Here I am again talking about youth pastor type stuff. In this lesson I talk a bit about some games and some game sites and I spend some time expanding on this idea of Wildlife and what it is all about. If you do check out the video be sure to do the whole like and subscribe thing. It makes my day when I see new likes.
As I sit here in my office I am about 30 minutes away from Marshal County High school. This morning there was a shooting there. A student of the school showed up with a gun and shot at his classmates killing 2 and injuring several others. In the past 6 months there have been several other shootings at schools including on in Italy, TX that happened yesterday, that I hadn’t even heard about until today.
Right now it is 2:02 and I, like so many other parents, am counting the minutes until school gets out so I can see my kids and give them a big hug simply because I still can. As I sit here one thought keeps coming into my head.
“This is why I do what I do.”
There are lots of reasons why I am a youth pastor. It is where my skills have lead me. It is a whole lot of fun. It’s easier than being a pastor. It is amazing to see students worshiping God, especially those doing it for the first time. But when it all comes down to it the reason I do what I do is because of days like today, because we are living in a messed up broken and dark world and there are millions of teenagers who need to see the hope Jesus offers and for some God only knows reason He has sent me to take the light to them.
This is why I do what I do.
I do it because I walked through dark times, through bullies, and parents dying, and my own stupid mistakes, and I know how dark life can feel at times. I do it because in all of those times I always knew that I had hope because I always knew that God was with me. I do it because while I always knew those things I also know that there are so many kids right now who don’t have Jesus walking with them, they don’t see light at the end of the tunnel, they don’t see the hope that God brings. I do what I do because these students need to know that while this world is broken and messed up ultimately this is not all there is. There is a God who loves and cares for them, and ultimately this broken world is not our home.
As I have gotten a chance this past year to spend some time in the middle school I have found students who are desperate for someone to see them, to care about them, to speak good things into their lives. My heart breaks each time I walk out of the building because I know that there are so many more of them than I could ever help. But the reason I do what I do is because God has put in me a deep desire to see teenagers find Jesus, to find hope, to find real life that only God can provide.
On a day like today I am reminded again.
This is why I do what I do.
After the change in the YouTube partner program means that I am not going to get past the viewer hour threshold any time soon, I figured it was time to split the Nailscars.com YouTube channel into two different channels. Since I don’t need to worry about keeping both audiences together I should be able to better serve those who want Minecraft Bible Study type stuff and those who want Youth Pastor type stuff. Check out the video below for a complete explination and then be sure to subscribe to the new site.
Here is the next installment of my daily vlog. I don’t think I am going to keep these going on a daily basis, but think I am going to sort of let them evolve into a couple of times a week. In this episode I talk about how I got to looking at Youth Group Games on Youtube. Be sure to check out the links if you want to find some great games.
Deathball: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X58X5d4BCl0
Youth Group Games: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDH5NC226-PpwAs_oEtQfjQ
It’s Board Game Day!
OK, there are lots of other stuff in this video too, but I do express my deep fear and deep love of board game club at our local middle school.