Starting Youth Ministry

I took this photo after getting fingerprinted.

I had this fun blog post planned for this weekend in which I was going to let everyone in on a little secret that's been months in the making: I'm getting involved in youth ministry. I had it all planned: a new blog post yesterday detailing how my first meeting with the kids went and more details on what I was going to do. However, because the mechanic still refuses to answer his phone or even call me back when he says he will, I missed what should've been my first official meeting with the kids.

Yes, the mechanic still has my car. Yes, I was originally supposed to get it on the 24th of December... then the 2nd of January... then the 11th of January... then the 18th of January... then January 23rd... then the 28th of January. Yes, it's now the 1st of February and I am still car-less. Note to self: do NOT return to this mechanic ever again. He comes up with many excuses as to why my car is not ready on time and I call him (an average of 5 times per day) he fails to answer or texts me that he'll call me back later but never does. Sigh. Offering it up... offering it up...

Anyway, I'm really excited about working in youth ministry. It's something I've felt called to do for a long time now and not even warnings about how my idealism might get shocked when I see the behind the scenes stuff deterred me. My former SD set the wheels in motion late last summer but, due to everything that happened, I couldn't get started until last month.

Last week I went to get fingerprinted at a local parish as is customary for anyone working or volunteering with youth in the Los Angeles Archdiocese. I'm also already scheduled to attend a meeting/session for the VIRTUS program later this month. Gotta keep the kids safe! Basically, I'm getting all my stuff together now so that I can get the ball rolling before I return to school.

I'm not sure how I'm going to balance school with this but if there's one thing I've learned while spending less time online it's been that I have a lot of free time. Well, I have a lot of free time right now. I spend my day reading when I'm not cleaning, washing, or cooking. I've already read 15 out of the planned 24 books on my yearly Goodreads challenge. It takes me an average of 2 days to finish a book; less if I have absolutely nothing to do that day. Even if I wasn't reading for fun, it's been clear that I have a lot of free time once I cut back on social media. I could actually stay on track with my weekly assignments for school now that I've been learning how to better manage my time.

At least, that's what I keep hoping; that I'm finally kicking my social media addiction to the curve (little by little) and that I will have more free time to be able to balance school, household work (I clean, wash, cook, balance checkbook, etc), and youth ministry. I'm starting slow. First I got a schedule down for keeping the house running. Now I'm adding youth ministry to the mix. In April I'll be adding school. I also have a big writing project coming up but that will thankfully hold on the spring. Slow and steady wins the race... which has not always been my motto because I have a tendency to want to do everything at once... and fast.

Sadly, this blog post is just a boring intro into what I hope to officially do next Sunday. I'm still really excited about working with the teenagers (who occasionally think I'm one of them, apparently, lol) but I'm a little bummed that my first day meeting the kids was postponed due to lack of transportation. :( No, I didn't even make it to Mass because it was pouring rain and the cold, windy weather (with how fragile my health has been in previous months) wouldn't have been a great idea for walking or even taking the bus and then walking from the bus stop to our parish. No, we don't know anyone who lives around here who would've taken us either. We don't even know who to ask to help us on a grocery run. Yeah, sad panda all around.

If any of you work or have worked in youth ministry, do you have any advice for me? Any stories, good or bad? I want to go into this as prepared as possible. ;)

Anyway, that's it for now. I'm going to keep calling the mechanic until the dude picks up... though the last call he switched me off to voicemail right away. Sigh. I want to go to Mass tomorrow for the feast of Candlemas so you can bet I'm going to keep bugging the guy until I get to talk to him.

I hope y'all had a great weekend and have a wonderful week. :D

As always, thanks for reading and God bless! :D