A child of God educating other children.

I love working with girls and letting God use me to be a light in their world. I love that we have a “Girls Only” forum on our Youth Chat Board where girls can open up more and we can discuss things going on in their life. After seeing one conversation I signed onto AIM which I haven’t done in a while and think I should start being more available. I had a wonderful conversation with one of our girls and I loved being a listening ear and offering advice when asked for. That was a highlight of my week.

Another highlight was going to an orchestra concert of another girl in youth group. After the concert, Tim and Jessica, and I went to CiCi’s with our youth and her family. It was so great to get to meet her parents and siblings. We had such a fun time and I think we really started to build a good relationship with them. I’m looking forward to getting to know them better.

I think parents are such an important part in youth ministry. Both of these girls I just wrote about are community girls. Meaning that they were invited by a friend in our youth group and their parents either attend at a different church, or don’t attend anywhere. With church kids we see their parents on a weekly basis, but community kids it’s a rare moment to meet their family. Another reason why I think it is very important for youth leaders to make it to student’s events.

Community kids parent’s let their students attend our church every week without knowing what kind of people their children are hanging out with. We all assume that youth leaders have to be good people since they’re at church. I think that parents really appreciate though when they can meet the youth leaders and see that they really do care about their child by showing up to their extra curricular events. It’s great to see the parent’s faces light up when they see a group of church people at their child’s even cheering them on. It’s good to know that their child is plugged in with good people.

Since I started student teaching and Tim and I got married I’m exploring a different role for my position in youth ministry that God is setting up for me. At church my heart is with the 6th-12th grade girls. And I think I’m starting to find that my area is in supporting these girls outside of the regular youth group setting. We have lots of youth workers who are available on Sundays and Wednesdays, but it’s sometimes hard to juggle more days than that with their families and work. I’m blessed that God has made me available for other days of the week. They also make for fun date nights for me and Tim.

Posted in: on Tuesday, October 24, 2006 at at 12:49 PM