He is jealous for me, /Love’s like a hurricane, I am a tree/Bending beneath the weight of His wind and mercy./ When all of a sudden,/ I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory/ And I realize just how beautiful you are,/ And how great your affections are for me./ And oh, How he loves us so./ Oh, How He loves us,/ How he loves us so./ And we are His portion and He is our prize/ Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes/ If grace is an ocean, we’re all sinking./ So Heaven meets Earth like a sloppy wet kiss,/ and my heart turns violently inside of my chest./ I don’t have the time to maintain these regrets/ When I think about the way…/ He loves us!/ Whoa! How he loves us/Whoa! How he loves us,/ Oh, how He loves.
For thus says the Lord God: Behold, I , I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out. As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will I seek out my sheep, and I will rescue them from all places where thy have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. And I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land. And I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the ravines, and in all the inhabited places of the country. …I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, and the fat and the strong I will destroy. … I will make with them a covenant of peace and banish wild beasts from the land, so that they may dwell securely in the wilderness and sleep in the woods. … They shall dwell securely, and none shall make them afraid. … And they shall know that I am the LORD their God with them, and that they …are my people… . And you are my sheep, human sheep of my pasture, and I am your God, declares the Lord God. — Ezekiel 34:11-13; 16; 25; 28; 30-31—
I enjoy this song and this scripture passage because both emphasize that God is at work in the world. God is at work in our lives, always transforming us into the new creations He promised we would be. I am truly thankful He loves the way He does and seeks His sheep the way He does, because if He didn’t, I would not be writing this note.
Pre-National Gathering did not shape up to be an excellent time for me. First, the youth and I made a deal that if we could bring 10 or more people to youth during the summer, then in the fall I would get a pedicure, paint my nails with zebra stripes and wear sandals for a week. This was great! People were excited, and to tell you the truth, so was I. Yeah, I would lose my man card for a week, but it was for a good cause. So I packed June with many different activities centered around service. First we volunteered at Vacation Bible School and we had ample support. There were at least ten youth volunteering each day, from confirmation age to high school. Next, we visited our shut-ins every Thursday. This made such a huge impact in the lives of those people, and I am truly thankful for those youth that went and visited. However, we had three to four youth each week, so it did not count toward the requirement of ten people per activity and put us behind on getting my nails done (oh, that sounds weird — good cause, keep thinking good cause). In addition to this, I scheduled a church workday as well as a youth building clean up. Again, I thank all the youth who participated in those events–they were successful. We cut and placed many branches into the trash cans and the Youth Building hasn’t been that clean for a while. It was good — unless, of course, you factored in the attendance, which was not very high. Add to that low attendance for Wednesday evening activities, and our deal was not shaping up too well. At this point I began to get discouraged. I asked myself what was going on. We went to Buffalo Wild Wings on Wednesday nights before summer worship. Servant events can be fun, I mean, at what other times in church are you allowed to blast your favorite music inside the building and not get yelled at because you want to hear it over the vacuum? As I dwelt on these thoughts, Satan took the opportunity to reinforce them in my daily life.
I began to do the bare minimum at church. I would show up in my office just enough to be seen, but would not really accomplish much. I put off planning for July worship services in a new position created after the retirement of our music minister at the end of June, and I stopped spending time in God’s Word. I started sleeping a little later, and staying up longer. I began to fall back into the comfort of mediocrity, which is something God detests. “I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, i will spit you out of my mouth. for you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked” (Revelation 3:15-17). This was the same pattern of mediocrity that led me to leave TCU and come back home. Yes, I was doing well socially at TCU, but where it counted, my vocation as a student, I was putting in the bare minimum and my grades showed it.
Not only was I falling prey to procrastination, but Satan began whispering these lies in my ears: “You are not good enough to work here. Yeah, you know your stuff, but these people don’t want you here at Trinity. You’re too young to step into this role as youth facilitator. You can’t do it. You need more theory. You need to make the Scriptures make sense. Hello? Don’t you remember this little jewel in Scripture, ‘A prophet is not accepted in his hometown’? Why are you even trying? These kids don’t respect you…” And on and on. On it went for three weeks. And then things turned around.
