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The greatest privilege of sharing at Easter Camp was the handful of stories people shared of how my testimony impacted them positively. One in particular has stuck with me. A youth pastor who knows me in the city found me on Sunday after I spoke and told me about one of her youth group girls who has a history of chronic back pain. With a bit of context, she also let me know this girl was ready to go home before my talk on Saturday because of the pain in her body, but her youth pastor convinced her to hear me. Afterwards, she shared with her leader how empowering it was to hear my story. I didn’t get a chance to meet her on camp, but I did pass along a copy of my book to her youth pastor.

Saturday morning I was hanging out at a youth event for intermediates put on across town. I arrived just before registration opened and saw a swamped coordinator at the check in desk. Not actually having youth I was responsible for, I asked how I could help and spent the next hour helping check in young people. As the line died down, another youth leader who was attending told me she was from the same church as that girl from Easter Camp. She let me know that the past few weeks have been so exciting to watch this young woman grow and find purpose and empowerment in her story.

That’s such a gift for me.

I don’t always get to know what happens after interactions with young people, but it’s actually really important to me to follow up where I can with the young people in my sphere of influence.

In the coming weeks, I’ll be in America and have the privilege of following up with a few of my former students who have kept in touch with me. I’ll also get to meet a whole new group of future TCKs as I lead an orientation program for them before their families are sent out by TeachBeyond.

This year has had so many beautiful opportunities that I’m grateful to say yes to, but I would love your prayers for my body to be able to keep up when I travel. It’s going to be a lot on me, and while it’s all good stuff I get to do and people I love I’m with, it’ll be physically demanding.