I’m currently writing an article for YMX about resources for Christian youth ministers to use in teaching their groups about human sexuality. I’ve found a few really good ones, but would love your feedback about resources you’ve found, used, liked and didn’t like.
Please post!
Brother Dave Ruestch tests out the new commercial grade snow tubes the Brotherhood was able to provide for the Center for Youth Ministry. CYM (that’s my ministry gig, for those who don’t know) is so grateful for Dave and the Brotherhood for their hard work cutting, marketing and delivering firewood to benefit all the ministries to youth based at Christ the King and in the Diocese of Albany.
The past few months have been – to put it mildly – overwhelming. I’ve posted here and there about some of the ups and downs with our family health situations, job starts & stops & travel, and more. It really has been extraordinary, and God has been faithful to meet our needs, to bring healing and peace and strength for each moment.
So what is it that’s finally here? I’m working an event this weekend, Jr. SonShine, and it’s the first of them I’ve been able to be at personally (others have happened with the help of a LOT of friendly, stalwart volunteers). I’m doing the speaking, which I love to do and am excited about. Sr. SonShine is next weekend, too. Everything is planned around the fun fact that the year ends in 007 – games, talks… spy stuff… I’m really looking forward to it because the thing I’ve missed the most about parish-based youth ministry has been having a specific group of kids to invest in over time. It’s been, and will probably continue to be, an adjustment to invest in a lot more kids and youth workers over a longer period of time and less directly for most of it. And taking a big and necessary break in the midst of it (to care for my sick son) has prolonged the adjustment and taken away some (not all, but some) focus.
So, long story shortened, I’m very much looking forward to hanging with kids and leaders this weekend and praying that while doing that God will use me and them to show himself strong.
This is where I’ll be for the next two weekends, first with middle schoolers, then with high schoolers. Fantastic amount of snow expected, so we should have no problem finding something to do during free time!
For more information about Jr & Sr SonShine click here.
A most touching prayer from Timothy Fountain posted at Lent and Beyond today:
I’m chasing a naked 12-year-old around the living room.My son, Joey, is autistic. Autism is a “pervasive neurological blah blah blah.” It is enough to say that Joey won’t bathe, dry and dress himself. I do it, whether he cooperates or not.
Joey’s nightly bath (and he insists on it to the point of getting violent if it is delayed) is one of those divinely illuminating but humanly lame experiences. Through Joey, “Jesus washes his disciples’ feet” loses its aroma of church funk and incense. I experience the foot washing as something more than a few fidgety, barefoot volunteers on Maundy Thursday. I know what it is to go through all of a day’s exertions and demands and, just when I would like to recline and be waited upon, to wring one more drop of energy out of my tired, resentful flesh to take care of another. I know what it is to bathe Joey on Monday with a tenderness that must come right from God’s heart through my hands, and on Tuesday to whine and curse over the tub as my flesh reasserts its claim to the center of the universe.
I’m certainly not alone in this. Plenty of people out there are caring for the most intimate, uncomfortable and even gross needs of others. Cancer, depression, Alzheimer’s, AIDS; making a list seems offensive as I can’t help but overlook some condition being cared for by a Christ-like “foot-washer.”
By all accounts the meetings of the archbishops of the Anglican Communion are important, even crucial, to the denomination’s future. By some accounts these meetings could be the completion of the rending of this denomination. By no account are these meetings expected to be peaceful. The irony? They are being held in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania… Arabic for “abode of peace.”
May the peace of Christ be with them. May the Holy Spirit guide them. May God be glorified in their decisions.
To join in covering the meetings in prayer, visit Lent and Beyond. To follow the news and commentary on the meetings, check in at titusonenine, Stand Firm, and for official news check the Anglican Communion News Service.
Every church leader should read Adam’s post. Do it, don’t think about reading it later, click now!
“We have just witnessed an insider’s game of self-dealing that unfortunately confirms every New Yorker’s worst fears and image of all that goes on in the Legislature of this state,” Mr. Spitzer said
If you’re not sure about what the Governor speaks… the story is here. (NYT, free registration required.)
Another gem from the story:
Mr. Spitzer said that in recent days he had been asking lawmakers this question: “If Candidate X — take Tom — were approaching you and saying, ‘You know what? I’ve never done this before. Never invested a penny. Never made an asset allocation decision. Don’t know a swap from a derivative. But I’m setting up a money management firm tomorrow. I want your pension money to be my first investment. Will you give me your pension to start with?’
“Nobody said they would,” he said. “Nobody. That, to me, is dispositive. They wouldn’t do it with their money. But they’ll do it with the public’s money.”
I’m sick of the politics of self-service and croneyism. I’m sick of the nanny state ideal that bears the fruit of ridiculous taxes, stupid inequalities, and shrinking population because the state always favors itself while saying it serves us.
I’m even more disgusted by the huge number of voters that think this is ok – constantly going along with the dysfunctionalism and giving the pols all they ever ask for. Lemmings come to mind.
I may have to buy this cartoon for every politician in Albany.
