Old photo's and trips down memory lane

The church that I work at has always been my home church. I have many fond memories of being a youth here. Now that I am the youth leader I hope to be able to give other youth many fond memories of being here too. Today I sat peeling old photo's off an old home made poster giving me a chance to reflect on my career with youth ministry at this church. From being a youth, to a youth volunteer, to being their leader. So many good memories along the way like the youth leader who would even unscrew the emergency lights to make things even darker as we ran around the church. That was the same leader that thought he would see how quickly he could go from downtown to our church. The passenger next to me almost peed in the seat. I would not have been thrilled with that. To the leader that played a lot of pull-a-part. Why any leader thought that having all the boys/girls sit on the floor, link up and then have the opposite gender pull them apart was a good thing is beyond me but I played that a lot as a youth. Then there was the time we had pew races in the church and youth group in the columbarium (a place where peoples ashes are put into the wall with a plaque). From wrapping people in plastic wrap to shooting nerf guns I have been a part of a lot here.

One of the things that I started thinking about was my missed opportunities. The last two times a youth leader left neither one seemed to have the faith that I could be the leader. They wanted my help but did not really look at what I could do. They let my easy going, willing to be the gopher side of me be all they saw. The first time I allowed it. I let the opportunity to be the leader pass me by. The second time I decided I was not going to let it pass me by. Whether or not the youth leader at the time believed I could do it I was not going to miss my chance. I am so happy that I went for it. While it has been one of the hardest years I have had at the same time it has been one of the most rewarding. Thank you to all of my friends and family that have been supporting me and are continuing to support me.