My Calling Into Kid's Ministry

During the first year that I was up at Lee University, Dan Tureman who was one of my old small group leaders from 12stone reached out to me and asked me what I was doing for the summer. Mind you at the time it was August. That was like asking me what I was doing a random Tuesday. Obviously, I responded telling him that I had no idea what I was doing this upcoming summer. In our conversation, he told me that I should work at Woodlands Camp over the summer as a camp counselor. At the time, I thought that there was no way I was willing to give up my entire summer and the freedom with it to counsel kids. Of course, I did the only logical thing to do. I waited to let the deadline to apply pass and told him that I totally forgot to apply.

After he reached out the first time, it wasn't something I really ever thought about until much later on. As the school year moved on, I had a friend reach out who I knew from high school and was going to Lee at the time. She told me that she loved working at Woodlands the previous summer and told me that I should consider applying to do it. Again, I told her that it was a maybe in order to get her to leave me alone about it. She pushed, and pushed, and pushed. Finally, she got to the point of challenging me in a 1 on 1 game in basketball. If I won, she would stop asking about it, if she won, I applied. When I tell you I was so determined to win that I played the hardest I had ever played in my life. She didn’t score a single point. In my eyes, I was thankful she was finally leaving me alone about it and I continued to not let it take up any of my headspace.

Fast forward to the weekend before Finals week which was a week before the summer started, I went to attend my cousin’s mens’ conference again for the second year in a row. If you have heard or read my testimony, this was a big time for my family because it was a year since my dad had gone through heart surgery, making it an emotional time. As we got to the conference, right as I sat down, I get a text from Dan. The text read, “Soooo what are you doing this summer?” Since it was so close to the summer, I began to think about all the fun things I had planned. We were planning to make a ton of trips across the country and do some site seeing, making my summer planned out and busy. I remember in a conversation we had over the phone, Dan told me that everything I was going to do sounded great, but said "what if you did summer camp instead". In that moment, I gave him the most basic response which was “I’ll pray about it and let you know”.

In that moment I gave honestly one of the most half-hearted prayers to God and said “God, if you really want me to do this, I need you to make it very obvious and clear because I can be oblivious sometimes.” Additionally, I said, “If I still don’t see the sign or if I ignore it, just have someone tell me that it’s what I need to do.” Now I don’t know if you’ve experienced this before, but sometimes it can be easy to look for the answer you want to prayer, rather than actually listen for God’s answer to your prayer. Well, the conference lasted from Thursday night to Saturday morning and that Friday night, the preacher was talking about how he grew up in a poor family. In his message he talked about how he loves to spoil his kids now since he didn’t have that luxury growing up. He gave himself the title “yes dad” because usually when his kids asked for something, he would say yes.

As the preacher went on, he began to talk about how some of us were asking God for something in their season and whether or not it was going to happen or if He was going to answer the prayer. In this moment, the preacher leans forward and said “dad says yes.” Now of course you’re probably thinking, “that was the sign!” "How could you not see that God was speaking to you through that?" In reality, I sat there and thought that it was the most cliché and unbelievable thing I had ever heard. I doubted in my mind because I thought there was no way that that was the sign.

Additionally, I began to sit there and think “Well I am going to miss out on this, and this, and this" and in that moment, I felt God whisper and say, “If that’s so great, don’t you think what I have is just that much better?” In that moment, all I could think was "dang it." That night I was struggling with processing all of it and was really quiet. I talked to my dad about some of it and he encouraged me to continue to pray about it that night. The following day on Saturday morning, I skipped the last session and told my dad I was going to study for my final exams. In reality, I went to go donate plasma because I was a broke college student needing to pay off a speeding ticket.

To quickly take a trip to the past, that previous year I had gone to see one of my buddies in North Carolina when I got pulled over speeding on the interstate. I had put my car in cruise control and never saw the sign change from a 65 down to a 55. All that to say, I had a big ticket that I was having to pay for, which was why I was going to donate plasma because it was my last chance to make some quick money before going home for the summer.

Now if you’ve never seen a plasma center, it’s almost like a DMV. You sit in a waiting room, they call you up to a kiosk, test your vitals, and send you on back. Well, on this particular day, there was one kiosk that was open and I thought to myself “please don't call me up.” This guy was new and he did not do his job well. He would always have to re-prick your finger and run tests more than once because he would tend to mess it up. Well, as you might’ve thought, he called me up which put me in a bad mood as I sat there getting all my vitals checked.

Let me preface this next part by saying, I did not know this guy, he knew nothing about me, and didn’t even really know my name. The longest conversation we had had before was when he asked about my favorite movie. So, while I am sitting there, he begins to run all the tests and just stops. I’m sitting there thinking “great! what did he do this time?” He stops, and just stares at me for a good thirty seconds, making it the most awkward thirty seconds of my life. Then, he says to me “This is going to sound very weird, but God wants me to tell you something.”

Obviously, a lot is going through my head in this moment wondering what is going to come out of this dude’s mouth. After he says that, he says to me “God wants me to tell you He is calling you into children’s ministry and just like how Samuel anointed David, you will anoint David’s of the next generation. And, just like what your name means (Samuel means “God has heard”), God has heard your prayer and this is His answer.” When I tell you I cried in this plasma center which was already a sketchy place to be in.

Plasma centers consist of broke college students and incredibly poor people, making it a weird place to cry in. Additionally, my heart rate went up so high I had to wait about 30 minutes just to get to the back. In all honestly, I was terrified because it was such a big calling on my life and something I had to lean into and find the joy from. I also want to take a minute to talk about God's humor for a second as well. It is funny to me to think that God used someone that I was frustrated with, did not like, and thought was unqualified to call me into Kid's Ministry. If that doesn't show you God has a sense of humor, I don't know what does.

In that moment I thought back to my half-hearted prayer which was “God, if you really want me to do this, I need you to make it very obvious and clear. If I still don’t see the sign or if I ignore it, have someone tell me that’s what I need to do.” Following that moment I immediately signed up for camp less than a week before it started and that summer of camp honestly changed my life.

At the time I was a Sports Management major and I had no desire to go into full-time ministry. Obviously, God had other plans. During that summer, God showed me that working with kids was exactly what I needed to be doing. As the summer went on, I found out that Woodlands had an internship program called NEXT. It was a 9-month internship program that focused on all things involving behind-the-scenes ministry. I thought that it would be a cool thing to do in the future, but I felt God press for me to do it now. So, I applied super late, late enough to where all of the contract spots were sent out. One person ended up declining, which opened up a spot and opened the door for me to do so.

Those 9-months ended up being some of the hardest months of my life, stretching and pushing everything within me involving my capacity, my faith, and how I learned to work with others. I fully believe that that season was something I needed, so that I could appreciate where I am now. During NEXT as well, through some issues involving school, I felt God tell me that He wanted me all in with Kid's Ministry. So, because I felt His push, I ended up switching my major from Sports Management to a degree in Ministry Leadership with an Emphasis on Children’s Ministry.

Now, I am blessed to be a Kid’s Ministry Resident at 12stone which is the church that I first made my faith my own. God has led me right back to where I was all along. I tell this story as a way to show how God can take someone so ordinary, and do something absolutely crazy. For God to speak that clearly into my life is a way of showing His faithfulness and just how powerful He is. Praise be to God that He is using me to do His kingdom work and that I now get to be just a small part of what He is doing.