This summer, as my daughter entered her six weeks of radiation treatment after cancer surgery, I took over a few pieces of her church ministry. One of the ministries I have been covering this summer is youth ministry.

I was a youth minister for 19 years, but I have been retired from it for almost a decade. Which means the last time I seriously addressed this ministry I was still in my forties. Now as I approach sixty I am in a very different body than I was back then.

I knew going in that I was going to need to lean on the youth team in a way I never had before. Fortunately for everyone, my daughter has spent a good deal of time raising up a very talented and capable team of people to help lead our youth group.

This summer the brother and sister team of Trinity and Christian helped out. Trinity was our chief sound and media tech. Christian actually shared the preaching responsibilities with me and helped with games.

Troy operated as one of our games masters and an alternate media tech.

Patrick in the lower left hand corner of this picture was our worship leader.

And Pam, the lady on the right, was our chief administrator on site and called the weekly announcements for us. My daughter organized us each week, by making sure all of our supplies were set up weekly and by sending out the weekly duty roster for us. I was really just the pastoral presence in the room which was good because honestly I felt really rusty going in.

Still we managed to pull off the summer program and the fellowship trip to Kimball’s ice cream.

It was a very active summer.

We drew in some extra help for driving to the Kimball’s event. Carrie Hackett (pictured at the end of the table) stepped in with her car to help us get to Kimballs. Carrie is our adult Doing Life and outreach coordinator.

Sadie Bauver pictured here with the blue baton is one of our youth and she is finishing up the summer as our worship leader. I am finishing out the summer as the youth preacher. This has been an all hands on deck situation. I am so blessed that all the hands have risen up to help!