Junior Youth

This afternoon I went to a concert that several of my junior youth girls from church performed in. One of the girls looked very serious through the whole performance. I don't think she took her eyes off the director for a second. I wondered if she was nervous, though she has a lot of choral experience. As the choir sang their last song and walked around the outside aisles, I caught the eye of that girl for the first time and her face just lit up. It made my day.

Since August, I've been one of the junior high youth group sponsors at church. I had really positive experiences with church as a teenager, and I want to help facilitate a similarly good experience for the youth at my church. (Hopefully they are, in fact, having a good time.) I chose junior high rather than senior high because the time commitment was less, the kids seemed interesting, and there's a bigger age difference between me and the oldest ones.

I used to think that people who worked with middle schoolers were crazy. However, I think I am now far enough removed from actually being a middle schooler that that terribly awkward experience is fading. Being a youth sponsor certainly reminds me that I am glad not to be 13 anymore, but they are actually pretty fun to work with. They are funny, energetic, honest, and willing to participate. They like hanging out with each other, which makes my job easy -- I think the most important part of being a youth sponsor is making time for them to just have fun together.

The most rewarding parts for me, though, are the brief moments when I can tell that they are happy that I'm involved in their lives -- whether that's telling me about a school dance, trusting me for advice about a social issue, outright informing me that the consensus is that they like me a lot but not quite as much as a previous sponsor who let them tie her up during a game during the lock-in (because you really can't beat that), or a smile from a kid who sees me at her concert.