God has afforded me the incredible opportunity to work with amazing people and incredible students. I’ve laughed with students and celebrated with them on the mountain top experiences, and I’ve cried with families and students in the depths of darkness and despair.  I have gone from admiring the student who was confidently aware of God’s plan for their life and well on their way to fleshing out that plan in the strength of Christ, to seeing confused, often dazed glances of students who asked “why” during life’s tragedies and wondered whether the next minute of life would bring heartache or doubt.

In all these times, God’s sovereign hand has been at work. His guiding hand, his greatness, his providential expanse of working out that which He has set out to accomplish. We have been able to share in such a journey. As the people who love God, we have, by the mercy and grace of God, been able to experience the awe and wonder of God in life’s joys and pains.

It’d be great if every youth ministry story had a happy ending; a crescendo to well laid out plans and prayed over experiences. Most stories that are shared in youth ministry circles do have such endings. But how many times do you hear of a story in which the goal wasn’t achieved? I’ve got one for you, and it’s taken awhile to sort through. Being in youth ministry awhile, a sort of familiarity sets in to otherwise new experiences for those who’ve never been. The calendaring, communicating of times, dates, costs, transportation, food, speakers, devotions, schedules, leaders,  –what’s needed for a youth event to become more than just a trip, but an experience for a teen to encounter Christ in a new and fresh way. Disclaimer: trips aren’t youth ministry, and youth ministry isn’t just trips, but you’ll find the two working in tandem quite often.

Plans were made for a staple event in student ministry – the Christian Music Concert. There are lots of options out there. The goals? To expose students to the positive message and example of Christian artists as an alternative to today’s cultural offerings in music, to expose students to moments of worship, to encourage the spiritual formation of student-mentor relationships with leaders ready to engage and love on students, and to have fun while doing it!

In short, our bus broke down. Bus break-downs just happen. Tires blow, engines over heat, a myriad of things can happen. In our case, a serpentine belt snapped. That’s simply the backdrop of a greater story.  A group of students and adults excited and ready to rock out for Jesus and set under some great teaching—suddenly plans were put on hold. No Plan B.  Calls were made to people who could help, but challenges arise quickly when you’re far away from home. It wasn’t anybody’s fault. The bus simply broke down. We moved everyone away from the highway, and then minutes later, a van just pulled over and offered to help us.

It was exactly what we needed. We climbed in the van, so thankful to God for these kind people, and drove to a pretty cool tourist spot along I-95, and regrouped our plans. Our bus driver stayed behind to attempt to make repairs, and as time went on, it was becoming more apparent that we might not make the concert. Social media confirmed our fears when a sellout crowd packed the arena we were headed to. So we became tourists. We hung out in the burger joint, played cards and waited. As the minutes turned into hours, we soon discovered the kindness of a patrol officer helping our driver get parts. Three trips to an auto parts store, and our bus was working again! Thanks to some mechanical prowess by our driver, we were able to go back home in about two hours after the breakdown.  In fifteen years of ministry, I had never cancelled an event due to a break down–maybe on the journey back home or even to a destination, but never before a destination. There were hopes of salvaging the last hour of the concert if the bus had been fixed at a certain time. But that didn’t happen.

The kindness of two men and a van at just the right time, the patience of some great adult leaders, the mechanical skill of our driver, the generosity of a patrol officer, and some wonderful time for bonding experiences playing cards and eating tacos and spicy ginger ale proved to be a movement of God’s grace upon a youth group wanting to go to a concert. And even the drummer from the Newsboys liked our photo of us hangin out in the burger joint on Instagram before they went on to play! The mood was happy on the way back home. We had missed a concert, but we had seen a greater concert put on by a God who cares about his creation deeply.