“You are my servant.
You have been chosen to know me, believe in me,
and understand that I alone am God...
“From eternity to eternity I am God.
No one can snatch anyone out of my hand.
No one can undo what I have done.”
“But forget all that—
it is nothing compared to what I am going to do.
For I am about to do something new.
See, I have already begun! Do you not see it?
I will make a pathway through the wilderness.
I will create rivers in the dry wasteland...
Yes, I will make rivers in the dry wasteland
so my chosen people can be refreshed.
Isaiah 43
As we step out into our new season without YoungLife, I have been reflecting and praying through how incredibly different life is going to be. Having met the Lord through YoungLife on August 11th, 2001 there has not been a season where I have not been involved in some capacity. Reflection and healing has started as Josh and I step away from a combined 18+ years of involvement/leadership.
Reflecting on my own faith journey has been especially important. From that night at Frontier Ranch in Colorado. I will never forget telling Beck my leader at dinner that our one-on-one time could not wait until the following day, that I needed to know about the joy I was seeing spread around me. I needed to know what my friends had, what they had received, who they had come to know. I saw lives change around me during that week. I saw joy pass from those who brought us to those who came.
So in-between dinner and "what was to happen next" we stole away to the leaders' lounge (she told me to not look at the board of the next days activities!). And with simple sweet words, she told me about the Giver of all Joy and invited me to begin a journey with Christ. From that moment, I was raised up in a rich and sweet YoungLife tradition in Syracuse. Yet even then I felt a twinge as leaders left or positions changed. Not being rooted in a church, I felt these things more deeply.
Yet as the community of Syracuse East grew me, I felt the call to come to Boston. Despite having every reason (relational and otherwise) to stay and say yes to my Syracuse University acceptance letter, I chose differently and to Boston I went. Through divine connection I came to know Kelsey and the leaders of YoungLife Boston Southwest. I met with John and I think I was placed the same month in Norwood - with. And the next chapter began.
Josh also came to know Jesus fully through YoungLife and the beginning of his story is full of people who encouraged him and had vision for his life. A leader of leaders, Josh became a new person because of how YoungLife pushed him out of his comfort zone and into a role that selfless served Boston Southwest for 10 years. From an introverted pastor's kid, interested in computers he grew into a bold man after God's heart with heart for teenagers and the God given drive to lead.
And Lord knows Josh and I loved those kids! Those crazy awesome drama kids, those kids who hung at Perks, the PapaGino's crowd, the ones who worked at HoneyDew, the ones who came to Mad Maggies, the ones who loved club in the Vanderhyden's basement, and the ones who would never love YoungLife, the ones with it all together and the ones who were constantly a beautiful mess, the ones with issues and the ones with trials, the kids who had nothing but possessed everything. We spent all day Tuesday in Norwood, all day Friday in Norwood and Sunday nights. Leadership and Tommy's chili at their house, countless dinners at the overflowing Papirio's table. We had the gift of incredible time, and through it all we learned to love not only our God and those kids, but blessedly each other as well.
I moved eight times during my five years in college (Boston, Syracuse, Symphony Road in Boston, Ma and Pa's house in Walpole, the Norcross' house in Newton, Lowell Ave in Newton, Cedar Street in Norwood, Wigglesworth St in Boston). Josh lived in Foxoboro and then even further away in Bellingham. He drove two cars into the ground commuting to school, YoungLife and to me. And then finally, one incredible sunny day in Update NY beside a clear blue lake, we were wed all those years later. Finally together, we moved into the church in Newton. And two years later moved to Walpole when God graced us (incredible story side note) with our home.
So many leaders and friends came and went, so many relationships, so many trips and clubs and camps. Yet moving so many times, and being jostled around relationally for seven years - we never connected deeply with a church. And we weren't discipled. Josh and I felt the strain of this, sometimes more than others throughout the years. But it wasn't until we finally rooted ourselves upon God's call to be in Walpole and be at Emmanuel Baptist, did we truly realize how big that void had become.
We stand firmly on the truth that God crafted us to live in community, to love each other closely (both geographically and emotionally) and through that closeness the lost will know that we are His. We've learned that it's not enough to build an organization over towns and miles. It has to be close, it has to be real, it has to be life on life - everyday. We are so excited and thankful for our EBC family and how they have encouraged (and gently prodded) us to put our marriage and faith first. We are listening and know God agrees with your sound counsel. We are refreshed by the tangible idea of church/community that loves well, and can't get enough.
I truly don't think we burnt out. I really think as our hearts have recently re-kindled into a hot hot fire as Christ has lead us. And in the heat, we have come to see the chaff in our lives smoldering - and know that it will not survive the flame for long. There is a special tradition in YoungLife that we will forever appreciate and love. We are different and we are one because of it, and are thankful. This next step isn't "better" - but it is what is best for us.
And so we begin. We are rooted and are now becoming established.
Established in love of our God, established in love of each other, and established in love of our community here in Walpole. Amen.
