Summer staff...

Each summer we bring up about 85 people who have just graduated high school, in college, just graduated from college, or are college age but didn't go to college because they decided to work instead, etc. (I could go into details but I will let them do that on their blog...)

Each year I spend the months of January and February (and sometimes March through Memorial Day) on the road with my trusty little Garmin eMap GPS device driving to college campuses and churches recruiting people to spend their summer in ministry with me. I sit in cafeterias, lawns, classrooms, Starbucks, libraries, taco shops, In & Outs, pizza parlors, Thai restaurants, and maybe a pub or two, trying to get them to come be on staff.

The hard part for me is when we have people decide if they are coming back or not and the heart break of them saying they are not or the heart break of us telling them they are not. Either way there is hurt.

Rejection... Some feel rejected by us when they don't get hired and I feel it when they decide not to come back. But then I hear of the stories of what the person is doing, I know that we are still in ministry together only on a broader scale. Some decide to work for a project in the heart of San Francisco or Los Angeles, many in South and Central America, Europe, India, China and the Middle East. Some intern at their churches, while others study and take classes. Some begin their careers or get married and spend the summer walking through the threshold of the next season of life. Some even go into camping and are program directors in Colorado, Washington, and Oregon.

But I miss them. It is not the same. It is not that it is bad, I just miss them. I get to know so many people and they become a part of my life. I miss listening to them playing their violins, guitars, pianos, trombones, congas and flutes. I miss them in the infirmary or craft condo for a little chat and I marveled at their care and creativity. I miss the times of sitting at lunch and discussing theology (usually how messed up mine is), watching them mow the lawn and being impressed by what I see not only in the lawn but the love they have for the AIMers, going off in their old cars for an afternoon chat on where they feel the Lord's leading and call. Watching them fall in love and stay up too late at night "watching for bears" and getting to be a part of their weddings.

I just miss them...

I am a fortunate man by getting to know so many during these 10 week "seasons". I fall in love with them (non-eros) and pine for them when they leave. I don't know how many have come through here but since 1992 I have had to say good-bye to a lot of dear friends.

So this season, a new group of strangers will become friends, some will stay for a ten-week season and some will stay for the next five years. I am thankful to those in the first few years who loved me and gave me a place in their lives. Some I don't visit enough, some have become my best friends, this group will never take your place. I just have to keep getting bigger to allow more people in my life and heart.

What a job!