DISTRACTIONS

Two and a half weeks from today our team will meet in the church parking lot to depart for Los Angeles International airport and an all-night flight to San Jose, Costa Rica. The time is short but the days will be littered with plenty of distractions. Students will be finishing projects, taking tests, doing final concerts, athletic events. Adults will be working on full-time and handling school year end projects.

All this amounts to little time for actually thinking about the trip and considering the many different ways we all can be ready. Our team has been meeting monthly since October but it’s amazing in how many different directions we have all been pulled between meetings. Life goes on and can be relentless in robbing us not only time to focus on the mission ahead but our time to just “be.”

Lately I have been keeping my focus on finishing a few other things ahead of time to allow “margins” over the next two weeks. These quiet spaces will make available time for the unexpected and last minute tasks while reducing potential distractions.

Pray our team will do well at battling the distractions and caring for ourselves spiritually, mentally, emotionally and physically in these last 18 days. Your support will mean much.

Countdown to Costa Rica

There are now less than 27 days until our team leaves for Costa Rica. After leading over 20 trips like this I believe it would be possible for me, if I took the time, to chart some of the stages or even phases a leader experiences in the preparation for such an adventure. For the moment I will say I am in the middle of the "I-can't-believe-the-trip-is-actually-this-close" stage. Since September of last year I have been preparing for this trip and started meeting with our team back in October. As always it is fun to anticipate and share life with those who are also anticipating the same thing. Now it is almost here and the reality of final details is settling into place. Thankfully the final part of the task list is almost complete and we seem to be in great shape.

I believe God has put together a great team and I am grateful to travel with these students and leaders. We have a plan for the trip but I know God has an even better one. Pray we all will keep walking with Him and letting Him lead us to the most important work.

Homestretch to Costa Rica

It's been almost a year since I lasted posted. Life in ministry and other projects swept over leaving little time to add entries.

Now it's back and now we are going back . . . to Costa Rica.

In less than a month I will be leading a team of 3 adults and 11 high school students to work with our Free Methodist teammates in Tilaran and Esterillos Oeste, Costa Rica. We have been meeting since last October to prepare for this trip, June 5-15, 2011. While there we will be doing community service, ministry with children and families, being an encouragement and loving/showing Christ's love through our words, actions and attitudes.

We invite you to tag along with us over the days before the trip and during the trip (as the internet connection allows). I will plan to post short entries updating you on our progress and ways you can pray for us.

Thanks for being on the team! More to come!

Good Friends Do Count

Every parent, every youth pastor prays for the ones they love to find good friends who offer encouragement and growth in their spiritual life throughout the college years and beyond. In this challenging world there are no guarantees.

Four years ago, my wife and I released our oldest daughter to begin her young adult life at Seattle Pacific University. At this stage of life some may feel their parenting responsibility has eased. In some ways "yes," in most ways "no." Our prayer, in the launching years, was for our daughter to land well.

Over this past weekend we celebrated her graduation but more than that, we celebrated her life. Through her time in college she found those friends every parent desires in the life of their emerging adult. By their junior year of college the girls had moved into a house where they lived, laughed, loved and longed together for the eternal values found in living for God.

In the near future they will begin going their own ways with an indispensable core and a deeper understanding of community. They each know what can happen when God's kids take the time to authentically care for one another.

To LeAnn, Courtney (not pictured), Paige, Jungwa and Alex, the five "sisters" of our daughter, we say "thanks." Your investment in Kelly's life is a gift of joy and hope to us and for that we are eternally grateful.

JOHN WOODEN AND YOUTH MINISTRY

Today as I write this, John Wooden, former coach for the UCLA Bruins basketball is very ill and in the hospital. In my lifetime I have had a few sports heroes. Coach Wooden is at the top of the list.

At thirteen years of age I was given a little paperback book entitled, “They Call Me Coach.” It is the story of his life. I lived on the east coast but became a long distance fan of this growing legend. In his lifetime he is the only person to ever be elected to the College Basketball Hall of Fame both as a player and a coach. His teams won ten national championships, seven in a row. This, however, is only a piece of the man John Wooden.

After reading a few more of his books I came to understand his accomplishments were great but they flowed out of his character. He once said, “Be more concerned with your character than with your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.” (HOW TO BE LIKE COACH WOODEN, p. 5). What Coach Wooden was could not adequately be explained in a short blog. Simply put, he was a man of honor, integrity, grace and he invested in youth!

