This afternoon I shared a few slices of my life with two women in my community who are serving the community of Nome through the United Methodist Church as well. Story Corps provided this particular opportunity for sharing. Ever since the Story Corps interviewer came to town in October 2008, she has been encouraging me to tell my story. It has taken me six months to figure out a) who is going to be my conversation partner? and b) which of my stories am I going to tell? I chose these two young ladies who are not only my neighbors, but also current young adult missionaries through the UMC. I was once a young adult missionary through the UMC as well, US-2 in fact. As I told my story, I started with experiences from my childhood and then the ladies asked me questions as they came to their minds.
This afternoon as I told my story, I relived memories of moving to and living in the Cote D'Ivoire and my experiences of being the only white girl in my class and learning to speak French by immersion. I also talked about moving to Iowa, then to Vermont, and then to Michigan as a child. In the midst of telling my story, I realized that I consistently found acceptance in each of the churches I attended throughout my life. Even when I did not always feel accepted by my peers at school, I did feel accepted at church.
From an early age, I was singing in the choir, going to Sunday School (or Sabbath School in Cote D'Ivoire), and attending worship regularly. In Vermont, I even took part in the leadership of worship on Children's Sunday. Throughout my life, I have had mentors on my journey who have given me opportunties to be in church and worship leadership. My roles have varied from having a role in a play to reading scripture and from leading prayers to preaching. I thank God for those who have been with me along my journey at various times, ultimately pointing me to where God was leading me. If it were not for my mentors, I would never have worked with Junior Highers, served as a Time for God volunteer in England, served as a US-2 in Alaska, gone to seminary, or become a United Methodist Pastor. One sister in the ministry called me a brave woman on twitter yesterday - I consider her a mentor as well. Many of all ages have inspired me.
As a result of this Story Corps experience today, the questions I am reflecting on are as follows:
"How are we as the Church mentoring young people today and empowering them for leadership within the church?"
"What am I personally doing to empower young people within the church?"
"What else could we be doing to develop our young leaders within the church?"
If we think that our children and youth are our leaders of the future, we are wrong - they are our leaders NOW!
I invite others to reflect with me on these questions. Happy Reflecting!
