The journey to this point has been a beautiful. Five years ago I became the junior high ministries intern at
I accepted Christ into my heart at two years of age, but at
21, the gospel of Jesus Christ exploded in my heart like it never had before. I
was working with people who had disabilities in Guatemala as a wheelchair
mechanic (among other things) when I began to see what God was up to in the
world. From the Christian scriptures we have, we see a story that began with a
loving God creating and ends with that loving God returning to renew all
things. Prior to this, as your average kid in the states I had no idea that was
the full story I was living under and much less what it looked like to participate
in this renewal- or even a desire to. The apostle Paul states in 1 Corinthians
13:13 for those who are in Christ, we press on in faith, hope and love until
the return of Christ. When I came back from Guatemala I had a fire to
bring the gospel to those who didn’t have it. I thought I was going to Afghanistan to
teach English; God had other plans. For the next two years I worked with a
special people group, American teenagers to be exact. This season ended up
being some of the best years of my life. I didn't know what the future held,
but knew I wanted more God in my life. What that looked like for me was an
education in New Zealand at
a school called Laidlaw. A friend of mine had done a semester abroad there,
told me about it, then I couldn’t get the country of NZ and Laidlaw out of my
mind. I ended up moving there some 8 months later in January of 2010. I didn’t
know anyone in the country, leaving the home of my birth in complete faith. At
a layover in Fiji I
discovered that my plans of riding around the country sharing the gospel with a
friend had fallen through. That friend was unable to secure the funds to make
the trip happen. I found myself in that layover without any plans or
connections in NZ for the next two months. That night I shared Christ on the
beach with a few vacationing Kiwi’s. Long story short, they invited me to come
live with them as they lived 6 miles from my future school. Two days into
living with them I discovered a church across the street. Longer story short,
that church had been searching and praying for a youth pastor for over 18
months. The person they were praying for became me! It was incredible. God
provided me with a church and ‘family’ nearly instantly. I worked with the
junior high and high school students at this church for nearly 3 years,
simultaneously studying at Laidlaw. At Laidlaw in my second year I was elected
to the student leadership council as well as leading a community of nominal
Christian students from lower socio-economic backgrounds in NZ. The time was
amazing and challenging. That second year though, the stresses of studying and
the various hats I wore wrecked havoc on my immune system. I ended up nearly
dying in the emergency room of an Auckland hospital.
I didn’t. God had other plans. I returned to the states for surgery where I
realized that I loved that town called Sequim and didn’t want to go back. As
God had called me to study in that season I returned to NZ, stopping off in
Fiji to build chicken coops with my Auckland church before heading to NZ’s
south island to work at a vineyard. It was during this time that my faith was
rocked, I began to question God and some very dark nights of the soul were
held. God brought me out of that season in an incredible way that helped put
down steel like pillars in my faith. I returned back to school much different
than I left some 6 months prior. God was moving in my life and my love for him
and his mission grew exponentially.
Since my life was radically altered in a
dingy Guatemalan apartment in 2007, I’ve wanted to serve God with
everything in me. Post Laidlaw I had plans in the works to work with the poor
in South America but again, God had
other plans. While I was helping lead a youth camp, God began to work on my
heart and open my eyes to his vision. Up until that point, I had been doing
fulltime school and part time youth ministry. That week of nothing but youth
ministry reminded me of how much I loved it. Without the other stresses of
school and leadership I was able to simply engage with the teenage heart and
mind. On the third day of that camp, DCC and its people was strongly placed on
my heart; this came out of nowhere. On the 5th day, I told God that if he
wanted me to work with youth, I was ok with that. That was huge for me! I
thought my season of youth ministry was coming to a close. As I returned home
from camp, a email out of the blue from an elder at DCC sent my mind spinning.
He asked me if I would consider the role of youth pastor at DCC. I few months
prior to this email I had turned down then youth pastor Wayne Yammamoto’s same
request as I was then heading to Paraguay . I said… "really
God?” It was all to much for me at the time. I tried not to read to much into
it, but two months after that email, I realized it wasn’t a coincidence. In
December, I filled out the application for youth pastor and the journey of
prayer and seeking guidance from those older and wiser began. On January 23rd after
writing over 10,000 words on doctrine+practice and a few correspondence emails,
I was voted on by the elder board to be the youth pastor at DCC. I accepted the
offer, feeling total peace in my heart about it.
I honestly believe that ministry to youth is one of the most
important aspects of the Church. The years between Junior High and High school
are the most formative in a persons life. The pains and hurts acquired during
this period could last a lifetime. I take this seriously and I am extremely
thankful for those that journeyed with me through this (awkward?) time. Stories
are powerful and they say if you want to communicate something and have it
stick, say it multiple ways. If I was to promote an event I might: call the
student, text the student, email the student, Facebook the student or even
update the website. In the same light, when conveying gospel truths it’s best
if the youth hear it from more than one person (myself). While the youth
have passion and energy, they can lack wisdom and direction. In 1 Samuel 3, God
calls a young boy named Samuel three times but the boy is unable to discern who
or what is calling him. He continually rises to the challenge with more
enthusiasm then I could muster after being woken up in the middle of the night.
Eli, his mentor, had been unable to hear the voice of God for some time but had
the wisdom and experience to help the young and confused boy understand who was
calling him. I share that not to say that I think older people can’t hear the
voice of God or that younger folks are incapable of making informed decisions;
it’s just that as we go through this life in whatever season we find ourselves
in, we need people from a wide variety of ages/races in dialogue with each
other for the mutual benefit of all involved. I will seek to link the ‘young’
and ‘old’ at DCC partnering students with the wider body among other things
that have been laid on my heart. It takes the whole church to help form
students into the image of Christ. I have a heart for both local service and
mission as well as international; I do believe that 'mission' must first start
in our own backyards and will pursue practical ways of being Jesus hands and
feet to reach teenagers (and the wider community) in Sequim with the gospel.
I appreciate you taking the time to read this, and if you’re
new to the site, take a look around! Please continue to pray for me as I pray
for you.
Ephesians 3:20-21
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we
ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within
us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all
generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
His,
Piper
Below are links to a video slideshow, a virtual tour of my
school, my welcome speech to DCC and finally, a ministry in South America that I believe is well worth taking a
look at.
http://youtu.be/EGj4oOffDbE Slideshow
of various 2008-2010 JH events.
http://vimeo.com/52358674 Virtual
Laidlaw walk through.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hIvq8q4IAU DCC
Welcome
I fully support this ministry and pray it would thrive in Paraguay as
my mate Judah Mooney and his wife have helped facilitate the
transformation of poor women in the country. Keen to learn more about how micro
finance loans have transformed over 400 women's lives in the last 2+ years.
