Why I Do Youth Ministry

I just got back from a two week trip with youth from a church in Glendora, CA, to a missions site in Colorado. I'll explain why I was with this group when I post photos in the next couple days.

I always seem to have troubled young men gravitate towards me. I recently emailed a male youth ministry colleague and asked him what young men need to hear from a female leader like myself, and he said that many young men today put women into two categories: mother/grandmotherly types that discipline them, and sex objects. He said when someone like me comes along, with a spiritual gift to unconditionally love them, despite their behavior, they cling to me and desire my attention. He said my job is to try to help break those two stereotypes of women, and show them that women can be more than disciplinarians and/or sex objects.

I had two young men on this trip gravitate towards me. I was thrilled when they were both put into my small group. Color me shocked when at the end of the trip, another young man who had barely spoken to me told me in tears that he thinks of the phrase 'unconditional love' when he thinks of me. He said that despite their doing things they shouldn't do, or acting crazy, I would usually laugh and have a comeback that showed him I loved him no matter what he did. He ended up leaving us a couple days early, and hugged me three times before he left. That meant the world to me.