The Diary of Dreams Coming True: A month of Service

One of the gifts of being on Young Life staff is working for a month on an assignment at one of our national properties. Some say it's much like a vacation, which it seems like from the pictures, but let me tell you this year was long, hard, and full of God's grace.

I was able to get Leslie on my assignment this year which allowed us to be in the same place at the same time for a whole month, a thing that we have not had the chance to do becasue we dated long distance. She was amazing!!! She was responsible for overseeing the college age volunteers for the month, while I was responsible for the entertainment for the month. The property where we were working is Young Life's only family directed property, "Trail West"! It was like going home for me as I had had 3 earlier assignments in my career but this was different than any other by far. The assigned team was great, property was great, and time with my fiance' was really great!

It was a very different time for me of realizing that I am no longer alone in this world. For the first time in my life I had to think about telling Leslie my plans, talking over the day, and making sure that someone else was being cared for. The truth is that I did a really poor job all month of caring for her, but Leslie was great! She understood how draining that my job was and she was extreamly independent and caring in a crazy season of our engagement. It was an interesting month for us as we continued to see life in a whole new light.

It was not without a few dumps and freakout moments though! I have had my days where I didn't know who I was or who the crap was taking over the thoughts in my head. Scared to death of failing at caring for a spouse, being financially responsible, and helping with the little deatails of planning a wedding that I really don't know how to help with. Needless to say, while I was on my assignment pointing others to Christ...I was struggling myself to hear his discernment for my own life. He is ever present though and gives strength when we can not find it on our own. The month was amazing and I feel blessed to have had the opportunity to serve Him and others for a month.

I think that pictures do a much better job of showing the month, so I will put a few below and catch up the blog on another day...