly named the Gladiators...maybe not the best name, but it beat out the purple flying unicorns. And sure enough, the dean yelled out, "BRENNA LOGSDON" to be apart of my group. Brenna is the sweetest child known to man. Brenna has a smile that makes ironmen melt. But what makes Brenna so powerful is not that she has a great smile, but that she is a fighter.
Brenna was 5 years old when her family left my home church and took on a new ministry in Oklahoma. The first time I saw Brenna all grown up, I wouldn't have blamed her not remembering me...but sure enough..she ran at me full speed and jumped to give me a huge hug. But by looking at this sweet girl, you would never guess that she has gone through more than almost anyone I know. Soon after her family left for Oklahoma, the doctors found out that she had a tumor in her brain. Her family was loved so much by my home church...it was hard to see them go, but even harder to face the fact that this little girl was about to go through a fight for her life.
When we found out that Brenna was getting her head shaved, we all wanted some way to help...but being high school students, there wasn't much we could do. So one Sunday at youth group, we all shaved our heads and took a picture so Brenna would know that we are all thinking about her and that she is not alone....Little did I know that shaving my head for the rest of my life! Through the support of her family, church, and God, Brenna made a recovery after long stints in hospitals. AND she was actually in my family group at camp 5-7 years later in life.
It all hit me one day while we were hanging out with our group--We were drawling pictures from different times in our lives...the highs, the lows, the future, all of that jazz. And I caught myself just watching Brenna draw her pictures. And it all kind of flashed before my eyes....isn't it crazy how God works? Her parents made Jesus real to me when I was in middle school......then they moved away...then I decided to do youth ministry....then the church I work for in Muskogee and the church they work for in Cleveland both go to the same church camp....Then Brenna is in my group! Now the child of my spiritual leaders is in my group where for a week I can be a spiritual leader to her. Crazy to wrap my mind around and it was an awesome week catching up with them. (David, YES we are doing lunch soon!)
The 2nd thing that sticks out to me doesn't have quiet the back story--in fact, it has none. There was this student in my group and he was......well, that kid. If you have worked with students before, you know exactly what I am talking about. He was super awesome, BUT he was THAT KID that was kinda awkward, he didn't really talk to anybody, wanted to sit out of everything that we did, got into a little bit of trouble during group...you know, that kid. Not that he was a bad kid at all, just needs extra attention. We were on our 3rd day at camp and he started to say he was sick (a common excuse he used to try to get out of things). I told him that he can go see the nurse AFTER we got done with our activity....he put his head down...defeated, but willing to participate.
We were carrying these burlap sacks filled with rocks...some were heavy, some weren't so heavy...but this poor kid must have picked up the heaviest one. We were carrying them up this super rocky steep hill...and as an overweight, out of shape, 22 year old man, it was tough for me! I was last in our line, just making sure that noone was left behind. When I offered to help this kid with his sack...and he looked up at me and said "No Jim, this is mine...I have to carry it"... I was shocked, surprised that he was really wanting to do it. Later on our walk, he came back to me and said, "Jim, I know what this sack is." I knew what he was going to say...he was going to say, there is a rock in here and its heavy! But instead, he looked up towards a tree that was above my head and he said:
"This is my burden that I carry....This burden stands for all the kids at school that say that I am weird and that I am not worth anything...thats what I am carrying around."
And he turned around....and kept walking.
I refer to this as the "AHA" moment...where a student finally GETS IT...and boy did he get it.
Hope you all have a blessed rest of the summer! And follow me on Twitter @Jim_Landis (that is an unashamed plug)
