Federated News
The Federated Church, PC (USA
2704 – 15 Street –
Phone: 402-564-2812 Fax:
402-564-2813
E-mail fcstaff@megavision.com
Pastor: Dr. James B. Wooten
Volume 42 Number 7 July/August 2008
Journey to the
Desert
Our youth and their leadership, particularly Katie, but also their teachers and advisors, comprise the finest youth ministry program with which I have had the privilege of serving. Over almost 25 years of ministry in two large churches in large cities and several churches from the smallest to our size, I have known many wonderful youth. However, the maturity, dedication to Christ and to one another, and deep commitment to helping others makes ours unequalled.
Under Katie’s leadership, my task was easy on our latest mission trip (my first) to the Navajo Nation. Katie was in charge. I was along to lend my physical labor and spiritual support to her and the whole team. Kevin and Doug were seasoned veterans, as was our big-hearted bus driver, Denny. Julie and Roger, as parents, but more importantly as hard working adult leaders, knew the kids and were tireless in their servant leadership. It was also their first trip, but I would never have known that from the seamless way they connected with the mission and our youth.
I have reflected on what makes this ministry so vital and have concluded the following:
· In Katie, there is continuity: in leadership on our staff, in experience, having made the first trip thirteen years ago and every other save one for family health reasons last year, in her knowledge and understanding of each youth, having seen them grow from children to teenagers, and in the model that she has created for a successful mission adventure. With boundless optimism she operates out of a theology of abundance, not scarcity, that causes her to focus on “why not?” rather than “why?” Her strong faith models for the youth and adults how one can be committed to Christ in one’s own journey, while accepting of others whose beliefs and practices differ, and her endless energy rarely flags, and if it does, she doesn’t show it.
·
In
parents/adult volunteers like Julie and Roger, we have leaders who love Christ, who love
· In advisors like Doug and Kevin, we have adult volunteers who make the same sacrifice and who bring the invaluable knowledge of the needs, strengths, and growing edges of our youth, having been leaders for many of their older siblings on almost all of the trips.
· In our youth, there is the embodiment of what has become a sacred tradition. Sacred for some who have a family heritage through older brothers and sisters in doing missions, sacred for others because they are gladly willing to sacrifice leisure time with their friends and families back home to give to people they have never met in places they have never traveled for the sake of the Kingdom.
· I witnessed their many acts of kindness and tenderness towards one another and the people they were called to serve. With all of the over-scheduling with which youth are afflicted in the 21st century, I saw them find time to make new friends and enjoy old friends as they became a beloved community through the simple things of faith: sacred play at the volleyball net or in a round of hacky-sack, or sharing snacks and meals with one another including the retro experience of making a sack lunch each day! Joy, kindness, flexibility, spontaneity, endurance, and a huge capacity for hard work in hard conditions – these are your children who are becoming young adults before our eyes.
We should never take for granted the blessing they and their leaders bring to our church. I don’t think we ever will.
Warmest personal wishes,
Jim