Summer 2013: Is this the end?

Through YouthWorks this summer, teenagers, adults and families served in 77 communities across North America. Houses were painted. Children were read to. Food pantries were organized. Teenagers were reminded that God sees them as valuable, worthwhile and loved. Quiet moments were spent in reflection. Loud moments were spent in laughter. New relationships were formed. Old relationships renewed. Feet were washed. Eyes were opened. People were loved.

 

There were sweaty shirts, quick showers, early mornings, paint-stained hands, bear hugs, devoured hotdogs, surprised smiles, “aha!” moments and even a few tears.

 

And this week, everyone is back home. Teenagers are reveling in the last few days of summer. Families are considering a final trip to the lake. Youth leaders are looking ahead to the fall retreat. Summer staff are heading back to college or stepping into new jobs. Housing sites that hosted hoards of teenagers all summer are quiet across the continent. And in the YouthWorks office we are sorting through evaluations and organizing away Summer 2013. We’ve reached the end.

 

But is it really just the end?

 

Families have had mission trip experiences that they can point back to with their children: They will say, “Remember when we…” to children they desire to grow up with service in their hearts. Staff will struggle to reconcile a summer of service with the standard of living back home, suddenly seeing new possibilities. Youth leaders will step into conversations more confidently having experienced a week of service alongside students. And even at YouthWorks we are assembling what we’ve learned and building something called Summer 2014.

 

And then there’s teenagers. Some students will struggle to rationalize a closet full of clothes after organizing a clothing closet next door to a soup kitchen. Others will open their eyes to the needs next door and seek to serve “the least of these”… who they discover are not really “the least” at all. Still other students will stifle their low self-esteem remembering a God who pursues broken people and sees their incredible worth. And there will be a thousand more stories about how students’ perspectives, passion and pursuits are altered irreversibly.

 

We’ve said it before, mission trips are not the big event: they are a launch pad… a drawing back of the bow… a windup for the pitch. So, with hope and great expectation we affirm that this ending of Summer 2013 is not the end.

 

It is simply a beginning.

 

____________________________________________________________________________________

Sam Townsend helps write training and programming materials for YouthWorks mission trips. When he isn’t hanging around teenagers or digging into seminary homework, Sam is generally looking for a good conversation and a hole-in-the-wall restaurant to have it in. At the end of every summer, you can find Sam selling the world’s best footlong hotdogs at the Minnesota State Fair, a tradition his family has been continuing since the 1940s.