Day in the City - Dana Welty

My instant messenger pops up from my friend Amanda, a children’s minister in Jackson, Mississippi.   

Amanda:  Hey, I want to bring my 6th graders who are about to move into the youth group to a youth rally in Memphis.  Do you know of any going on in April?

I consult the great oracle known as Google, come up short and the brainstorming begins. 

Hey! We could host you guys.  Yeah, that would be great.  It could be fun for our sixth graders, too.  Yeah and then they’ll be together when they come to work camp.  They’ll know someone besides their own group.   We should start out with some really great worship.  Perfect, we have the illustrious Steve Maxwell.  We could show them Caritas and what living out a servant heart looks like.   Great - then we could go to the college house and encourage them to make connections and community, as they grow older. 

And so it evolved into a great day with the Meadowbrook Youth Group and WSYG.  The exciting and encouraging part was that we had around 45 kids and 5 parents to be a part of this day of bringing our 6th graders along side of us and showing them our love for the city of Memphis.   Our students showed up early to give Meadowbrook a superstar welcome as they pulled in the driveway and greeted them by introducing themselves as the kids unloaded.    We traveled to Caritas where Meadowbrook donated art supplies they had collected for the children in the neighborhood to use this summer.  We headed to University of Memphis campus house where we ate lunch and hung out playing full contact foursquare and a pool table game called Spud. 

Deuteronomy 6:7 says, “Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.”   We want our sixth graders to know from day one that WSYG is about serving others and a Day in the City gave us the opportunity to impress on them that He’s the God of this city and our youth group.  Our friends from Meadowbrook were grateful for the welcome and the way our kids extended themselves. We appreciate all of those who helped make this a day to remember. 

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