Tim pt 1

This may have to be a two entry piece, but I will plunge on ahead anyway. 🙂

The first thing I should start out saying is that I grew up “in the church” meaning that my parents took me to church every week, and talked to me about God and stuff. I accepted it as my religion because it was what I had always known. One thing about my church though, is that we went through youth workers like a hot knife through butter. The average stay of any one youth leader was six months. As you can imagine, this was very hard on the kids attending the youth group. The leaders were always changing, but the kids were still there. But always the way it went was as soon as you would grow close to the present youth leader, they would leave. Our attitude became very cynical about new leaders. We never really expected them to stick around, so we were reluctant to try and build relationships with them. Then our associate pastor, Tim, decided to try and get in there with the youth group and help create a more stable environment. He asked a few of us members of the youth group to start what he called a Leadership Bible Study group, or LBS for short. This group would meet on a separate night each week in addition to the regular youth meetings. We would have our own in depth bible study, and we would also plan events, organize the schedules for the youth meetings, etc. The goal was for us to form a leadership base so that even when the leader changed, we would still ahve a structure. We would also always have someone over us to supervise even when we were in between leaders.

The LBS did it’s job well. We became a very close knit group. I considered the other people in the group my very best friends. In fact, all of them are still close friends today. This went on starting in my eighth grade year. The LBS kept up right through all of eighth grade and all of ninth grade. But then, in February of my freshman year, Tim announced that he had been offered a Senior Pastorship at another church, and that our Senior Pastor had advised him to take it. (I later found out that that meant if he didn’t take it, he probably wouldn’t have a position with our church much longer. But that is a different entry entirely) So Tim gave us the news. And we were stunned. He had become a very close friend with all of us, and he was our stability. He would take each of us out to lunch on one-on-one sessions, and he would make us laugh with really cheesy jokes. We had been planning a week long trip to Yosemite National Park for that summer in July where we were going to hike to the top of half dome together. He told us that his last day with us was going to be June 7th. Suck. (oh, and I forgot to mention that the night Tim announced this was the same night that our current youth leader announced he was leaving too.)

Well, we decided to move our Yosemite Trip up to May, but we had to shorten it because we would all still be in school. So we went on Memorial Day weekend. While we were there, Tim sat us all down and told each of us that we meant to him, and gave us each a kind of blessing, telling us his wished for our lives and such. Needless to say, we were all pretty emotional. (Also during the trip I cut a gash in my leg, and it got all swollen and I still have a big scar)

After the trip we all went back to school and on with our lives. We continued our meetings. We decided to continue them even after Tim left, just because they were so helpful. Then, about 3 weeks before Tim was scheduled to move, Luke and I broke up. (see previous entry) The funny thing is that Tim and I were scheduled to have one of our one-on-ones that same afternoon that Luke and I broke up. So I got a ride to Tim’s office. It was all in boxes, and very depressing. I told Tim about what had happened and how I felt. He took me to McDonalds and bought me french fries, and told me about a verse in the bible that he wanted me to think about. Jeremiah 29:11 “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘Plans for welfare and not for calamity, to give you a future and a hope.'” Tim told me that there was something special inside of me, even if I couldn’t see it, and that one day I would see that there was a plan for me and my life. He told me that he wanted me to say that over and over to myself. That there was a plan for my life, and that there was a plan for me. He told me that I could contact him via e-mail after he moved, and that way we would still be able to keep in touch. He also told me that in about 5 years, Luke would be kicking himself really hard for letting me go. (That may have been true if he isn’t gay) So Tim made me feel better that day. And I followed his advice. Everyday I would repeat that there was a purpose in my life.

Right before Tim left, he had a party for his two kids so that they could celebrate their birthdays with friends rather than alone in a new neighborhood. Tim invited me and some other members of the LBS to come and help out, and to visit one last time before he left. When it was over, all of us LBS members went to Pizza and then he took us all home. He dropped me off last and handed me a tape that he had made for me. He told me to listen to it whenever I got lonely. Then we said goodbye and he was off.

To Be Continued…