So much to share and remember about my first Ozark Mission Project!
Developing a deep love for my Family Group. Developing a deeper love for my youth at Lakewood. Becoming one of the guys in my (smelly) cabin--at points there were comments like "let's do this prank and not tell any of the staff of adults..." while I was right there! The new found love I have for three amazing ladies who served as OMP drivers and as leaders at Lakewood. Meeting yet another one of my predecessors and at Lakewood and other awesome OMP volunteer and college staff. Working, playing, and praying hard. Impacting the lives of our neighbors, the lives of our young campers, and being impacted by God through our neighbors and campers.
Also, as this is meant to be a practical blog as much as it is reflective on my youth ministry experiences, I would love to share some "how-to" do mission camps ideas here, but so much good stuff can already be found at www.ozarkmissionproject.org.
One thing I do want to suggest you include in any retreat or camp is a time of sharing each day. I've done this before as "prayer and share" time. Each evening at OMP, the chairs were circled up and candles were lit to create an atmosphere of worship. Those who wanted to could stand and share, often in the form of "I saw God today in..."
So now onto something strange I observed on the day our theme was "Calling Out to God in Joy." At first this is going to sound irreligious, even un-spiritual, but just go with me for a bit.
Joy is often found on the other side of trials and adversity. The great worship standard, "Trading My Sorrows" touches on this and includes this dichotomy via a section of 2 Corinthians 4 where we are "hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed (8-9)."
I don't know about you, but it's often easy to feel the truth of the first parts listed here. We know what it's like to be hard pressed and yet feel crushed. We are often perplexed and yet sometimes in complete despair. We are persecuted and yet do feel abandonment. We are struck down and yet feel destruction. Let's admit it, sometimes there is no joy. Sometimes God just isn't there.
This is the un-spiritual talk I was referring to. I've heard Erwin McManus talk about these dire circumstances in our humanity. People may suggest, "You mean to say that you just didn't feel like God was there," or maybe, "You just weren't looking hard enough for God or joy." To some degree, this response when someone is experiencing deep pain or loss is about as helpful as, "If you'd have just had more faith, maybe your cancer would have been cured." This drives me crazy!
It feels like God wasn't there? No, God just wasn't there! This is at least honest, and God can take it. Interesting how the previous day's theme was calling out to God in our anger and despair. Even on the cross, Jesus echoes the words of the psalmist: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken (or forgotten) me (Matthew 27:46)?"
"Perhaps you just weren't looking hard enough for joy." How does that help Ms. Kitty who lost her father and is now taking care of her mother with dementia with little help from her siblings? Sometimes, we just need to go there with people in their pain. We need to just be there with them rather than neaten things up in some sort of strange spiritual/political correctness.
Because the fact of the matter is that Ms. Kitty did exude joy. She had a beautiful smile, a beautiful attitude, and a piano that served as an album of photos of her beautiful family. She also came out and worked with us because working outside brings her joy. (As a bit of a black thumb, I can't say that for me.) There she was sharing with us in our work even as we shared with her for a few brief moments in her suffering.
This, I imagine, is how Jesus could be fully present in our suffering and in the suffering of His sacrifice on the cross and still see beyond the present into the future joy that would be His and ours. "For the joy set before Him He endured the cross" which makes Him "the pioneer and perfecter of our faith (Hebrews 12:2)."
I urge you, to be honest in your anger, pain, and sadness even as you "fix your eyes on Jesus" because "we always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body (2 Corinthians 4:10)." As follower of Christ, we are such beautiful contradictions!
Consumed is all about equipping students and their youth ministries for greater impact in God's Kingdom. I have a huge desire to see you change the world for Jesus Christ, and I am tired of seeing ineffective us-4-no-more youth groups. It’s time to create a movement impacting our schools and communities! Thanks for stopping by, and let me know if there is anything I can do. Andrew
Monday, June 18, 2012
OMP Observations 2012
The Ozark Mission Project is a unique Summer Camp experience with a huge missions component and impact for those in need all over Arkansas. The impact in the lives of the campers, both youth and adults, who serve and do the work is equally powerful. My first OMP, and now second mission trip, was God wrecking my life all over again.
