More than Paint Chips - Day 118 month 4-28 Week 17-6
Today's Reading (Bible in 1 year)
Numbers 34:1-35:5, Psalm 95, Jeremiah 12:7-17, Luke 22:39-71
More Than Paint Chips
“Your youth group is damaging the walls in the new board room!” Those were the words from one of the board members in the Beaverton church where we worked. It is sad to realize that the board members were seeing paint chips but Syl and I were seeing lives changed. (We suspect it was some of the more slouchy board members who were backing into the walls and not our youth!)
I was hired in a full time pastoral role, in charge of youth and Sunday worship. We immediately started an afternoon drop in centre for youth ages 10 and up but we recognized a huge need for the high school youth in our town. Our town was notorious for teenage drug/alcohol abuse and teenage pregnancies. In the interest of reaching those youth we went out on a limb and invited a family of Jesus followers, let the local high school know and some of the church members invited their grand kids. The first Wednesday meeting had 6 in attendance; It began with four family members and two grandkids of members. This, we thought, was a great start. Our program was simple: Games and sports in the gym, snacks and a short God story. Sylvia and I would alternate each week on teaching the God story so that neither of us would be too worn out. Neither of us were trained for teaching this sort of thing. The second Wednesday arrived and 16 teenagers showed up. We were blown away. It was word of mouth that got out at the high school. The third week we had 32! In our early 50’s Syl and I were suddenly in the midst of a youth renewal in a small rural town. We realized God was using us in a way we never expected. We called it The Rock because Jesus is the Rock of our lives and we knew each and every teenager that attended needed to know this Rock. There are so many powerful stories from our experiences with The Rock, where God used us to reach youth at their very lowest. Several of those teenagers chose to be Jesus followers during that time and we’ve had the privilege of attending the wedding of two of the kids who actually met at The Rock. We grew to love those kids! We still remain FaceBook friends with many of those who attended. One of the teenagers became our pseudo foster daughter for several months. We still connect with her regularly and think of ourselves as her “momish” and “dadish!” though she is now in her late 20’s with a beautiful daughter of her own.
Assorted photos from The Rock
Video night in our home
Unfortunately, the youth ministry only lasted about a year in that church where we started it and we had to relocate it to another willing church outside of town. It slowly fizzled out because youth were no longer able to walk to The Rock. Even so, we still look at that time as a high point in our lives!
In Psalm 95, we read: “O come, let us sing for joy to the LORD, let us shout joyfully to the ROCK of our salvation.” This same Jesus who was betrayed by a kiss, in our Luke reading today, healed the ear of the chief priest’s slave, and can heal not only the youth of today, but your own heart as well. God is still the ROCK you can stand on when all else may fail you.
Have a great day!
Steve
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