Beach Retreats!

I just dropped off my fourteen year old daughter at Ardrey Kell with the other students headed to the beach for their first ever retreat with Crosspoint. I must say it's a little surreal. She was going on the kind of retreat that I led every year for sixteen years. You know the routine. Parents drop off students, luggage is loaded in the vans, parents wave good-bye and youth leaders head off with teens in-tow for a time of fun and sun and bible study. The cool thing about this retreat is that I left my daughter with our volunteer team and one happens to be a former student of mine from back in the day. Her name is Lauren and she was one of our finest students. She loved God passionately then and she does today. She had a heart for her friends, constantly bringing them to our youth gatherings, and she does the same today, bringing friends to our church with her husband Chris. I tell you all of this because I'm moved that my daughter is now part of youth ministry being led by a former student who has taken up the mantle of ministry. Another generation leads another generation! That's the beauty of discipleship and giving your life away to something that has so many returns! God calls and adds new leaders to fill the shoes of others all of the time. So today, as my daughter drove away to the beach, I was awed that God has chosen to use every generation to reach the next generation. It's all the same. People loving students so that they will carry the same mantle that Jesus first gave to his disciples. And it never ends!