Wow.

Where did this year go?  It’s been a whirlwind that’s about to get crazier as we launch our three summer mission trips next month!  Last night Matt O and I spent our last Wednesday night of the year with our sixth grade boys small group at Seasons, the pizza restaurant across the road from the church.  Hopefully, the restaurant has forgiven us for showing up with half a dozen amped up sixth graders … but it might take some more time.  It really was fun to sit there and look at these kids and think back to the beginning of the school year when I didn’t really know any of them, they had just graduated into middle school and I was struggling to even remember some of their names.  Now they’re some of the kids I have spent the most time with in the whole student ministry!  They’re hyper, have short attention spans, love to goof around and shoot each other with whatever is handy, but they also have the ability to get deep, ask incredible questions and have a genuine love and concern for their friends (whether they admit or not).  In a few years, some of these guys will be leaders in the youth group, setting an example for the incoming sixth graders (my son in a few years!).  And a few years after that, they’ll graduate and I’ll be wondering where all the time went and who I’ll replace them with in our worship band, leadership team, drama team, etc.

It goes by too fast.