Learning the Real Issues

This past weekend I was at "Mid-Winter Advance," a Christian retreat that I took my youth group kids on. For 3 days I spent time watching, listening to, and interacting with teenagers 6th grade and up. (not all of them were Christians)

The weekends theme was "Calm the Storm." A "storm" was defined as something that comes into your life unexpectedly that you have to deal with. We talked about why we have storms in our lives, what purposes they serve, and how there is (emotional) peace within the storm because of God's presence. The weekend was led by a team of students from Lancaster Bible College. They mostly led the morning and evening services, leading the teens in worship songs, speaking to them about Biblical storms and storms that come in life in general, and they also also shared their own personal stories with the teens about things they struggled with in high school.

Because the team was so open about their lives not being perfect, the teens saw and felt that it was okay for them to also just be who they are.

They got to choose 2 seminars to go to out of 8 different topics, from learning a song in sign languge to talking about the real issues in life.

I sat in on 2 sessions of the only seminar that was being led "discussion style" about storms, where I listened to the teens talk about their famillies, peer pressure, drugs, sex and relationships (among other things).

They had almost 5 hours of free time in the afternoon, when they could play volleyball, basketball, swim, take a nap, or walk around the lake... They all made a lot of new friends. They talked about how easy it was to make friends at camp. That they could just walk up to anyone and start a conversation and they were accepted. In the real world, though, things don't work like that and pretty much all of them are afraid that they will never be accepted at school. They didn't want to leave this place where everyone is accepted to go back to their schools where most of them feel so alone.

On Saturday night there was what they call "family time" where each youth group gathers together and talks about what has happened so far in the weekend and to kind of check in with each other. My youth group was combined with another group that we're connected to, giving us leaders a total of 25 students. We asked them to share openly with each other, and the things that came out of their mouths were so raw and honest...I was kind of surprised because usually none of them listen to each other, but for some reason that night they did. As they shared their struggles, they got feedback from the others in the group who are going through the same thing. They all have a lot of similar issues, and none of them knew or realized it until that night.

There were 3 different boys who thought they were the only one in the group who was being forced to go to therapy in school for anger issues.

The popular boy and the "nerdy" girl were in the same boat, both having older siblings who are planning on leaving home shortly because they can't stand the tension and drama that occours within it's walls. Both were afraid to go home. Nearly half the group has serious family issues, most are dealing with absent parents or siblings running around making terrible choices.

Another thing that pretty much all of them said is that high school in general is a storm because of popularity issues and the other stuff I've already mentioned

In the end, they all saw that none of them are alone in how they feel and what they're dealing with. They all --from the popular jock to the band geek-- have common ground and can be friends despite their varying social statuses in school.

And I had an up-close and personal look into the lives of 25 teenagers...and I actually had a good time doing it.