Well, I finally made it to Friday. This week seemed to go on forever. Last evening, myself, another member of REACT and a guest, all attended an appreciation dinner at the F & M Bank, in Piedmont. This appreciation dinner was for all the volunteers that helped with the benefit concert, "Concert in the Cornfield," a couple of weeks ago in Piedmont. The benefit concert was put on because of the tornado that ripped through Piedmont on May 24th. Many families lost everything, so many residents from Piedmont got together and organized this concert in order to raise money for those who still needed assistance rebuilding.
Since our REACT team was one of the volunteer groups that participated, we were invited to attend. It was so good to see all the volunteers that made it to the dinner. There were presentations made, food to eat and music to listen to....but most importantly, it was a time to celebrate and a time to present a check to the Piedmont Service Center for $31,000.00. The money came from donations and proceeds from the concert. It was indeed a great time of celebration and I was glad our team was a part of it.
I am not sure what this weekend holds for me. This evening, our youth are going to the Judgment House at Wilmont Place Baptist Church. This is an annual event that is held every Halloween. This is drama that follows the lives of several people and the different scenarios of their lives. It shows everyday people and the conflicts they have in life and the way they deal with them. Some of the actors portray non-believers and they give the non-believers point of view on how they would handle a tragedy in their life. There is also the believer's perspective. As a believer, they show how they would handle a tragedy by relying on God. There is a realistic heaven scene and a very realistic hell scene that makes you think which road you want to take.
The Judgment House isn't there to scare the students. It is not a haunted house. It is a tool used to help students make a decision as to whether they want to spend eternity in hell, or make the decision to accept Christ and go to heaven. Every year, the story changes and every year, it has touched and changed the lives of our students. As a youth leader, my main goal is to see the students come to know Christ as their Lord and Savior and to help them in their Christian walk. I also want to get to know them better personally, so I know how to pray for them.
I have been working with the youth in my church for the last 10 years. I have seen so many of them come and go and I have seen many of them grow up in our youth group and be a part of our youth group from 7th - 12th grade. I have history with many of them and know them and their parents. I know what is going on in their lives and what is troubling them. After 10 years of being in the youth ministry, I have developed this trust between me and the students. They know they can talk to me anytime and share their problems with me. I will pray for them and support them all the way. I would never, ever, do anything that would break that trust. With teenagers, trust is a big thing. Many of them don't have much trust in their parents, so they don't share as much with them. I always encourage the students to love and honor their parents, unless their parents are abusive......then, they need to tell me.
One thing I have learned as a youth leader is when a student is being abused, it is my responsibility to step in, intervene and get the local authorities involved. I have told the students time and time again that abuse is not normal, whether it is physical, mental, or verbal abuse. Nobody, especially students, kids, or small children, should ever have to endure any type of abuse. If they do, they need to come see a youth leader who they trust. My goal is to get to know these students and not only be their youth leader, but be their friend. I guess I could possibly be a youth minister if God was ever going to call me into the ministry, but, at age 50, I am probably too old to make that big of a difference. I want to be more of a youth leader to these student and not like a father.
Tomorrow morning is the National Weather Festival in Norman at the National Weather Service. This is where the general public, including storm spotters, storm chasers, storm researchers and other weather enthusiasts show up and enjoy a time of fellowship and showing off all their cool equipment. Last year, I attended the Festival and entered my truck in the storm spotter category contest. Since I was not that big into storm spotting yet, I didn't have much equipment. This year, though, I have entered my truck in the storm spotting category again. Now, I have a mounted light bar, lots of LED lights, a two-way radio, CB Radio, my laptop and several other things that I use for storm spotting. I would love to win in my category, but I doubt that will happen because many of the storm spotters will have nicer equipment than I have. Either way, it is going to be a fun day for me.
www.centralokreact.org
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