...remember, remember, remember...

I hope this is okay to share...

In the midst of an office summer that seems to never end, and as I tear my hair out doing what a teacher and friend just called "The Defense against the Dark Arts" position, (it's apparently so crazy someone new does it almost every year...and yes, that title brought laugh-tears to my eyes...and no, I'm not quitting before next year.) every now and again, I get a glimpse of what brought me to this job in the first place...a program that acts as one of many vehicles for the continued positive experience of youth all over through the gospel. Spreadsheets, phone calls, receipts and piles of emails sometimes cloud my view, and I forget far too often how rewarding it is to watch these incredible kids change for the better right before your eyes...

This experience came from one of our teachers:

In Georgia this past weekend, I had the opportunity to have a young man come up after one of the classes. He wasn’t a member of the church but thought that EFY sounded like fun. He had investigated the church for a few months. The two classes that I had facilitated were on Scripture Study and Prayer. When I finished he came up with a notebook of questions he had answered and a few that he needed help with. After our discussion, with tears streaming down his face, he proudly explained that he finally knew what he needed to do and couldn’t wait to tell the missionaries that he wanted to be baptized. Now, I share this not to bring credit to anything that I taught, for I am smart enough to know that is definitely not what happened. Any teacher that he had would have been the instrument that day. However, EFY had created an Atmosphere that allowed the Spirit to teach. That is what I think is so awesome!

It's things like this that make sitting behind this desk worth it to me...even if I would give my right arm to be back in the thick of that side of crazy in a heartbeat. :) However, this way I can have a life after 9-5..ish, right?