Man, it’s been awhile… I finished up the year at Walla Walla, and all in all, it was a pretty good year. Now I just have one more up there and then I’m off to Loma Linda–that is, if I get accepted…
This summer I worked up in Idaho as a colporteur leader for Idaho Youth Rush. Jeff Kimmel, the Literature Ministries director of the Idaho Conference, called me up and asked if I wanted to be one of three leaders in the summer program. I’ve done colporteuring before, but I had never had any training on leading. Most of the time you get hired as a leader only after going to SOULS West down in Arizona or after doing Big Books. I hadn’t done either of those, but I knew it would be good for me to stretch myself and that it would be good for my character. So I said yes.
I missed the first week of the program because of having to do finals that week. I joined up with the group of 13 students and met my fellow leaders for the first time. It was a good group, though being the person that I am, it took me awhile to connect with some of them.
Being a leader consists of several responsibilities. Since there was three of us, we got to rotate on some of the everyday things, like giving worships, song service, etc. But we had individual responsibilities as well. Mine was that I was in charge of the finances. I had three students as my scribes who would count all the money from the three different vans. I helped them figure out their mistakes and entered everything into the computer, made bank runs, and a bunch of other miscellaneous stuff. All these things happened in the morning. From about 1 to 9 p.m. we were out in the field. As a leader, I drove the van and had 4 to 5 students in there with me. I would drive them to territory, drop them off on different streets, work with them, deliver books to them, and move them to new streets. This sounds simple enough, but it’s harder than it sounds. I am extremely bad with maps, which is a curse for a colporteur leader. Fortunately, Jeff came out with me the first few days to train me some and help me get the hang of things. Still, I struggled with running territory for most of the summer…
Giving worships was another challenge for me. Before the summer, I had never given worships more than about 5 minutes long. For these ones, it was more like 20 to 30 minutes. I worried about it for the many weeks leading up to the summer, but God really pulled through for me. He helped me come up with topics and helped me flesh them out. The night before I was going to give a worship, I would call my dad and talk through the whole thing with him. Poor guy… But he was super helpful.
There were so many things about the summer that were challenging for me, but good at the same time. I guess that’s just how life is. There were so many times when I felt so underqualified to be doing what I was doing. I doubted myself constantly. I even gave a worship about that topic. I was preaching to myself mostly… Two things really stuck out that I learned this summer. The first was that I depend way to much on people. Instead of making decisions or thinking for myself, I rely on others to do it for me. I gotta do that for myself and rely way more on God. The second was that I need to take the words “I can’t” out of my vocabulary. That was a serious hindrance for me this summer, and ultimately will be later in life. I gave a worship on this subject too… 
Anyways, though this was a tough summer that stretched me to my limits and tried my patience to no end, I know it was what I needed. I still have a love for colporteuring, and I even got to canvass the last couple weeks since we were short students. loved it.
After we finished up the summer in Idaho, the other leaders and I drove all the way down to Clovis, CA for SOULS West graduation. Then the leaders from all the Magabooks programs went to Big Bear for our leadership retreat. It was super fun. We stayed at a 5-star resort–we relaxed, had meetings where we got to share the crazy experiences we all had, and had fun together. So refreshing…
Now that I’m back home, I’ve got about a month before I have to head back up to WWU. During that time, I need to apply for Loma Linda for next year for PT, finish my observation hours, and a bunch of other little things. I’ve gotta enjoy what little summer I have, cuz this’ll be the last one I have for a while…
