Thursday, January 8, 2009

Power of a Moment

Something really cool happened to me last night. I got to attend the large group programming of the youth ministry that I interned in this past summer (it's also the youth ministry that I grew up in). When ever I first walked in, I went to where the middle school students were. I was walking around, and I ran into a student that I had met at a week at camp during the summer. 

This girl, Izzy, was in my life group, and decided to get baptized at the end of the week. I had to leave the camp to go pick a guest speaker up from the airport a couple of hours away, and wasn't sure that I was going to make it back in time to baptize her, like she asked me to. 

I pulled on to the campground just in time to see all the campers heading down to the pond, where the baptisms are done. I got out of the church van, ran up to the dean, and he said "Blake! Glad you're back. You're up!" I emptied out my pockets, and walked into the pond. I got to baptize two girls because of the time I got to spend with them during the week., 

When I saw her last night, she freaked out like only a middle school girl can, and ran up to me. I honestly did not know that a middle school girl could hug that hard. I was shocked to see her, and that she would recognize me after six months.

Obviously, the point is that we should never underestimate any amount of time that we are able to spend with a student. Whether it is a week at camp, an hour at a midweek youth ministry program, or even a minute catching up with them in the hallway. The time you spend pouring into them may just end up being one of the best decisions and investments you could have ever made. 

1 comment:

D-Heff said...

Very true Blaker, and very encouraging. Last summer, it was hard to gauge the impact I had on any of the student at all the camps because I was only with them for such a short time. But we never know how God continues working on them after we're gone.