There’s been a lot of great stuff happening in youth ministry over the past few weeks. It’s hard to explain how much preparation went into all these events, how much joy I find in them, and in each of the students who were part of them.
Spring is more than new life – it is hope. Knowing that new life waits under bare surfaces is the hope that sustains through Winter. Life is the same. The knowledge that things will not always be this way keeps us going through hard times.
The last two weekends were my last Fall Youth Camps in Beijing. Youth camps are a LOT of work but worth it. The shared experience of camp helps lasting friendships develop. It’s also a chance to get away from “real life” and have space to think.
A fun thing about my trips to Cambodia is relationships with the TCKs there. A highlight of the trip was when two students made comments about “saying goodbye to Tanya is easy – I know she’ll be back”. In TCK world, that’s a big deal.
EPIC was a 2.5 day conference – that’s 50 hours to cram in 5 worship sessions, 3 talks and a LOT of activities. There were 100 participants. I led a worship band of boys – they live in four cities, and come from the US, UK, New Zealand, and Korea.
It is definitely winter in Beijing now. As I walked home just now it was was -9 (16 F). The forecast MAXIMUM tomorrow is -2 (29 F). While I may call one of Australia’s coldest cities home, it is still Australia, and nothing like the cold of Beijing.
Two years ago I wrote a bible study on 6 of the 12 minor prophets. It was something I really enjoyed doing and going through it with the high school group at BICF over the summer that year was really fun. This summer the study will be appearing in installments on the Youth in Asia…
For the past 4or 5 years I’ve received invitations to attend a sunrise service on Easter morning – held on the Great Wall. This year, for the first time, I actually went. We took a group of 50 people (teens and youth leaders, and a few others) to the Great Wall at Huang Hua Cheng.…
Stories From Tanya 