Milestones In Youth Ministry, Part 3

Tortured, tortured youth, when will you cease tormenting me? These are words I have often said to myself throughout my journey with youth these past 10 years. Even though I have had many wonderful encounters/conversations/dialogues/moments with youth, I have also had my share of tortured moments that I have previously discussed in this blog.

To date:

• I myself have been beaten, egged, doused, thrown in multiple pools, shaving creamed, silly stringed, air horned, laser tagged, paint balled, pellet gunned, frisbeed, jumped, and just plain attacked.
• My apartment has been toilet papered, snow balled, and rearranged while I was out. I actually liked it better after they changed things up.
• My car (my poor car) has been toilet papered, tampon-ed, shaving creamed, painted, hijacked, moved, saran wrapped, diapered, construction barrelled, and just plain abused from inside and out. It was also utilized for a long jump competition.

And this is all from kids I actually liked.

Just last week I was ambushed at someones house with shaving cream, an air horn and silly string. But don't worry, the offenders were beaten severely with approval from their parents. The kids were more surprised than I was. You would think by this time that they learned their lesson. But for those involved with youth ministry, we all know that they never do. They just keep coming back for more and more, and more...I'm getting a little too old for this.