break the barriers (or, how a shy kid overcame)

Last night was awesome. But before I tell you why, first a little background.

After we took the group to camp this summer, Corey (former youth but now a fellow leader) and I decided to start up a little worship band for Wednesday nights. We started practicing and learning worship songs, and as of last night, we have led worship for about 5 weeks.

We've got a guy in our youth group (which we call S*M*A*S*H - Student Ministries at Spring Hill) named John who has been coming to hang out for a little over a year. He started out being really quiet and reserved. Over the past few months he's seemed to loosen up a little. He talks to people more, he hangs out afterward and plays games...it's just cool to see him do more.

Also every week we have band practice on Tuesdays. All the youth are invited to come play along if they want to participate in the following night's worship. Well, this past Tuesday night, John showed up...requested to sing "Hosanna (Praise is Rising)"...and ROCKED IT. The guy was awesome! He held the mic like a young Joey Ramone, and after I mentioned this, I got blank stares (except from Lena, who like me absolutely loves the Ramones).

Last night John was close to saying "no" to his upcoming performance. There were a lot of teenagers there (29, which is HUGE for my church) and he told me that he was nervous. But he sang anyway, to a standing ovation. Afterward, about 3 or 4 kids came up saying they wanted to sing next week.

It's just really cool to see how God works things out. And watching a shy, homeschooled teenager break out into song is also pretty neat. It's times like this when God just reaffirms that youth ministry is for me.