Context: I lead YoungLife at Mason High School. This is a relationship-based youth ministry that depends on volunteer leaders. One of the greatest roles of leaders is to spend time in the community living life with students there, what we call “Contact Work”.
I was placed at Mason on January 13, 2012, so I’ve been leading for about 9 months now. So far I’ve had a lot of awkward moments, some rough transitions, and a few really rewarding experiences. All of this is expected—I’ve just been waiting for my role to become clear.
So far I know that I need to be present in the community doing contact work and spending time in the word on my own. Last week was huge for the former—God led me to spend several hours with a couple of awesome guys playing disc golf, and it was fantastic.
Originally my intention was to get up to Mason in time for the dismissal bell and hope to see some guys I know on their way out of school. Unfortunately, I couldn’t make it up there in time, but I was hoping that I could still spend time in the community or with some friends in Mason. I was confident that God wanted me there, but had no idea what he was going to do—always a fun time.
It was fairly awkward. I had no idea what to do, so I just sat in the parking lot and thought about who I could talk to about hanging out. I also figured my time would be constrained by a YoungLife leadership meeting in a couple hours. My texts were mostly unanswered; one guy I did get into contact with was more interested in hanging out in a group of friends rather than just meeting up with me, which I expected, but that left me with no real leads.
This took awhile, so I figured I’d have to leave soon, which was a really disappointing thought. And at the same time I felt really awkward sitting in different parking lots waiting for people to text me back—I was a little afraid people would start noticing me...
I find it difficult to differentiate between voices on the phone, so when I decided to call one of my friends and I started talking with him, he awkwardly handed the phone off to my intended recipient. Amazingly enough, however, he invited me to meet up with him, so I did.
I ended up driving him home, meeting his parents, taking him to get a haircut and finally playing disc golf with him and a couple of his friends. At first I was really nervous about the time—by then it was almost time for me to leave for my meeting. Nine holes of disc golf don’t go by quickly though.
I ended up missing the meeting, but I met a couple great guys who I had the privilege of eating dinner with and getting to talk to. They invited me to join them in Ultimate practice and seemed excited about coming to YoungLife stuff, even though I didn’t really mention it.
This whole day blew me away. I felt God wanting me in Mason, but I figured I blew it when I was late. I just got disappointed trying to text people and felt like I shouldn’t be there the whole time, but it ended up being incredibly encouraging. I have no idea what was talked about at leadership that day, but I was where God wanted me, and I got to experience a taste of God’s faithfulness that afternoon
When Jesus had called the Twelve together, he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. He told them: “Take nothing for the journey—no staff, no bag, no bread, no money, no extra tunic. Whatever house you enter, stay there until you leave that town. If people do not welcome you, shake the dust off your feet when you leave their town, as a testimony against them.” (Luke 9:1-5)
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