“We traveled to Green Bay, Wisconsin for a youth event for about fifty kids. It was great! Most of the kids were from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, so some of the kids that we had seen at our programs back in October were at this event also! What a blessing to see familiar faces and be able to hang out with them again. We had fun going to workshops, leading Worship, doing a couple of programs, and simply being in a hotel with fifty kids! I think my favorite part, though, was being adopted by the youth from Wakefield, Michigan. You see, we asked the youth at the event to adopt us for lunch and free time on Monday, so that we could spend more time with the kids. So, my “family” went to the mall that day and hung out. What a great bunch of girls! We just walked around, talked, got coffee, and were silly. It was so much fun to be with them—they really brightened my day.
 
These girls reminded me of why I love team and why God needs me here. They were excited to talk with me, and they asked me questions about faith, life, and team. Then later, they bought me a gift from the mall to help me to never forget them. The funny thing is that I didn’t need the necklace at all to remember them—all I need is the memory of the time they spent with me. That was more precious to me than any material thing ever could be.”
 
                                                Annie Shoen
 
 
“Sunday was a bit of fun. We lead two worship services, opened up for Sunday School and even had time to go back to our host homes to hang out for a while before we had to leave for the next town! Sunday night, however, was a different story…We were supposed to play a forty-five minute program at a nursing home. However, after finally finding the right building, we learned that the employees there had no idea who or what we were!  So after a few bewildering moments of trying to figure out what went wrong and what we were going to do, we finally asked if we could just walk around the halls to the different rooms and go caroling. They agreed, and that’s exactly what we did. Most of the residents had gone to bed, but we sang for those who were up and about. Even though it was only about seven or eight people, it filled our hearts with joy as we watched their eyes light up. Some of them even followed us out of their rooms to hear more. It was again another unexpected blessing. It’s nights like these that help me remember what an important and wonderful thing this ministry is.”
                               
                                                Adam Slagsvol
 
Check out www.youthencounter.org/teams/ for updated journal entries and stories from the road from each of our thirteen ministry teams!