Another YouthWorks Summer is Underway!

Youthworks! summer number 7 has started. This summer I am overseeing sites in Michigan (Sault Ste Marie), Wisconsin (Green Bay and Milwaukee) and Illinois/Iowa (Quad Cities-Moline, Davenport, Rock Island, and Bettendorf). We have just started week 3 and so far things have been buzzing along. This week my fourth site got up and running and that means that staff are now in full swing. Already God has been challenging and growing my staff. He has been revealing things in them like pride and the need for control. He's been showing them that this job is so much bigger than anything they can do on their own and that He is readay to jump in and do IMMEASURABLY MORE (Ephesians 3:20-21...it's our theme verse for the summer)if all they would do is ask and jump out of the way. My hopes for them this summer include things like growing more in love with the Lord, having hearts that are ready to jump in and serve those around them, and a hunger to dig more deeply into the Word. Of course I hope they run great YouthWorks sites but I know that if the Lord is their number 1 priority, all the rest should fall into place.

For those of you that check this, you know that I am not the best at updating it. One of my goals for myself this summer however is to use this more often to share stories about the summer and thoughts about life and the Lord. Hopefully I will be able to write at least once a week.

So much of the summer thus far has included things like making posters and signs to decorate and give direction to our participants, cleaning and preparing sleeping rooms/Club rooms?kitchens/bathrooms/etc. Things that are necesary but things that can get tedious. We all get nervous and excited for that first group to arrive and for all our hard work and planning to be put into play. After about 29380372 posters have been hung, 75 bowls/plates/cups/knives/spoons/forks have been washed, $1200 worth of groceries have been bought and put away, orientations have been practiced, and schedules have been worked out, it is time to greet our groups.

Groups who come for all different places and walks of life. Groups who have been on 35 mission trips and groups who have never ventured more than 30 miles from their front door. Groups who come ready and willing to jump in and do whatever and groups who wonder from thw moment they pull up "what are we doing here." Groups who can be really easy to work with and groups who will test every ounce of patience that you have and even some ounces you didn't know were in there. Groups who, week after week, experience the life-changing power that comes from offering ourselves to the Lord through work in various communities.

I have noticed through the last 7 years that my energy level has dropped significantly and that keeping the schedule of a YouthWorks staffer is a lot harder now, but what keeps me coming back is watching the Lord become so big in the summer. Watching the Lord change the hearts of 50 year old adults and 14 year old youth. Watching the lives that are blessed in our communities through the service that teenagers and adults do. Watching the Lord break down stereotypes and open eyes to see the injustice that permeates our world. Watching myself and my staff be broken and made more into the image and likeness of Jesus. And it is for these things that I keep coming back.

It is an incredible and sometimes scary journey that you are taken on in these 2.5 months. I think this next picture, which was taken outside of our housing site in Green Bay, says it all...

It rocks...the lives of youth...adults...communities...and staff!