YAMIA is the youth and student ministries arm of the Anglican Mission in the Americas.

Walking on Water

You're not alone in the sometimes relentless adventure of youth ministry

— by curt solomon

Two summers ago several students and I took a two week trip. We set it up to be an adventure/mission trip. We would end up in Winnipeg, Manitoba working in a soup kitchen and homeless shelter. The first week we would spend building team in the Boundary Waters of Minnesota. These are a series of lakes that run along the Canada-Minnesota border. They are pristine wilderness and very remote.

We flew from Raleigh to Duluth and then drove the four hours required to find the trail head. It's kind of funny to call it a trail as we will be canoeing for the next week on a water circuit rarely broken by land.

Day one was terribly beautiful. Yep, terribly is the best description of the day. It was mid-June, but temperature mid-June in northern Minnesota is a bit different, than mid-June in Raleigh, North Carolina. We were all excited about the break in the heat, but were not ready to be cold. And yes, it was also drizzling. Not outright raining. When it is outright raining in Raleigh we call it a pourin-down-rain. We had not reached that level of precipitation, but there was constant moisture falling from the sky. We were all pretty aware of that reality because we were wet, and muddy.

Lunch-time didn't come soon enough and we found ourselves all huddled over a camp stove on a rock in the middle of this little lake and like a couple of my city boys said, "In Nature." Lunch took a while to cook as the drizzle slowed the process. The mosquitos seemed also to slow things down, but I am not sure how they accomplished that. As lunch was coming to an end, and we were each ringing out our second hotdog buns to make them edible, Justin started yelling at the top of his lungs at God. "Is this all you got God, is this all you got?" Two of my older boys started shaking their heads, and at that moment the skies opened up and it was pourin-down-rain. It rained hard for the next three hours until just before we reached camp. I have never been so excited to see a tent and a rock for a bed.

We had planned a layover day to get acclimated and rest our sore paddling muscles. As afternoon arrived day two Justin and I decided that we would take a short paddle to further investigate our surroundings and see if we could scare up a moose or bald eagle. We began our small journey with the wind at our backs working out a bit of soreness.

Justin had just finished his sophomore year in high school and he is a great kid. Justin is a fantastic student, hard worker, superior athlete, and just plain honest guy. Justin is not what one would consider an outdoorsman. He honestly brought an electrically inflatable air mattress for our week long canoe trip into the wilderness. He thought we were going to lug a generator along with us on the trip. This was like a backpacking trip just using canoes. He just didn't understand, and was a bit put-off as we left his air mattress, cell phone, fan, and iPod in the van at the trail head.

We were having a nice hour-long paddle when we turned the corner and headed back to camp. Camp was about a half mile off to our left side. As we rounded that final corner and needed to turn our canoe, we realized that the wind on the main part of the lake had really picked up. In fact, there were white caps all over the lake. Nonetheless we worked hard to paddle and tried our best to get our canoe to make the left turn needed to get back to camp. It didn't work. The harder we tried the further to the right and away from camp we went. The broad side of our canoe was into the wind and it was continually pushing us away from our destination.

As we realized our circumstance we mounted an increased effort to assert our will on the wind, the lake and the canoe. That is when things got worse. Justin was paddling for all that he was worth and I was doing the same thing. In one of those moments of attack upon the lake we got out of sync and over we went. I forgot to mention that we were fully dressed in pants, shoes, long sleeved shirts jackets, and I think Justin was wearing a toboggan (winter stocking cap).

As I was sinking fear crept in way into my heart. I saw my wife and then unborn child flash before my eyes. I watched the Titanic movie pass quickly through my consciousness—it was cold water. I was asking for forgiveness one last time, and then I felt my life jacket begin to do its work. It felt like a rope on a climbing wall when you fall off or the soft landing of a trampoline as you find yourself out of control in the air. It felt like and was literally life itself. As soon as the life jacket did its work I was in a new frame of mind and on to thinking about how to get out of the lake.

Justin's head had broken water just before mine. I have never seen bigger eyes than were his at that moment. We then began to communicate. First with a bit of a nod and then we each started to look around and get our bearings. We were still in the middle of a relatively cold lake, being pushed away from our destination but were not at that point more than 3/4 of a mile from camp.

So I looked at Justin, and said something that I meant one way and he took in a completely different vain. My profundity was as follows, "Dude, I don't know what we are going to do." Which was intended to mean all is well, but I don't know how we are going to get back in this canoe which is now full of water without being able to touch ground. What Justin heard was we are going to die here. He hadn't gotten the message from his life jacket yet.

