Many times youth workers have said, “Thanks for sharing about some failures and hurts. It makes me feel better knowing you experience pain too.” In a sick sort of way, I guess I’m learning how to be happy knowing my youth ministry misery can help others. If this is true for you, you'll probably feel A LOT better after reading the e-mail I sent to parents about the disasters from our recent missions' trip.

To: Saddleback parents
From: Pastor Doug Fields
Re: Mexico daily updates

Okay…so, if you read the last e-mail you’re thinking to yourself, “Hey, what a great trip! I’m so happy that my child is on this trip.” That’s exactly what I was thinking as I was sitting in the internet café sending the last e-mail. As soon as I hit ‘send e-mail’ the prayers of the local farmers were answered. It poured. Seriously poured! I’m talking “Noah-like” rain. It got a little spooky when animals started lining up 2 by 2.

At that moment, Matt McGill and I become Starsky & Hutch and raced back to the camp site…a normal 30 minute drive with no rain, Hutch and I arrive safely within 45 minutes. As we approach, we see utter chaos…it was the first of many times that would appear over the next 18 hours where I wouldn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

The scene: vans stuck in mud, students running around trying to salvage some of their tents that had blown over in the wind and now resembled small, dough-boy pools. It was amazing how quickly our serene beautiful camp became hell’s swamp land. Everything and everyone was getting drenched as people scurried into the “dry” vans. Some students were being “save your own stuff” selfish while some where “save the day” helpful. It was great to see the “save the day” students trying to help their friends…but, later many got backlash because they threw things into vans that have yet to be found.

For almost 2 hours vans arrived and scurried to save their stuff…some tents remained standing and waterproof while others were flooded. As quick as we could, we called on our rain contingency plan and a local church about 30 miles away opened for us. We traveled in caravans and got there, ate dinner and tried to dry off. The people of the church were gracious and served us kindly. By 9pm everyone had eaten a great chicken meal and began spontaneously singing songs as one of our local hosts and I scouted out some potential sleeping arrangements since most of the tents were destroyed and there was more rain coming.

In a “wealthy” area of Ensenada there is a nice “ballroom” where weddings are held. The owner of this ballroom is a new Christian and was excited to let 500 teenagers invade his business. It looked like a great solution: two stories, guys could sleep upstairs, girls downstairs…it wasn’t perfect but it would fit what we’re looking for—immediate shelter.

At 11:00pm we caravanned over to the ballroom and students made their home for the night. What once looked like a big, empty room was immediately filled like sardines. There was no room to walk around (see photos below). It was a tight fit. Students had to show Matt McGill their wet sleeping bag or that they had no sleeping bag before they could get a blanket. It was quite the sight!

At 1:00am, when everyone calmed down, I pulled a few leaders outside and we created a plan for the morning. We threw out options, thought through consequences, available assets, and group moral. We laughed at how little control we felt. Personally, I laughed about all the youth pastors in the world who want a big youth group like Saddleback. I thought, “Yea, you should see it now.” What would be chaos for a group of 15, we had 500 to figure out. Thankfully, we have the best adult volunteer leaders in the world; lawyers, a rocket scientist, management consultants, and everyone in-between. I am so thankful for this team. We prayed together and thank the Lord that there was not one injury, no accidents, and almost no complaining.

At 2:00am, Matt and I walked in with nowhere to sleep and nothing to sleep with…except for a pile of sleeping bags that students said were “too wet.” We started feeling around in the pile and found two “almost dry” bags and slept like a baby for 4 hours (the baby-part was because I think I cried myself to sleep).

When I woke up at 6:00am I saw a sweet girl looking confused and standing by the bathroom door. I quietly asked if the bathrooms were full and she said, “There’s no water.” I got up to find out that the water had somehow shut off in the middle of the night. Racing through my mind: 500 people, 6 toilets and none of them worked. Again, laugh or cry…? I laughed…but it wasn’t my first choice.

For those who couldn’t wait, the girls went to the bathroom in paper cups and poured it down the sink. I didn’t ask what the guys did…honestly, I didn’t want to know. By 8:30am the water was flowing, the bathrooms were working, the breakfast was being cooked, the students were laughing, the leaders were planning their next steps, and every hug I gave was met with a smile.

By 10:00am all the ministry teams were on their way to their church sites. Attitudes were great and confusion had been minimized. Some kids were saying things like, “Last night was so much fun” “I came here to serve God, who cares about rain” “Our team is really bonding through the adversity.” The resilient crew of student leaders were shining bright.

The local forecast predicts more heavy rains are coming. I don’t want to commit to what we’ll do yet, because everything changes so quickly, but continue to pray and I’ll continue to update you through the phone line and the e-mail list. We’re playing everything with our faith and wisdom.

One of the common phrases that I say to my family is, “I can’t believe Saddleback Church actually pays me to do what I get to do” (although please don’t tell Pastor Rick I think that)…but, last night and this morning I had some other types of phrases floating through my mind. But, praise God, all are safe…memories are being made and we will make the best decisions we can for the safety of the students and the morale group. You would be very proud of your son/daughter. Everyone is doing good (except for Matt—he’s looking for a bathroom as I type this).

Alive, well and thankful,

Doug

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Youth ministry friends…don’t loose heart. We’re in this together. Very few things in youth ministry go as planned and yet God continues to use people like you and I to do good things.

Thank you for staying in the trenches and hanging out with students and pointing them to Jesus.

By the way, our students loved this trip. For some reason, a little adversity can bring out new and rich learnings for people. It can also bring about exhaustion in the leaders…but God is good and there’s growth for everyone involved.

Until next month.

http://www.simplyyouthministry.com/community-articles-doug-s-thoughts.html