D-Day Minus...

What a crazy past few days!  Things have been quite hectic since my last update, so I'll take some time to try and fill you in.  I'll break it down day-by-day to make it more simplistic for anyone who may be reading to follow and for me to remember.  So here goes....

Friday, July 30th

With the final days before the move closing in much quicker than we may have anticipated or expected, we hurried ourselves to finish packing, but not at the expense of what was truly important; spending time with the ones we loved the most.  Megan's mom and sister were staying with us, and were huge helps in the packing of our stuff!  That night, the youth came over for an impromptu movie night.  We watched Avatar and just enjoyed each other's company.  I've been so impressed at how these youth have handled this situation up to this point.  They have shown maturity beyond their years and really have a grasp of what it means to do God's will.  I really hope that out of our move, that these wonderful youth can look to us as an example (regardless of whether it is a good or bad example) and trust God will take care of them throughout their lives as long as they follow His will.

Saturday, July 31st

This was the day designated as our last official youth event.  The youth asked for, and Megan prepared another one of her "famous" scavenger hunts.  Although for this one, we did a "How well do you know Megan and Chris" scavenger hunt.  The youth met and were divided up into teams and then departed for many different locations around the greater Gaffney area.  We all met at Fatz (the traditional youth dinner place for special occasions) and again, it was great just to spend some time together as a youth family. 

For many (okay, for the few) who might read this, let me try to put into words exactly what it means to be a youth family.  Megan and I have been blessed to be a part of a small, but extremely close group of teenagers and their parents.  While small in numbers, this group is extremely big in heart.  When Megan first arrived, even though they had all been together basically from birth, they just weren't that close.  This group really has come together over the past year or so, and I attribute that to the joint experiences of this group.  We as a youth family have gone through a lot of ups and downs, and through it all, we have come to learn that we can rely on each other.

This is what I believe is important for a church to achieve, a sense of family.  We are all one in the body of Christ and the church family should be there for its members through the ups and downs.  Too often though, at least in my experiences, churchs are so factionalized and have so many cliques that we lose the sense of oneness.  It almost becomes a competition between the groups to see who can grab the most power or have the biggest impact that even if you don't move forward, if you can simply stop the progess of the other group you win, when in fact, the whole church loses.  This is one of the things that I absolutely LOVE about my youth family.  They get that if one suffers, they all suffer.  When one succeeds, they all succeed, and when one struggles, they will rally to that persons aid, hold them accountable, and sometimes just sit "shivah" with them.

Our Youth Family (minus just a few)

Sunday, August 1st

This is the day that we have been dreading.  Even harder than the move would be for us, I think we both knew all along that the hardest thing would be saying "Goodbye" to the youth and to the church as a whole at New Pleasant.  The morning service was emotional to say the least.  It touched my heart to see the youth get up there one by one and tell not just us, but the entire church about the things that they have learned, experienced, and shared in during the past four plus years.  I always love when the youth dominate a church service, because too often they get viewed as being the "Church of Tomorrow".  While true that they will be the members of tomorrow, we can not discount their impact on churches today.  Churches need to realize what a valuable tool and asset these young people can be if they will simply take the time to develop and nurture them.  Put them in a position to take a chance, and if they mess up, have someone there to pick them up, dust them off, and point them in the right directions.  Now that would be a healthy church...

After the service ended, the church gave us a lunch in our honor.  That, with the love offering that was taken up was greatly appreciated.  It will come in handy on our journey. We stayed up late, until 2:30 am finishing packing as much as we could.  Tired and worn out, we went to bed for the last time in the parsonage.  (To be continued...)