First, the head elder at my church, Grant Loemker, laid it out on the line in our weekly meeting. “Travis,” he said, “What does God say about mediocrity in the Bible? What does God expect? God expects excellence. Are you committed to this job? Are you committed to church work? If you’re not, then fine, stay mediocre. But if you want to keep doing ministry and you know this is where you’re called, you’ve gotta commit and be uncomfortable.” Those words cut deep into me. He was right. What does God say about church work? He calls it a noble task (1 Timothy 3). God also states that “Not many of you should become teachers, …for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.” Plus there is always that verse that states, “Take up thy cross and follow me.” Teaching others is a great responsibility — a responsibility that if I were to die today, I am going to be judged by a stricter standard than someone who does not teach. So I prayed and sought the Lord. Because I had slipped back into old habits, my body and soul started to war. It was a fight to just get through prayers at night because my flesh had grown accustomed to the guilt, staying up late, and not reading scripture. The battle was so intense that the night before I traveled to New Orleans, I didn’t sleep at all! I only managed to get a two hour nap from 9-11 am and taught a private gymnastics lesson from noon to 1. Describing me as “weary and worn” at this point was a huge understatement.
So at 2 pm on July 14, I began the 13-hour trek to New Orleans. Along the way, I stopped in Austin to drop my brother at his girlfriend’s house and then proceeded the rest of the day and early evening into Houston where I stayed the night at Amanda Lenz’s (fellow YAV) boyfriend’s house (Josh, who is a DCE and was also headed to NYG). As soon as I got there, they invited me to play indoor soccer because of a lack of players. Afterwards, I was exhausted and slept well. It was the first night in three weeks where I went to sleep on time without any guilt or worry. Praise be to God! He had given me rest.
On Thursday, Amanda met me over at Josh’s apartment and we picked up Bryce and Hailey Robertson, of Amarillo, at the Houston Hobby Airport. I knew Hailey from the Texas District gathering in 2008 and her brother Bryce volunteered as a YAV as well. So the four of us shared the six-hour drive in my car and had a great time on the road. The biggest surprise of the entire trip for me was that we all talked for what seemed like the whole way there. Along the way we decided to go to Wal-Mart to pick up some orange flair. Because we didn’t see a single Wal-Mart in Texas after we left Houston, we tried to find one in Lake Charles, LA. We followed the directions on Hailey’s iPhone exactly, but no Wal-Mart. We did, however manage to find the local Lutheran church, a Baptist church, a Pentecostal church and, at the end of the block of churches, drove to a dead-end at the neighborhood cemetery. Personally, I’m glad it wasn’t at night because, to be honest, being at a legitimate Louisiana cemetery with all the mausoleums creeps me out. We turned around and headed back to the highway and drove another hour or so till we hit Jennings. There we received some much better directions to Wally World, which was on the highway, and purchased our supplies. We filled up with gas and continued. We stopped one more time just before New Orleans and finally made it to the hotel just before 6 pm. Amanda and I then found out we were Team Captains and had to immediately rush over to the convention center without eating supper. I was so hungry that evening that I’m surprised I stayed awake and focused through Pastor Seth’s devotion!
Amanda and I reached Room 208 at the convention center a few minutes before Brandon Heath, our YAV coordianator, introduced himself. When we got down to business, he explained that we were indeed running behind (as usual) and that we were chosen as captains because we took the most initiative and participated in the Facebook activities and discussions. Whoa, I thought. God, after all I’ve done up to this point, you made me a team captain? This was definitely not going to be a normal week at all. At 7 pm we all gathered together as the “Orange Nation” (as the Young Adult Volunteers were commonly known) and did some icebreakers. After a few different games, team captains were called out of the room.
