Two Weeks Notice

Hey there faithful cheese readers.  Just wanted to jump back in and give you a little update on life.  I am leaving for Alaska in about 2 weeks, holy crap!  I know all five thousand of you that read this are dying to see me before I leave, so I will do my best to get to each of you.

I am flaking with the bloggo commitment once again, but this is because I have been trying to spend as much time as possible lately with people that I likely will not see much of over the next few years.  The last month has been a really challenging mix of emotions for me.  I am so excited as the day grows nearer when I will actually be living and working in Alaska, yet I am really starting to get nervous.  I am leaving everyone and everything I have ever known and loved 3000 miles away.  I am going to be almost completely starting over in building friendships with peers and relationships with the youth and people in the church.  Wow.  It’s just weird when I reflect on that.

This last week I went to the Orange Conference in Atlanta, Georgia, home of 10,000 Waffle Houses.  It was a sweet gathering for youth and children’s ministry that focused on how, as the church, to better work with families in guiding the spiritual growth of kids and youth.  The point was made that we (as youth/children workers) typically get somewhere between 40 and 100 hours with kids per year, while their parents get more like 3000.  Who is likely going to have the bigger impact?  The conference touched on all kinds of issues, ranging from leadership to cultural trends to the essence of the church.  I really came away with a lot of deep thoughts about what my ministry is going to look like as a youth worker over the next few years.  I will share some of these ideas as I am able to process them.

The conference was also really cool for me because it gave me the chance to meet and get to know some of the people I will be working with once I get to Anchorage, including the other new co-youth director or whatever we’re called.  He is a cool guy and we got along really well and were able to connect on a lot of things, so I am excited to be working with him at Trinity.  The conference pumped me up and I am really anxious to start.  Honestly, I am a little intimidated since I have never technically led a church’s youth ministry (The Venue was more of a community outreach venture).  I don’t know yet what it is gonna be like.  I’m kind of scared.  But excited.  Story of my life over the past month, haha!

I will try to post some of my recent insights on here soon, but it is going to be a hectic few months trying to wrap up loose ends here in Tejas and get adjusted to the Alaskan craziness.