A Little About Jr. High Youth Group…
This is a ministry about connections more than it is about regular meeting times and silly games. We plan a program and try to make it appealing, but we know that Jr. High youth do not drive, and are really at the mercy of their parents' hectic schedules. Jr. High ministry is partially a Family ministry, and partially a Friendship ministry, both of which are vital to the faith development of this age group. We structure opportunities for Jr. High youth to do activities and get better acquainted with their peers in the church, and take advantage of the time that we do have with them, including Sunday mornings. But the most important feature of this ministry is that the youth and their parents know that we are always there for them, whether they can make it to an event or not. The light is always on, so to speak, and the youth group leader is always happy to see them. This is a comfort to both the youth and their parents, as both are struggling to figure out what the other really wants.

So it's not about how many come to a programmed event, it's about how much those who do make it get out of the events. For example, last week several youth and I spent the afternoon by going to Winco, which was so crowded that you couldn't back up in the aisle, where we filled to the brim four shopping carts with food that would become entire Thanksgiving meals for 20 needy families. It was a workout. Once we had the carts filled, we had to unload them all at the checkout, and then re-pack it all up into bags. Then we had to load it all into the van, come back to the church, and unload it again. We still weren't done. We had to unload it all from the bags, so that we could sort and re-pack it into separate boxes that contained one of each item, for a total of 20 complete Thanksgiving meals.

Frankly, I was tired of handling those groceries. But when we were finished, and we stood amongst 20 fully stocked boxes that represented a true reason to be thankful for 20 needy families, we all knew that we had done something incredible. The visual impact of that moment was well worth the hard work. I didn't want to leave, I just wanted to stay there and soak it all in, and let the youth do the same. As we joined together and said a prayer of blessing on the food and for the families that would receive it, I got a brief glimpse of what Jr. High ministry is all about.