A Full Serving: 'Tis the Season

Saturday, June 11, 2011 Posted by Katie

There is a season for everything under heaven and, for me, June marks the beginning of the Summer Mission Trip season.

I have had a long love affair with Summer Mission Trips. During the summers of 2004 & 2005, I had my first taste of mission work while serving as a leader of a Youthworks mission site staff team. Imagine eight weeks of hosting 50-70 visiting youth and leaders a week, and a summer full of amazing, shock and awe, God-adventure. After my Youthworks staff days were over, I became a Youth Director and led my own youth mission teams for several memorable summers.

And now, as June 2011 has arrived, I greet this summer with a little regret. For the first time in seven years, I will not be participating in a summer mission trip.

Life has changed a bit for me. I am concentrating more on my own little youth group of two (Noah, nearly 3 yrs, and Simon, 7 months). They keep me busy and are a bit too young yet to paint houses by day and attend the wild worship that is Youthworks' “Club” by night.

Knowing that this June my “to do” list will not include “air out sleeping bag” and “find painting shorts”, my heart and mind are nevertheless instinctively tuned into the ministry of mission. I look back in wonder at seven years in which I carried the banner of mission. Year after year, I touted the importance of making Service a regular part of one’s life, even and especially if one is not a professional missionary or a brave parent volunteer. Now that I’m on the “other side”, I’m pondering how those truths will play out in this new season of my life. How will I be serving with my youth group of two? And what have my many mission-minded summers taught me?

That’s what I hope to share with you this week at the Daily Fast Fuel. Serving in the Lord’s name is a powerful fuel, you see. And if you haven’t experienced the power of Service, then you’ve only been sampling the Lord. It’s time for a full serving.

“For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” - Mark 10:45