With the benefit of sleep and a few days to meld back into normal society I’ll wrap up tour for this year.
From Oklahoma City we rode to St. James UMC in Florence, AL, for our last night festivities, and to sing in their two morning services. Arow Taylor’s sister Julie and her family are members there. That was our last stop on the way home from our last Grand Canyon tour. They have been wonderful hosts both times. The services went well, as did our homecoming concert.
A few points, in no particular order:
- Pastor Derek is amazing with the kids and we are lucky to have him as a part of our ministry. I look forward to hopefully working with him for many years to come.
- This year has been a trying one, particularly for our graduating seniors, who deserved better. Even so, they have remained loyal to the choir. I was particularly impressed to see them show up in en-masse for the visiting choir at our church last Friday night. Most senior classes were completely checked out after choir tour. Seniors, I commend you!
- I’m excited for the new leadership in the youth group, and for the direction of the program.
Look for an update to the God’s Light website in the coming months, and a transition to using it more for event and fundraising management. Frankly, the days of journaling tour have come and gone. Everybody can follow us on social media, and the kids all have cell phones, so there’s not much point in journaling tour except for a historical record, and there are certainly better ways to preserve history.
This was my 29th tour. Counseling ministries have become more and more difficult in recent years, as one-on-one counseling is hard to accomplish in a way that preserves safety for both students and counselors. The value of God’s Light as a ministry goes well beyond one-on-one counseling with the kids, but counseling was always my focus. It’s a different world now, and I guess I’m not adapting well. Might be time to leave this to the younger folks. Then again, I always question my sanity coming off of tour. With time to catch up on sleep and appreciate the more positive aspects of this ministry, I may feel different. Ask me next May.