one year anniversary

one year ago today i started work at youth specialties. i knew i was in the right place when i found my office decorated as the picture show - floor to ceiling covering in aluminum foil. i quickly dubbed it the foilarium and have collected the majority of the foil into a single, massive ball of foil that sits on a shelf here.

i'd had a long standing friendship / love affair with ys before coming to work here, and have some amazing relationships with ys employees past and present. a few stories that have shaped my perception of the kind of poeple that i've encountered at ys through the years:

- mike(y) atkinson being sure to invite me to a gospelcom web seminar when i was at reunion records and fighting through the skepticism of "this internet thing" and whether anyone would actually use it. mikey encouraged and educated me on many things, and also provided a framework for working through the square peg feeling of being in christian media but not fitting into the stereotypes that i was encountering.

- i recall calling marko very early one morning on a weekend trip with the ebpc youth group when will penner stuck with me a number of on-medication-but-not-taking-meds junior high students. i laid into marko asking him how he could possibly like working with middle schoolers and to call me as soon as he got this message for some ideas of how to not kill them. of course, he waiting until monday morning and asked me, "so, how was your weekend, sunshine?" with a grin so wide i could see it 2,000 miles away. i'm a high school guy, but marko has always modeled a consistent love for middle school kids, and i can't help but respect that.

- when squint entertainment was shuttered and our whole team got canned, mike yaconelli called me the day it happened asking if i was ok, if i needed work, if he could help in any way. i was floored. at his memorial service i must have run into half a dozen people with pretty much the same story.

- pretty much any time in the past year or so that i've reverted to junior high type behavior or language, michele asks me if i've been around or talked with ys publisher jay howver. i guess there's just something about jay that brings that out of me. in addition to the work relationship, jay (and marko) have been part of a group of guys that gets together annually to be present to each other in our lives, and that group has meant a tremendous amount to me.

- not long after i started last year we were at a july 4th party at tic's house (though he was on vacation and allowed michele, the kids and me to stay there during our time in exile). it was a fun and not very raucous time, but we watched fireworks on the hillside of tic's house and shared a few beers and cigars, along with some great conversations. several ys folks were there, including marko and his family, mindi godfrey, bethany marvin and beth slevcove along with her husband joe and their daughter. my in-laws were there as well and i remember my father-in-law expressing his appreciation for the welcome that he and my mother-in-law had received from the group. he said something to the effect of that if his generation in church life had been as welcoming he thinks people may have had a closer connection to faith and real life, and be less concerned with legalism.

so while ys goes through a period of re-formation and re-alignment, i'm still thankful for the chance to be a part of it. getting to work with and for youth workers who pour their lives into the lives of teenagers is an awesome opportunity and i'm convinced that it helps me stay young. well, that and the cool hat i wear to impress amy gilchrist here into thinking i'm young.