It happened that our guide had seen the whole thing and within 20 minutes and several pictures for posterity we were rescued and on our way back to camp.

It doesn't take much for us to feel like we are in over our heads. As we are facing the fall and all of its challenges, at least from my youth ministry desk it can feel like the wind has picked up and camp is disappearing in the distance. We are all facing or have just been through our fall kickoffs, we are getting our small group rosters filled out, our leaders refocused after the summer, trying to line up times to get with kids that work with their new schedules. It is hectic and sometimes daunting. Be assured you are not alone.

Last week, I was reading the story in Matthew 14 of Jesus walking on the water. Remember this story comes on the heels of some pretty amazing ministry experience. The sermon on the mount has just occurred and Jesus and the disciples have just fed the 5,000 with 5 loaves and two fish. What?

As the day comes to an end, Jesus tells his men, go ahead to the other side of the lake and He would catch up with them later. He went up on the side of the mountain alone to pray. The disciples headed across the lake and it was a raucous journey. They were buffeted, the text tells us, by wind and waves for hours.

In the fourth watch of the night, O dark thirty, they see something moving toward them on the lake. Their first thought was ghost. I can see that. My first thought may have been monster of the Loch Ness variety or big-dang-man-eating-fish. However, they went with ghost.

"But Jesus immediately said to them: 'Take courage! It is I. Don't be afraid.'" (NIV) Peter is the most forward and daring of the group, as we know. He asks the Lord to allow him to come walking to Him on the water. This seems crazy to me. "We have been beaten by wind and waves all night, have now been afraid of a ghost, and we are still in the middle of these stormy seas."

Jesus doesn't disappoint and in North Carolina vernacular says, "Come owwwnnn." So Peter, makes the decision to exit a completely sound sea-going vessel willingly. This boat wasn't going down. Jaws was not attacking the boat. This was the driest place in miles, yet Peter throws his legs over the gunwale and gets out of the boat.

It works! He is actually walking on the water toward Jesus. Trouble mounts: the wind picks up and likely so do the waves, and Peter is afraid and loses focus. He begins to sink. He needs his life jacket. The only hope Peter has is Jesus. So he cries out for the Lord to save him. Jesus asks, "You of little faith, why did you doubt?" That is the question, isn't it? Jesus reaches out, grabs Peter by the hand and takes him back to the boat. The wind and waves die down and they worship their Lord.

Why is it in these times of difficulty—even difficulty by choice—we so easily lose focus? Why is it that regardless of our past experiences, we forget to keep our eyes on the Lord? Peter had seen numerous miracles, he had experienced firsthand Christ's teaching. He had just heard the best sermon of all time. Did he already forget the teaching of the parables about the kingdom of heaven? Did he forget who Jesus was? Did he forget that Jesus had just fed 5,000 with so little?

No, Peter didn't forget he just got worried about himself. He was worried that he was going to sink out of sight and never be seen again. If his experience was like mine or Justin's in the Boundary Waters he was watching his life flash quickly before his eyes from fear.

Is that what we experience when we find ourselves in difficult circumstances at home or in our ministries? I think it is much like that for me. I find myself sinking from too much to do and not enough time, or from tough situations with the kids or families, or things are tough at home in the short term, or I didn't prioritize well, or an event didn't work. Then, off to the races goes my mind and I am freaking out, wondering where is my life jacket.

As Peter learned He is right there ready to lift us out of the water when we cry out to Him. Jesus' question to Peter in verse 31 is almost the same question I asked myself when I felt my life jacket 6 feet down in the lake. Why did you doubt?

Students need you, parents look to you, your family needs you, our world needs you, Jesus wants you. We are going to sink every time if we are not crying out to the Lord for his help. Student ministry is always busy, and when it isn't it is about to be. As leaders of students we are often going to find ourselves buffeted by the wind and waves and needing to walk on the water because we asked Jesus if we could. We must always remember that we need to continually cry out to the Lord, because as you know or will soon find out we can't do it without Him.

We are called to be leaders who know the Lord. We need to make sure we are budgeting time with Him. We need to make sure we are leading students to a place that we have been before and are currently. That place is in relationship. That means we aren't leading kids to have time in the Word or in prayer, when we aren't making time to do those things ourselves. Since we want to be in the kind of relationship with kids that disciples and challenges them, we need to be sure that we are in a relationship like that too.

Be encouraged, you are not alone, you are important, your life jacket, our Lord Jesus, is right there ready to lift you out of those difficult times.