the    sides

This man was responsible for giving me my first full-time youth pastor job. So it’s all his fault!

That would be Dick and Joanne Gimple. Dick first met me Super Bowl Weekend 1997. (The year before the Broncos won their first Super Bowl.) He got to watch me grow up and even entrusted one of his daughters into my care.

In fact, the whole family was in town on their way to vacate in the Rocky Mountains. This is Carrie and Drew. I never had Carrie in my youth group - she had already graduated. She was however part of one of the greatest pranks I’ve ever had done to me. She snuck in my office and changed all the book covers. Not SOME. Not MANY. But every one. It took me months to straighten it out. Now she’s a Vice-Principal, I only hope her students have the opportunity to show her the same kind of love.

This is the “other” daughter Kim and her husband Greg. Kim was in the youth group. In fact, we’ve known her since her sophomore year in high school. Greg’s a seminary student and both spent two years as missionaries in a closed country. That’s how they met.

Great night of memories, laughter, and community. For me it was bitter-sweet. We only had one night with them and I’m thankful for that…but I wanted more.

It’s an interesting benefit of student ministry…years later you get to see and reap the investment. And it’s worth it. They are no longer students but friends, co-workers in the Kingdom, family. That’s the sweet part of it. The bitter part - not enough time to reconnect.