Living a Dream: Becoming a Youth Minister (or the Wife or One)

I have been involved with several service activities throughout my life. Some of the more recent services that I have participated in include: Helping set up and helping teach underprivileged children at the Children's Defense Fund Freedom School. Here I volunteered my time during the summer helping set up the classrooms and supplies, moving and unpacking and organizing; supplies, food, and donations the summer program. I also helped out this summer program by checking people in and out, guiding and directing people where to go, and unload and load the children onto the busses. During the summer I also volunteered a week of my time to be a “buddy” to a special olympiad at their Special Olympics Athletic Retreat. Being a “buddy” included self regulation, chaperoning on field trips one on one, assisted with self care skills when they where needed. Also this summer I volunteered my time for four weeks being a counselor in training at the Stowe YMCA. This included reading to the campers, helping serve meals to the campers, Chaperoning on field trips with the campers and being camp counselors to campers in grades pre-k through fifth grade. I also have been participating on my temple’s youth group advisory board. There I help determine, plan, organize, and run group activities and social events for the youth groups. I have been doing this for the past three years. This group also partakes in several community service projects throughout the

I chose to do this for the same reason others majoring in psychology do: we have a yearning to help and provide love and comfort to people. Our motives for doing this may come from different places but our goals are all relatively the same. We just want assist people. With the education I achieve, I want to be able to guide people from all walks of life through difficult times. I want to be able to help them get their life back together again and continue living instead of getting stuck in the past, or constantly worrying about the inevitable. My ultimate dream would be to get into a good grad school after finishing my undergraduate. Whether I choose to aim for a masters or a doctorate is still to be

When it comes to my career of choice I am very alacritous. I am very excited and ready to start college so I can get my degree and start working. Psychology has always sparked my interest unlike anything else. I am always filled with so much joy when I know I have helped someone to the best of my ability to overcome a problem of theirs. That alone is enough to get my through the hardness of

Ministry is more than just choosing a vocation for life; ministry calls the individual and beckons them to follow. At 53 years of age, I have taken a long journey to get to where I am today in ministry, yet I can say with all honesty, "I have not yet arrived." In describing the ingredients to a lasting ministry, Kevin Miller states, “A ‘call’ to ministry is not easily defined, but nothing could be more solid to most pastors. The call of God is

Ryan Moline and I sat down before the service and I got to ask him some questions about the youth group and himself. He graduated from Spring Arbor University and while going there he volunteered at Spring Arbor Free Methodist Church working with the youth group. He has now been a fulltime pastor of the young teens for 3 years making his total amount of time there 6 and a half years. Being the pastor of the young teens he mostly spends time preparing for the Sunday night youth group and the Wednesday night youth group: making up lessons, planning games, making sure he has all the leaders he needs, and setting up the outline for the night. He also plans the youth groups retreat or mission trip they are having that year. Finally, he also is looking ahead for the year, this means coming up with general ideas for the months, figuring out what they will talk about and when they will talk about it.

I am writing to you today to tell you about an exciting opportunity I have through my school, Liberty Christian. My senior class will be going on a mission trip to COSTA RICA from Saturday, May 6, 2017 to Friday, May 12th. During this time, we will be working with the mission agency SCORE International in order to serve God by serving the Costa Rican people. We will have opportunities to serve and minister to the people we meet through various service opportunities, such as: children’s ministry, preaching, drama, and humanitarian aid distribution.

When initially asked what do you want to be when you grow up, prior to about sixteen years old, my response was an early childhood psychiatrist. I perceived a need in both the world and my personal life that there were many children in need of someone who would understand them, communicate with them, and advocate for their needs. I strongly agree that callings may arise out of a response to specific challenges or issues in our individual or collective lives, such as the call to early childhood psychology correlating with a traumatic personal childhood. Yet as A Sacred Voice is Calling, stresses your call story to a particular vocation may require a change of heart through personal conversion and transformation.

This is a group of students who meet together weekly to discuss, pray over, and advocate for injustices around the world. As of first semester of sophomore year I have been one of the leaders of this group; through this, God has opened my eyes and broken my heart for victims of abuse, violence, and injustice in the world. I believe that God desires for our hearts to be broken for what breaks his heart, not just so we hurt, but so we wake up and help those who hurt. This is where my passion for nonprofit ministry lies, I hope to help those who are hurting; exactly what profession or ministry that will take me to, I am not sure, but I have full confidence that God will lead me to the right ministry when he sees fits.

