I was a 7th grader at Wakarusa Missionary Church. Over Spring Break, our youth group had a special 1-day Jr. High event. We met at the church, went bowling, and swimming.
We also had a special guest speaker come in and spend the day with us. He was the youth pastor at Beulah Missionary Church. I remember talking to him on the bus ride, and that he taught us one of those cheesy youth group songs about Jesus love and bubbles.
I ran into that speaker throughout my youth life... sporting events and NCYC. He remembered my name, and it was clear he had kind of kept tabs on me and my progress.
Fast forward to the Summer of 1996 when I'm sitting in the office of that same guy who spoke at my 7th Grade Spring Break event. He's now the youth pastor at Nappanee Missionary Church. We're talking about me starting up an internship at NMC serving as the "game guy" and 8th grade Sunday Morning teacher.
Flash back to 7th grade, where Terry Bley says that he says the Spirit of God telling him to keep an eye on me, and that some day he'd be working with me.
If you're Terry Bley in that situation, what would you do? Doesn't that sound like nonsense... keep tabs on this 13 year old you just spent one day with, because some day you are going to be doing Kingdom work together...
Well, Terry Bley chose to listen... "game guy" and 8th grade teacher turned into SOAR Intern, which then became Jr. High Intern, which then became Associate Youth Pastor, which then became Sr. High Youth Pastor, and all along working alongside the best stinkin' Youth Pastor I know.
Where would I be if Terry hadn't listened??? I don't know, but I'm glad Terry had tuned himself to the voice of God to the point that he knew he wasn't hearing nonsense!
We also had a special guest speaker come in and spend the day with us. He was the youth pastor at Beulah Missionary Church. I remember talking to him on the bus ride, and that he taught us one of those cheesy youth group songs about Jesus love and bubbles.
I ran into that speaker throughout my youth life... sporting events and NCYC. He remembered my name, and it was clear he had kind of kept tabs on me and my progress.
Fast forward to the Summer of 1996 when I'm sitting in the office of that same guy who spoke at my 7th Grade Spring Break event. He's now the youth pastor at Nappanee Missionary Church. We're talking about me starting up an internship at NMC serving as the "game guy" and 8th grade Sunday Morning teacher.
Flash back to 7th grade, where Terry Bley says that he says the Spirit of God telling him to keep an eye on me, and that some day he'd be working with me.
If you're Terry Bley in that situation, what would you do? Doesn't that sound like nonsense... keep tabs on this 13 year old you just spent one day with, because some day you are going to be doing Kingdom work together...
Well, Terry Bley chose to listen... "game guy" and 8th grade teacher turned into SOAR Intern, which then became Jr. High Intern, which then became Associate Youth Pastor, which then became Sr. High Youth Pastor, and all along working alongside the best stinkin' Youth Pastor I know.
Where would I be if Terry hadn't listened??? I don't know, but I'm glad Terry had tuned himself to the voice of God to the point that he knew he wasn't hearing nonsense!
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