News in the Ministry!

I know many of you may be thinking, "the city is cool and all, but where is the news on the ministry front?" Well, I am very sorry for that lack of updates there. The beginning of the ministry season, for me atleast, has been somewhat difficult. Most of my days have been spent in a cubicle on the phone with different parents of the students I am working with trying to find us a house to hold our house group time following the service in. See, after the Student Impact service on Sunday mornings the students go to a house in their particular high school area. The area that I am co-leading is Conant and Lake Park high schools. This year is the first year that these two schools are on their own. In previous years they were teamed up with a few other area high schools, forming a larger house group. (Sorry if this is confusing to peice together). So it is almost as though we are starting from scratch with our house group.

The hardest things for me, ministry wise, is that since my days are spent calling and emailing different parents, I haven't had much time or opportunity to connect with students. Additionally, it has been very difficult trying to cast the vision of our house group over the phone with parents who I have never met and have no relationship with. This past weekend, however, was our best week so far. We had 20 students with our group, which is the most we have had this year, and on Monday we finally found a house to meet in for the remainder of the year. I am very excited about this because now, rather than spending the majority of my time trying to find us a place to meet, I will have time to start devloping a game plan for reaching students who disinterested, or are seeking God but don't know exactly what steps to take.

Sunday after our house groups I had to run to Target with one of our students to pick up a few things for some auction baskets we were putting together, and this provided us with a good amount of 1 on 1 time to just hang out and talk. Do you ever have those conversations that are really great and open, and halfway into it you think, "I don't know how we got on to this subject, but I am so glad we did,"? Well, thats how this one went. Before I knew it he was opening up and teling me about his family, and his journey to move to Chicago from Florida. I am finally being able to connect with a few of the students on a more personal lever, AND we finally have a permanent location to meet in- it seems that things are finally coming together, and I couldn't be happier, or more relieved.

One of the ideas that I have been wrestling with through all of this is the idea of "ministry". I think that many people, myself included, have the idea that the person who is "doing" ministry is the person on the front line: the person giving a message, or the person leading worship, or the person praying for people. However, "ministry" is not just the event that we work towards, but that it is the entire process that makes the "event" possible. (does that make sense?)

Let me take a day or two to sit on this, and think about how I want to, or better yet, should word this. Check back soon if you are looking for more clarity on what I am trying to say, and hopefully it makes at least a bit of sense though.

I am eager, and at the same time scared, to see what all God has in store for me while I am up here. A good amount of our time each week is spent on our own personal development. Some of this is through one on one meetings with mentors, and some of this is through our weekly intern small group meeting. Every intern here says that, without a doubt, being here has been a life changing event for them. Doesn't that sound even a bit scary? "Life-Changing." What does that mean, and what in the world is it going to look like?