2 very encouraging things happened for me tonight. It is one of those cases of hearing about some fruit from previous labour that I might otherwise have never heard.
When I started in youth ministry in 2003 there was a small group of 4-5 boys that I was dealing with. Tonight I discovered one of these boys is now a leader at another youth group. This might not sound amazing to you but when youth ministry stats show that by FAR more kids leave the faith than stay with it, ANY youth I’ve had the privilege of knowing that is still walking the walk of faith excites me. In fact, as far as I am aware every one of those 4-5 boys is still involved in church in some way and they have all finished high school. There is definitely differing levels of ‘faith’ amongst them, but their is hope that all of them will still be in the faith in 10 years time. I have to be honest, this excites me.
The second bit of encouragement is I discovered something I prayed for over the years has come to fruition, though not as I probably expected. Over the years when I was at Subiaco we prayed that Shenton College would have an opening for our youth group to be involved. We prayed and prayed that we could somehow impact that school and that doors would open for us to be involved. Tonight I discovered another youth group has THIS YEAR started to do some things at this school. This excites me! Though it is not Subiaco, this really doesn’t matter! The fact of the matter is God has answered prayer and opened the door for his people to move in the school. Awesome!
It is little victories like these that really enthuse and excite youth pastors because some times victories are few and far between! Why am I in youth ministry? Because of little victories like these.
Great stuff Middo. It’s always encouraging to see the fruits of our labour. Praise God!