Well, less than a year ago I posted this post about how I was hurting because due to a whole range of circumstances our youth ministry had more than halved in size and our youth camp was facing cancellation due to low numbers.

Thankfully camp didn't get cancelled but it was still relatively small.  It ended up being a good time for our youth to bond and grow closer as a community.

Anyway, we moved our youth camp forward a few months this year and things have gone far better.  We have 21 youth registered for camp.  Which is excellent, well beyond my expectations.  I'm giving talks from Colossians which I gave on a different church camp at the end of last year.

I'm really looking forward to a great weekend with our youth.  Your prayers for safety would be much appreciated.

Anyway, I think the lesson is that a month is a long time in youth ministry and a year a very long time.  In the space of a month our youth ministry hit some major hurdles.  Now in less than a year it has grown to be of a more healthy size again.  You can never rest in Youth Ministry.  A big change, the natural flow of students in and out, is always just around the corner.  Don't get comfortable like I did!  If you do, you may find yourself spending the best part of a year wondering what happened and just what you did wrong.  The answer might be nothing, you just haven't been prepared.