I can’t sleep.
Earlier I made a statement about wanting to quit my job and becoming a youth minister. I’ve received some feedback about it and wanted to clarify my position. In an ideal situation youth ministry would be an ideal job. However in today’s society I don’t feel as though it is practical….ie the pay just isn’t there. I usually come back from camp in some type of dreamland wanting to save the world. Now I know that it just can’t be done. What can I do? Keep doing what I have been doing. Counselor at camps. Devotional speaker at retreats. Most of all it just means being a friend to young people. That’s all camp is. It means building friendships over a week’s time. The more friendship one has at a church, the less likely the person will be to leave it later on in life.
There is a big plywood mountain in front of my church. It was built to promote this week’s Vacation Bible School….”Climb Faith Mountain.” Obviously it is doing its job because I’ve already had 2 people who don’t go to church with me comment on the mountain. We’ve already had a few other churches ask to borrow the sign to promote their VBS.
Ah yes. VBS. That break in the summer when you’d go to church in the morning on a weekday. The first couple of days it seemed strange to be at church during such a weird time. Each day you were urged “Boost our Bible School” by bringing a friend. Eventually you’d start inviting some of your friends by the 2nd or 3rd day….and get one of those “I brought one” tags to wear proudly. Cookies and strong punch was served in the middle of Bible class. I never really got over that kick of the Hawaiian Punch they seemed to serve each year.
VBS isn’t as simple as what it once was. Gone are elementary aged classes. Now my church is doing a bunch of centers which they visit each day on a different schedule. They don’t just sit around in Bible classes all day. VBS has become bigger every year. Seems like all the churches are competing for attention, but aren’t we all?
The post office guy didn’t tell me the whole truth. He said the current rate for postcards is 23 cents. This isn’t true. It’s 21 cents. Next week it will be 23 cents. I visited the post office to mail a few things yesterday. I was also hoping to get extra postage so these 21 cent stamps wouldn’t be so useless to me. Now I figure I’ll have to either mail some postcards this week or make yet another trip to the neighborhood post office for twelve 2 cent stamps.