Coach Wooden’s entire career was spent teaching and building the character of young men on his basketball teams. He cared about them as whole persons, let his love for and faith in God shine as he taught them enduring principles for life.

As a youth pastor I have the great opportunity of making an eternal investment in the lives of teenagers. Every year I attend a few graduation ceremonies of our seniors. I hear speakers talk about the teachers who went beyond just teaching facts and truly cared for students. I am inspired and reminded why I love working with youth.

John Wooden is now ninety-nine years old. His longevity has mentored me in my own life. Someone once asked him the secret to his enduring journey. He said, “Moderation in all things. Be concerned for others and stay around young people.” Yes, those words are hanging on my wall.

REMEMBERING

Maybe it’s because I’m getting a little more “experience” in life but I seem to also be getting more sentimental on Memorial Day. Let me throw out a few reasons in no priority order:

1) The most significant Memorial Day ceremonies happen around Washington, D.C. Watching the remembrance on C-span made me miss my “homeland” and extended family there. Watching the ceremony and people furiously fanning made me not miss the obligatory heat and humidity of a D.C. summer.

2) On this day I am thankful for all who have served in the military for our freedom. I am grateful for their courageous sacrifice. I am most grateful for my grandfather, “Pa” (pictured with my mom) who fought in World War 2 Battle of the Bulge. Most of his unit was killed while he and few others were captured by Germans and held prisoner for the duration of the war. I am grateful he served but more thankful he came home to hold me in his lap, whittle toys from sticks and tell me stories of my ancestors.

3) While Memorial Day may be about our “decorated soldiers” it also reminds me of how good it is to remember. I am thankful to be loved by God who was willing to sacrifice His Son for me and challenges me daily to never forget the wonderful gift of life He offers.

Beware that in your plenty you do not forget the Lord your God and disobey his commands, regulations, and decrees that I am giving you today. For when you have become full and prosperous and have built fine homes to live in, and when your flocks and herds have become very large and your silver and gold have multiplied along with everything else, be careful! Do not become proud at that time and forget the Lord your God, who rescued you from slavery in the land of Egypt. Do not forget that he led you through the great and terrifying wilderness with its poisonous snakes and scorpions, where it was so hot and dry. He gave you water from the rock! He fed you with manna in the wilderness, a food unknown to your ancestors. He did this to humble you and test you for your own good. He did all this so you would never say to yourself, ‘I have achieved this wealth with my own strength and energy.’ Remember the Lord your God. He is the one who gives you power to be successful, in order to fulfill the covenant he confirmed to your ancestors with an oath.

Deuteronomy 8:11-18 (NLT)

GROWING TOOL #2 - "Live Life"

Over twenty-five years ago Nancy and I made the decision to pack up everything we owned (which wasn’t much!) and move across the country to begin an adventure in youth ministry with the Free Methodist Church of Santa Barbara.

With my family in Maryland, hers in Indiana and no extended family west of the Mississippi we were most definitely striking out on our own.

Though we initially felt “lonely” we were quickly embraced by a loving congregation and friends in an apartment complex. We were invited to be in a small group with three other couples. Weekly we ate and studied together. One couple eventually moved away and the rest of us began having kids. Before long the little group of six grew to a group of 14, including parents and children.

The other couples also had no extended family in California. In time we made the prayerful and intentional decision to be family for each other. We decided to “live life” together.

The longer I have been a youth pastor the more I realize the importance of “living life” with students. Yes, it is our role to equip and lead them. In this we are able to help build a foundation and plant a seed but when asked what they remember most about their time with us, the consistent answer is almost always about a leader who took them out to eat or invited them to hang out or traveled with them. The quantity of time spent produces the quality and depth we seek.

How to do this?

1) FOCUS – One youth pastor/director cannot “live life” with an entire youth ministry so other adult leaders must understand their need to be more than a “chaperone,” “counselor” or leader. Encouraging leaders to invest in two to three youth gives them the time to go a little deeper.

2) BE PRACTICAL – Youth and adults have limited time. Find ways to merge your normal life with their normal life and invite them to join. Some moms take students along with them to go shopping. Some guys invite youth to go do errands with them or fix something. One of my own youth leaders was asked by some Jr. High girls if she could “hang out.” The leader was short on time but invited the girls to come over and watch her iron clothes. I still have the funny picture of three girls sitting on the other side of an ironing board chatting with the leader. This was one teaching time they will likely never forget.

How are you living life with youth and helping them to grow in their faith?