I said I would never use anything I learned in college. I take it back, I was wrong. When I graduated high school, I had no idea what I was going to do for a career. So I at some point I had the following majors: general business, computer science, english, journalism, broadcast journalism, before eventually "settling" on Exercise and Sports Science. Exercise and Sports Science is a fancy way of saying teaching and coaching.
I was asked by Boyd Goodloe just before the summer of 2000 if I would like to spend the summer in Houston and be a youth intern. I thought sure, I'd rather hang out in Houston and work at a church than work at a pizza restaurant for the summer. I owe Boyd so much and could never thank him enough. If he had not asked me to be a youth intern in the summer of 2000 I might not have become a youth director at all. If he had not asked me to work for JUMMP in 2005, I would have not met my wife. So, thanks dude. Back to summer of 2000. I realized after about a week of interning that I wanted to work with youth and work in the church. I had been pretty good about attending youth group growing up and going to church on a regular basis, but working in a church never seemed like a natural fit until that summer. The realization came while having a serious, or maybe it wasn't, conversation with some senior high at a McDonalds about how Jesus could relate to superheroes. (It's a long story so I won't share it today) I decided at that point that I wanted to work with youth. I had the most credit hours towards a degree in ESS with a minor in English so that's what I decided to major in so I could finish. I did not figure I would use anything that I was learning in that field after graduation and for a while I really didn't. Well turns out that now I am.
For the last few weeks I have been able to go to the Rancho Brazos community center twice a week and play baseball with the kids and youth there. I have found myself teaching the kids some of the skills I learned in little league and using some of those teaching techniques that I learned while helping teach elementary P.E. for that one semester as part of my practicum in college.
I love being able to coach and relate to the kids there at Rancho Brazos. They are much quicker learners that I was at their age. I hope they are getting a lot out of it. I know that I am. We get what we put in, so it is great to see all these volunteers at the community center putting in the time and the work to help these kids, and I know that I am just a small part of that and am so grateful for the opportunity to serve with them and help the kids learn. And getting to be outside and play baseball at the same time, well that's pretty cool too.
So maybe there is a reason after all that I took some classes in P.E. and coaching. I haven't used a lot of stuff from the book but I have used some practical knowledge I learned while working in the field, or the gym, as it was.
As Jeremiah 29:11 says: "I know the plans I have for you." I guess God really did have a plan for my indecisiveness in picking a major. He saw it way back when I was struggling in college, I am just now seeing it fully.
Here's hoping anyone who reads this follows God's plan for you.
grace&peace
kevin
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