It has been beyond amazing to see the ways that God has brought me to and through this summer.
I suppose a good place to start is to say thank you to every person who has ever been part of my experience during my 20 years at St. Mark. The people of St. Mark have provided me with unbelievable experiences, from first learning about God as a child during Sunday School and VBS, all the way to providing me with a chance to explore a career in youth ministry during the past summer. The chance to be a part of the staff, especially the youth ministry, at St. Mark has been one of the most enlightening experiences of my life.
While on staff, I had a chance to work alongside Jake Bouma with the high school group, Eikon. I was given an opportunity to sit in on, and participate in, the summer book study over Francis Chan’s Crazy Love. I was also able to spend two hours every week enjoying coffee and smoothies with any of the St. Mark youth who wanted to hang out. However the summer wasn’t all about sitting back and observing as all the other staff worked.
I was also able to take everything I was learning from working alongside Jake with the high schoolers and apply it to the junior high group, CREW. I was given the task of choosing a book and setting up a meeting time for the CREW Summer Book Study. I thought that maybe the questions I had in junior high might still be in the minds of the kids in CREW, so we read a book entitled My Faith. This book touched on subjects such as prayer, what the church is, sharing time, talent, and treasures, and peer pressure. Having an open forum once a week where the kids could ask about anything that was on their minds was eye-opening. The best discussions we had were the ones where all I did was sit and listen, occasionally prodding the discussion in the right direction.
Two of the most rewarding experiences this summer were outside of the city limits of West Des Moines. First, I had to opportunity to plan and participate in the Guys’ Baseball Trip to Chicago. I was in charge of everything from contacting the guys who would be participating to buying tickets to planning the devotional for Thursday morning. Although this wasn’t the easiest thing I had ever done, once we left the St. Mark parking lot at 5:45 am on a Wednesday morning, it turned out to be the most rewarding trip I had taken so far. On the trip I saw that simply having a conversation over a pizza or doughnuts can lead to the most rewarding gift of all, a relationship. I found that the best way to see Christ in others and to be Christlike myself is to initiate a truly Christian relationship.
The second trip of the summer, apart from being the most stressful thing I have ever done, was the biggest learning experience of my life. After countless hours watching Jake stress out over the planning of Eikon’s trip to the 2009 ELCA Youth Gathering, it was my turn to feel the stress. Traveling with twenty-four high-schoolers and five other adults to the city of New Orleans to meet up with 37,000 other Lutherans for some powerful worship, service, and fellowship was awesome. It was fascinating to see the relationships form among our students and leaders. As our group moved out into the city and began to see what had happened to some of the citizens, I was left in awe by the students reactions to the devastation. Rather than just being shocked by the destroyed homes and empty fields where neighborhoods once stood, the students were asking what they could do to help.
For me the learning was not limited to the effects of Hurricane Katrina. I learned a lot about myself. After I had spent a week with very little sleep ushering high schoolers to and fro in the city of New Orleans, I would have thought I would be exhausted and not want to see anything even remotely resembling a high school student for a long, long time. When I returned home, however, all I could think of was the next time I would see the youth and when I would be able to go on another outing. I now know that this feeling is the calling to be a youth minister. I am both relieved and excited to find that I’m finally right about what I want to do.
- Andrew
Posted by Jake 
