Verna

This past weekend Chris and I went to Atlanta for the National Youth Worker's Convention. We spent some time in a really sweet hotel, got to hear some great worship bands (Shane and Shane was our favorite!) and received some awesome teaching .

The elevators always made me dizzy and made my ears pop.

We took sky bridges everywhere - from our hotel to the convention hotel, to the mall, etc. But that's not the point of this post. Probably the most amazing thing I saw the whole weekend was Verna. Verna is a youth worker who loves young adults with all of her heart, and is still attending conventions and spending time with young kids who love her. Verna is 81 years old, and has been doing youth ministry for 63 years. She houses troubled teens who need some looking after, bakes cookies for the rough-and-tough teens down the street who call her "Grandma", and truly has a heart for seeing young people come to know the love of Christ. She doesn't run a world-famous youth ministry, you wouldn't recognize the name of her church, and most people have never heard of her. Verna is my hero. I do not feel called to work with youth (something this conference even further confirmed), but I want to be just like Verna. I sat in the crowd of 4,000+ youth workers with tears in my eyes because of a woman I don't even know. I was in complete awe of her love and dedication, despite the lack of recognition or pay. And she sure as heck did not let any preconceived notions about "age" change her obedience to God's calling for her life. Verna is one amazing woman.