I got a voice mail that made my week. It was from one of the kids who grew up in my youth group and went through some tough times in High School trying to figure out what God had to do with her life. She's in college now working this summer at a Christian Camp.

Here was her voice mail.
I don't know if you remember this or not, but when I was in High School, I was asking you all these questions about God and really confused and upset that everyone seemed to be following the Christian Faith without knowing why or having answers to their questions. The whole time I was asking you questions, you were just sitting their smiling and I could not figure out why you were so happy. You couldn't answer any of my questions and I didn't understand why you were so happy. I totally had the experience and I wanted to thank you for being so patient with me. I don't know, it is cool . My campers always ask me these insane questions that I can never answer and it just makes me so happy and it's totally weird and I don't know why, but I thought of you and I wanted to thank you for being patient with me for the longest time.

This kinda stuff makes it all worth while. Junior High youth ministry is about long term investment. I remember these conversations really vividly and how excited I was that she was really making her faith her own by stretching it on her own. She got really mad during some of these talks, asking great questions that I'd asked myself.