This past summer, our Marist Varsity team worked the basketball camp. I coached a group of six to ten year old girls. One girl was much better at basketball than the rest of the girls, and the other girls started to be mean to her and her mean to them. This then lead to the girls not working well together on the court. I decided to leave my coaches out of it, and handle it on my own. After one of my team's games, I pulled all of the girls aside to talk to them. I told them that they need to be nice to each other because it affects their game play too. I told them that everyone was there to get better at basketball and that each of them are at a different point in their skill levels. I went on to say that I was not going to involve any adults

City Youth Ministries is a family, even though they have social responsibility and a code of ethics. As soon as you watch the way Director Denise Snider interacts with the children, it is evident that this is an “organization family” treated like a “nuclear family.” (DeSensi & Rosenberg, 2010) I have also learned the value in the way we communicate with others. This opportunity showed me that a successful organization, or team, begins with enthusiastic leadership. The book presents motivation “as the basis of the function of leading” (DeSensi & Rosenberg, 2010). One day, I might find myself leading a group, and I aspire to act like Mrs. Snider. The acquisition or loss of social roles affects the psychological effects of both men and women (Wilson & Musick, 2000). Adding this “social role”, gave me a place where I felt appreciated. There was always something that needed to be done, and someone that needed to be loved. Whenever I finished an afternoon of volunteering, I was not tired or drained. On the contrary, I left with a sense of contentment and thankfulness. The children, faculty, and staff cared for each other in more than a typical organization, and I was lucky enough to be a part of

Even though I heard whispers of my call in my early twenties, I had disregarded any thoughts of seminary as passing notions or fleeting whims. I worked various positions prior to my medical career for the simple purpose of funding my education. However, one thing remained constant. Children. Even as a child myself, I was always volunteering for children’s activities within the church, from nursery attendant to VBS crafts, Sunday school teacher to Education Committee member. Jobs which did not consist of interaction with youth, left me craving a connection. Even as my medical career began, I found myself volunteering at the local YMCA as a soccer coach. Looking back at my gifts and passions, it finally became clear to me that God was calling me to youth

Desert Springs Church Youth Group: I have been part of my church’s youth group since Freshman year. I’ve been able to meet other people, as well as get people involved who usually aren’t. This has helped me gain teamwork skills.

I have thoroughly enjoyed my experience helping the youth and ministering to them. I have found that it only takes a few minutes to get to know someone. You should never judge a book by its cover is truly an understatement. You never know what a person is going through by looking at them so to assume anything about a person is a terrible mistake. When speaking with a young lady named Dymon, I learned that we all are going through some things. Some more dramatic than others.

As a junior counselor, I follow the orders of the senior counselor in the cabin. Fortunately for me, my senior had never counseled before and never attended the camp before. I took the leadership role in directions, activities, leading discussions, and most importantly, giving candy. When it was time for swimming, I asked each girl the about safety procedures, knowing it was in there best interest if they knew the rules. Without hesitation the girls shouted out each one; they were overjoyed to express their knowledge about the lake rules. I worried over every little thing at first, since being in a leadership role was new to me, but as the week progressed, I became more confident. I started moderating discussions without hesitation, while also directing the girls to lead the discussions

When you first begin a class you never know what to expect. When I first began Intro to Ministry, I did not know the level of insight that I would have about myself and about the character of God. I have been able to combine the things that have happened in my past and things that are happening now to try to paint God's picture in my life to come. Although you do not need to pinpoint the exact moment in time when you received your call for it to be legible, I am thankful that I do. I think it was a series of people and events unfolding in my life and God opened my eyes to the plans He had for me that lead me to that night. The day that I accepted my calling to be a youth pastor (December 30,2015) I did not go into that evening thinking “I’m going to listen to God and go into Ministry” - but I guess you never do. Since then God has been preparing me emotionally, physically, and mentally through programs that I have gone through, people in my life such as my friends, family, and professors I have gotten to know during the short time that I have been at Indiana Wesleyan. I am nowhere close to being where I want to be but that is the beauty of accepting God's call into any type of ministry, you do not have to have it all figured out, you just have to trust Him.“God is a God of infinite variety, and His call comes to people in many ways.” (Drury, K. Pg.67). I didn’t receive my calling in a damascus road way, instead God knew my heart and character so He gave me my calling in a