Just Getting Started

The following was originally posted by Jeffrey Wright, a 2013 YouthWorks summer staff, on June 15, 2013.

 

Phew. What a week. I don’t quite know how to describe what has happened the past week….. or how many mosquito bites I’ve received. Well, I can describe that: 17. I thought it was just one giant mosquito who lived in my room, but after killing around 5 with blood stains on my shirt to prove their massive size, I’ve come to the conclusion that this is going to be difficult battle.

 

Two weeks ago, I wrote about how the YouthWorks staff washed our feet. They modeled for us what we were going to be doing for youth groups all summer, and this week was the first week we did it for the youth. We wash the adult leaders feet, and then they in turn wash their youth’s feet. I could go into explaining all about the symbolism of footwashing, how powerful it is, and why we chose footwashing over something like communion, but that wouldn’t quite explain the significance of that moment. When you see the toughest guys from this week’s trip, who haven’t flinched at seeing or hearing or doing anything, cry their eyes out, you begin to understand. Jesus moved in a way that broke all of us down.

 

For a few moments on a Thursday night in San Francisco, the YouthWorks staff, the adult leaders, and youth realized that we’re all on the same playing field: saved and served by Jesus Christ. That is a beautiful thing. Every YouthWorks trip across the nation does this, so not only was this happening in San Francisco, but also in Denver, Minneapolis, Chicago, and many other sites across the country. Hundreds of youth experienced the same Jesus across the country all week long.

 

 

In fact, hundreds of thousands of churches will gather tomorrow morning across California, across the United States, and across the globe to worship one Jesus Christ. All these churches have different styles and different personalities. Some have big buildings, some have small buildings, and some have no buildings at all. Some will meet as the sun rises and others won’t gather until later in the day or maybe a different day completely. But the Church universal has little local churches all across everywhere to meet together to worship one name: Jesus.

 

I went on a retreat my senior year of high school. The leader of the trip asked a question that sticks in my mind now: “Are you ready to do it all over again?” Am I ready to greet a whole new youth groups? Am I ready to have energy to get up at 6:00am, sometimes earlier, and stay up until 11:00pm, sometimes later? Am I ready to love and serve a whole other group? Am I ready to serve them with the same energy and passion as I did the first group? Am I ready to work on logistics for their service sites diligently? Am I ready to do it all over again? Because last week was only week one. I’m only getting started.

 

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Jeffrey Wright loves foosball, sweet tea and a good pen. When he’s not serving as a YouthWorks staff busy leading hoards of teenagers through San Francisco, he can be found swing dancing, cheering on the Georgia Bulldawgs or searching the world over for the tastiest chocolate chip cookie. Jeffrey frequently records his thoughts on life, God and service on his blog at 12colon9.wordpress.com