Just one more is always worth it

Hi folks – Tim here again. So yesterday I ended up in hospital for what turned out to be a badly sprained ankle. How did I do this? By trying to catch myself on camera ‘kickflipping’ a skateboard for our new YouTube channel. It didn’t work. (You can watch the video here).

This made me think of all the times throughout my youth work career where I have hurt or injured myself doing ridiculous things. I was slapped hard in the face once by a very drunk mum who tried to force herself into a youth club claiming we were selling drugs. Another time I was cream pied in the face at the end of a holiday club. That doesn’t sound too bad, however the teenagers on the team couldn’t quite decide who should do it… so logically they all did – hard – and I woke up in my office half an hour later.

I think the worst time was getting a concussion while raft building in a swimming pool. I was at camp, sitting precariously on a large barrel in the pool, when another leader jumped on top of me. The two of us – and the barrel – went right under the water, and the barrel shot back up catching me hard on the chin. There was quite a spectacular amount of blood! It wasn’t until after giving that night’s talk and driving myself to hospital that I found out that I was actually badly concussed. Who knows what I said during that message!

Why am I telling you all this? Well, as much as I genuinely enjoy sympathy, I do have a point. There is a cost to building healthy youth ministry.

As fun and silly as our projects sometimes look from the outside, youth workers do it all so young people can meet with God. Living your life trying to tell young people about Jesus – trying to point them towards Him in all that you do – is hard. Sometimes it looks like they’re getting it, and at other times it feels like they’re nowhere. You can spend hours pouring into a young person’s life – years even – only to have them walk away without a word.

Most Christian youth workers don’t last more than one contract period (2-3 years) and its easy to see why. One of the hardest things I experience as someone who’s been doing it quite a lot longer, is remembering all the young people who came and then went. I can still remember the faces, the names, and the conversations that I had with so many young people who I don’t know now. And sometimes that is a lot to bear.

Youth work comes with a cost, and that cost is putting in the hours, the sweat, the tears – and sometimes the injuries – for the strained hope that some of them will get it… however, many of them don’t. So is it worth it?

Last year one such young person who I had lost touch with sent me a message out of the blue from their final year of university. They told me that they had met with Jesus. They said that it was their time with us at Youth for Christ that put the pieces in order, so when the opportunity came, they were ready to connect with God. It was worth it for him.

Right now, a young woman who was one of our young people is in Israel on a gap year, making a significant difference in the lives of many families and children. She left school with amazing grades, but chose to do this rather than going straight to university. Her ministry is inspiring – and is inspired by her obvious love for Jesus. It was worth it for her.

A young person that I worked with years ago in London met with Jesus as a teenager, and went on to lead large justice missions in several third world countries in Jesus’ name. He tragically died just last month in a terrible car accident. I was heartbroken, but he went straight to be with Jesus, and he inspired hundreds of people to give it all for Him. It was worth it for him.

When I was at i61 Church a couple of years ago, the Pastor, Steve, had a saying: “just one more”. And he was right. All the effort is worth it for just one more young person to hear the gospel, and to know the God who loves them through Jesus who saves them. Just one more is always worth it.

I like to end these blogs with a ‘call to action’ and today that’s simple. Please pray.

Pray.

Pray.

Pray.

Pray for the work that we do. Pray for our incredible volunteers. Pray for our efforts. Pray for our protection.

More than anything though, pray for God to move in power and in permanence in the lives of these young people.

Please stand with us to pray.

Thank you.