Dear Key Club,

I trust you had a nice Thanksgiving! Hope it was fun to connect with family and friends over good food! For the first time in 6 years, my dad, mom, brother and I were all together on Thanksgiving! Rich (my brother), is currently stationed at Ellsworth AFB near Rapid City, SD and was able to take 2 weeks of leave. Rich enlisted in the Air Force just 6 months after his high school graduation. My folks and I were kind of surprised when he told us he’d begun talking with a recruiter. Growing up, Rich and I weren’t always “enthused” about military life...

Think of the military. What comes to mind? Order, discipline, and conformity are often in the forefront.

Now, think of teenagers. What comes to mind? Organization is a work-in-progress, spontaneity, and finding one’s own style are somethings that people think of.

What happens when these two worlds collide? Well, let’s just say it can be interesting and varies from family to family. But at one time or another, most military teens find the “military-ness” of military life challenging.

Life on a base revolves around the mission. Training exercises that simulate real world scenarios can interrupt daily life, as can real life current events. To enter the commissary (grocery store) or base exchange (mini department store) you must show your military ID card, no exceptions or excuses for forgetting the card. :)

Military leadership is sometimes involved in family life as well. Service members are responsible for the actions of their kids. If a teen gets into serious trouble (like shoplifting, vandalism, underage drinking, etc.) a service member’s commander is notified. Depending on the severity or number of infractions, and an active duty parent’s career may be impacted and a dependent may be kicked off base - putting families in difficult situations when it comes to living arrangements.

When living abroad, dependents are often reminded that they are representing America to their host country. How they behave impacts how others (Germans, Japanese, etc.) view the United States. Severe misbehavior can even result in being forced to leave the county!

So what’s a youth worker to do? One thing Malachi seeks to do is provide a safe place for students to come and just be them! It’s my desire that youth group be an oasis, where students can come, build community and find rest in Jesus.

Would you join me this week in praying for...

Students - please pray that they would come to understand that God’s love for them doesn’t depend on their performance for Him; pray they would embrace His unconditional love.

Families - please pray as military life can bring pressures for the family; pray that they would learn to balance military life (work) with family life - this can be hard as often they are so intertwined.

Me - please continue to pray for me as I seek out opportunities to share my passion about military teen ministry with others. I’ve been encouraged recently by some potential sharing opportunities in the new year (can you believe 2010 is almost here!?).