I’m Back!
After 6 days of being with students 24 hours a day, we have finally come back home. I am honestly not fully ready to “formally” report on the trip yet but I would like to share just a little about what we did.
A place to start
Last year, we took our students to Inner City Impact because I knew for 100% certainty that they could do the work. Going into it I was 98% sure of the same thing with this team… but it isn’t how it turned out. This trip was not a home run like last year. Sure, they did a lot of cool things but they just didn’t hit it out of the park like they did in 2004.
Some lessons learned, a painful place to go
After reading some of the blog entries from students who went, I think I must again search myself to see why the heck I even bother with student ministry. Why is it that a “high point” feels like such a stinking failure?
- Students are adolescents no matter how much you like them. This is pretty hard for me to handle a lot of times. You let a student into your life and you get into their lives… But in the end you always lose. They are here in front of you to take what you have to offer and you rarely get anything in return. Case in point. For the past year I have heavily invested in 3 young ladies. They are born leaders. I expect them to lead… And sometimes they do. But it’s becoming clear that I need to invest somewhere else. On the trip to Chicago my “alpha female” did not lead the girls together. She disintegrated them and when she was confronted it only got worse. “I’m tired” is no excuse for leading rebellion.
- Adult leaders have a hard time stepping up to the plate. I’d be a liar if I said that I wasn’t disappointed in my adults on this trip. They are fantastic people and I love them. However, their inability to turn the moods or deal with tension (which they created) is tough to cope with.
- I was not a good leader on this trip. I am big enough to face my own mistakes. I limped into this trip and I didn’t have a lot of energy to help “fight for the trip.” I was too tired most of the time to really get involved and figure out why all the girls were mad at all the boys 99% of the time. Also, I should have gotten in my adults faces about their inability to deal with the krankiness. I should have prepared them more for the tiredness factor. I should have told ICI no about helping with clubs. There are a lot of places I failed and I will have to deal with them. Going into it I felt like I wanted to push the group to see what their breaking point was… It was the first time I had really seen a LF group break down. I am not sure how to process that just yet.
In a later posting I will run through the multitude of really good things that happened in Chicago. Right now I have to finish IMing a student who has been key to my frustration. At least we can work it out somewhere!