Brandon paired us with our co-captains for the week and let us know our YAV teams. The names were all based on the military code system (Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, etc…) and I was on Team Oscar. My co-captain for the week was the fabulous Lyndsey Strait from San Diego, CA. She attends the same church at which Brandon Heath is a DCE. She serves as a high school counselor in the youth ministry at Christ Lutheran, La Mesa(?) and is one of the most solid Christians I have ever met. We then went back in Room 208 and found the rest of Team Oscar. Upon getting settled, the team captains began team building by having introductions, a pre-gathering Bible study and a conversation prayer, which is something were you talk about your concerns and prayer requests, the things that are on your heart and lift them up to God. It is a highly informal way to pray and it worked out real well because everyone had their prayer requests remembered. Trinity Lutheran Youth, get ready, because we are doing this one back home. So, in no particular order, this was Team Oscar: Matt Boness, from Arizona; Bryn Masson, from Indiana; Joe Ferry and Matthew Wilson from Missourri; Steven Lestock and Tiffany Tennehill from Ohio; Jenna Dewitz and Jackie Britton from Minnesota; Phil Bennet from Nebraska; Deaton Blackwell from Tennessee; James McKeown from Bossier City, LA; Rebecca Augustine from Illinois; Kadi Cleveland from Alabama; Lyndsey Strait from California; and me, from Texas. God truly blessed us with the best YAV team at the gathering. We were the most laid back group ever. As the story unfolds, I will introduce some more background on everyone.
So, we met our team. And it’s the best team. Period. After getting to know our teams we learned what was expected of the YAVS. We were to be, above all else, FUN, FRIENDLY, and FLEXIBLE. We were in New Orleans to serve, and those three qualities are part of being a good servant. We were to never travel alone, were to be on time (early, really early), and make it to breakfast everyday. We were expected to be respectful of other’s personal property, and to not use our cars (not a problem for me, I didn’t want to lose the best parking spot at the hotel). We were told about our Orange shirts and learned we only had one at that point. The good news: our hotel had laundry machines! We were not going to smell the entire week from wearing a dirty, stinky, orange shirt. As if we weren’t already conspicuous enough in our lime green back packs and orange T-shirts, could you imagine what it would have smelled like if 300+ Young Adults were wearing smelly, sweaty shirts? And we were asked not to consume alcohol (if we were of age) during the gathering. We were to set the example for the youth and there to serve them, not party our hearts out. If any of these expectations were not met, we would be asked to turn in our gold wristbands and orange shirts and would be asked to leave the Gathering. We went over the general hotel expectations after that and then came Pastor Seth’s “devotion”. It was more like a sermon than a devotion, but it was well worth the 45 minutes he spoke.
The devotion opened with a video of a guy dancing with his shirt and shoes off in his shorts. He was labeled the “lone nut.” A couple of minutes in, someone else joined in. He then became the “follower” of the lone nut (who in turn became the leader). Several minutes in, more people joined until there were only a few outsiders and the lone nut had created a grassroots movement of dance. The point: being a Christian and being a servant is essentially standing out in front of the world and looking like a looney. Christians are different from the world and it is our task as Christians to serve others as Christ, the original “lone nut” served us. We are His followers. So, we in turn become lone nuts to others and hopefully through our example, others will become “lone nuts” with us until we have a movement and we all are followers of our leader, Jesus Christ. Does that make sense? Apart from Christ, we are nothing. So it’s a blessing that He seeks and saves what is lost and restores it to new life. He makes lone nuts the sane majority. This is why I was shocked that I was chosen to be a team leader. Like I said earlier, I am a huge sinner. I stood in God’s way. I tried to hijack his work. I did not listen to his voice. I listened to lies and deception from the enemy for the two weeks leading up to the gathering. I needed to be a follower first before I could be a leader. And God, in his sense of humor said, “OK Travis. You want to be a follower, I’m going to make you a leader. Will you follow me?” And so, I didn’t have time to dwell on my sins anymore. The time for maintaining regrets — past sins, failures, was over. Twenty-five thousand high school students were descending upon New Orleans the next day! The way God loves me — the way he loves you — is mind-blowing, and I was chosen to share this amazing way He loves with thousands of high school students! God is so awesome.
And so, I pray that you were able to stay with me through this missive. I hope that you can see God’s awesome way of loving you through my story and in your life. I hope and pray that you will stay tuned for my recollections of Day 2 tomorrow (or Friday). And I hope that these were God’s words and not mine that were on this page. Until next time, God’s peace be with you.
