Youth Boating Trip Recap

by Melissa Weinisch, RSF Youth Minister

Since January, we’ve been sharing a lot about the Youth Ministry in our church. Perhaps you’ve heard us share about luaus, donut fundraisers, and most recently, house boating. Or you’ve seen our youth on stage doing Call to Worship or greeting at the Opera House on Easter. And hopefully, you’ve seen their faces over on the right side of the Everett auditorium, where they sit every Sunday morning.

Through it all, our main message has been: “Church, these youth are part of us — pray for them, get to know them, partner with them as active participants in God’s renewal here in San Francisco!” And church, you have responded above and beyond; thank you!

About a month ago, our Youth Ministry held a fundraiser to send the students house boating, which is as amazing as it sounds. And, you helped us raise more than $3000! Which, by the way, is more than we ended up needing for the trip. So you have already invested in the future of our Youth Ministry! We are beyond grateful.

Our youth and youth leaders got back from the house boating trip about three weeks ago. Our three hopes for this trip were:

  1. That God would draw us to Himself in a big way. For those of you who have had a Christian camp experience, you know that it can truly be a sacred space. We get away from our day-to-day lives and immerse ourselves in the beauty of creation and God’s people. And God has a funny way of doing big things in those precious moments. 
  2. That in addition to drawing us closer to Himself, God would draw us closer together as a community. 
  3. Of course… to have fun!

I specifically want to share about a two-hour experience we had on top of the houseboat on our last morning together.  All 12 of us (youth and youth leaders) sat in a circle and went around, one person at a time, praying for each other. For two hours floating through the middle of Lake Oroville, every single one of our students listened for God’s voice, shared words of life, truth, images, and shared prayers. God truly brought us closer to each other by bringing us closer to Himself. Had we only had those two hours, it would have been worth the trip. It was beautiful.

Did I mention our other hope to have fun? We had the privilege of floating on a giant cactus, donut, double-wide floating day-bed, and a fire-breathing dragon named Onion. We also had a two-day-long water gun war with 36 mini water guns, and our boat had a slide!

Church, thank you again for your prayers and financial support of RSF Youth. Please continue to stick with us. Continue to get to know our youth, continue to pray for our youth, and continue to respond to need and vision for what God is doing in these amazing young people.

And, if you’re the type of person who is reading this and your heart is exploding because this kind of Kingdom work is what wakes you up in the morning, I would love to talk with you about what it looks like to serve in Youth Ministry at Reality. You can email me at melissa@realitysf.com.

Sincerely,

Melissa Weinisch
RSF Youth Minister