It's interesting how many get into youth ministry for selfish reasons. It's even more surprising to note that this is actually justified and quite acceptable. Do youth ministry to see young lives changed, and God will change your life about 110% of the time.
My Family Group was amazing. My co-driver and I had our fair share of complaints, but I cannot recall one complaint from Mackenzie, Thomas, or Anna, even after we learned that our house painting project was the hardest and most tedious project of the week. With the help of another Family Group, we just barely completed the project in four (out of five work) days.
Too be honest, I approached the week thinking I would need to set the pace. Drink plenty of water and take breaks, yes, but help our young people to see how to work hard through my example. I'll be darned if the complete opposite was true! Getting older and heavier and forgetting about all the hard work I was raised doing meant I needed frequent breaks and found myself trying to follow their pace!
We were touched and humbled by the response of the entire camp and our neighbor Mr. White himself who had called our Major Groups Leader to thank us. Honestly, his house needed a complete face lift but we were able to at least give it a cosmetic touch. He was blown away that we were able to accomplish what we did in such a short amount of time including one mostly rainy day. He wanted to know what our group was doing on Friday to accomplish miracles for someone else.
As I put my hands on the doorpost of his home and wept and prayed before we left for the last time, God addressed me very clearly and met me even within my own self-centered nature and insecurities. I identify with youth so much because I am still a big kid at heart and struggle with the same issues they do and I did as a teenager. I want to be loved, to be accepted, to know I am significant and have purpose, to know I matter to someone.
I want so desperately to be loved, admired, and respected by my youth and my new church. I want them to come to me with their hurts, habits, and hang-ups. I want to be their hero (when so often they turn out to be my hero). It was as if God told me, "Look at your hands." And it hit me. God is my hero. God is their hero. Not much else matters than this... God said to me, "Look at your hands. Have them look at their hands. Look at what you have done for the least of these. Andrew, you are My hero. Tell them they are my heroes, too."
It's interesting how many get into youth ministry for selfish reasons. It's even more surprising to note that this is actually justified and quite acceptable. Do youth ministry to see young lives changed, and God will change your life about 110% of the time.
My Family Group was amazing. My co-driver and I had our fair share of complaints, but I cannot recall one complaint from Mackenzie, Thomas, or Anna, even after we learned that our house painting project was the hardest and most tedious project of the week. With the help of another Family Group, we just barely completed the project in four (out of five work) days.
Too be honest, I approached the week thinking I would need to set the pace. Drink plenty of water and take breaks, yes, but help our young people to see how to work hard through my example. I'll be darned if the complete opposite was true! Getting older and heavier and forgetting about all the hard work I was raised doing meant I needed frequent breaks and found myself trying to follow their pace!
We were touched and humbled by the response of the entire camp and our neighbor Mr. White himself who had called our Major Groups Leader to thank us. Honestly, his house needed a complete face lift but we were able to at least give it a cosmetic touch. He was blown away that we were able to accomplish what we did in such a short amount of time including one mostly rainy day. He wanted to know what our group was doing on Friday to accomplish miracles for someone else.
As I put my hands on the doorpost of his home and wept and prayed before we left for the last time, God addressed me very clearly and met me even within my own self-centered nature and insecurities. I identify with youth so much because I am still a big kid at heart and struggle with the same issues they do and I did as a teenager. I want to be loved, to be accepted, to know I am significant and have purpose, to know I matter to someone.
I want so desperately to be loved, admired, and respected by my youth and my new church. I want them to come to me with their hurts, habits, and hang-ups. I want to be their hero (when so often they turn out to be my hero). It was as if God told me, "Look at your hands." And it hit me. God is my hero. God is their hero. Not much else matters than this... God said to me, "Look at your hands. Have them look at their hands. Look at what you have done for the least of these. Andrew, you are My hero. Tell them they are my heroes, too."
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