From the Shadows

There are times when Student Ministry feels like a sprint. There are other times when Student Ministry seems like a marathon that really doesn't have a finish line. Over the course of a school year volunteers and group leaders will have highs and lows. There are moments your team will feel like they just climbed Kilimanjaro and others when they will feel like students think they are nothing more than a door mat.

Typically my week has some sort of roller coaster flow to it. One second a student will tell me that their friend is finally coming to them with questions about God, and the next second a parent will be asking me why we haven't had an Air-soft event in the past few months. Sometimes the people questioning or complaining about something are caring and considerate about how they communicate their issue, but a lot of the time they don't even realize how they are coming across.

I'll be honest. There are times that I would like to get off of the roller coaster. It's not always easy to stay balanced. I am sure that similar things take a toll on a lot of our volunteers and group leaders. I really admire their passion and perseverance. It's incredible to see them push through a year full of ups and downs. All that being said I would like to take a minute to share one of our high points that happened this Sunday Night. I hope you will celebrate it with all of us in Student Ministry too.

At the start of this school year there was a Middle School student who was coming to Friday nights at the Crossing and we will call him Danny. We had seen Danny a lot in the previous school year and we had our share of run ins with him as well. He was a guy who was dealing with a lot of different problems that he really didn't know how to handle. There were points we had to pull him aside and talk with him. He could be frustrating at times to say the least.

Our Crossing Staff does a great job and it came to our attention some time in September that Danny had warrant out for his arrest. He hadn't done anything horrendous. He just made a small mistake and missed his court date. On a Friday night we pulled him aside and asked him about it. We told him he needed to do the right thing and go work it out. Danny left in a squad car that night. It was tough on us. That night we committed ourselves to pray for Danny. We also promised Danny that we would follow up with him in a couple of weeks to see how he was doing. We wanted to help him through this.

A few weeks later we went to the address we had in our database for Danny. The house was completely empty. We talked to the neighbors. It seemed that Danny's family had just left abruptly a few days ago. We spent the rest of the day going from park to park and even talking to some of Danny's relatives trying to figure out where he had gone. Our search proved unproductive and the trail went cold. That evening we sent out an email to our church staff, elders, and all of our Student Ministry Volunteers. We wanted everybody to be praying for Danny. We might not have known where he was but Jesus definitely did and we liked that.

That was all that happened until about a month ago. Seemingly out of the shadows Danny reappeared at the Crossing. He told us about where he had moved and what he had been up to. He also told us that he had gone and talked with the judge and everything had been resolved. That was a great night for us at the Crossing. We got to play basketball with him and just catch up with him. We let him know we had been praying for him. He has been at almost each Crossing since that night as well.

We always encourage students who come to the Crossing to take the next step and come to Rel Community. The difference between the Crossing and Rel Community is that the Crossing is a place to come, hang out, and get to know us. At Rel Community, we get together and talk about the person who changed our lives forever, Jesus. Danny never seemed interested in Rel Community, he liked the pick up basketball games at the Crossing.

This Sunday night Danny surprised us again. He and 4 of his friends came to Rel Community. In our groups that night we talked about forgiveness and Matthew 18:21-35. Danny and his friends joined into the conversation. They shared real thoughts and real struggles about forgiveness. After our group time I told Danny that we had been praying for him for a while now because we cared so much about him. His response was, "Thanks. I am really trying to make good decisions."

Last night wasn't the finish line for us or Danny. He still needs to meet Jesus in a life-changing way. In all reality Danny may never come to Rel Community again. He might disappear into the shadows like so many students do. We need to keep praying for him, but something truly incredible did happen on Sunday night. Danny emerged from the shadows to talk about Jesus, and it was our privilege to be able to plant and water seeds in his heart. That's worth celebrating.