meet jessy

jessy is one of my girls from yet another youth group. it's rather funny: she shouldn't have been one of my girls at all, but she is.

lise and i were a year away from moving back to ohio from baltimore/D.C. and had left a church to start a new inner-city church in downtown baltimore. that church quickly fizzled and we were hurting. we decided we wouldn't get involved in the youth ministry of the next church we joined. we needed a break.

after several months of being at north arundel church somehow word got out that i was a youth pastor. the youth pastor at the church was burnt out and crispy and the group was rather listless. i was asked help out in the group and i decided i'd do it, warning them that we were moving in the summer of '01 to cincinnati - little did i know that it would turn into a 9 month stint that saw me basically replace the YP and receive an offer to become the YP permanently for that church.

jessy was 16 at that time. maybe she was 15. however old she was, she was very different from most of the other teens i had worked with in years past. she was mature. she was confident of herself. she was tall - OMG was she TALL (i still call her Amazon Woman and she doesn't beat me up)! she was open and honest. she was lead singer in a band with three crazy boys and we all knew who the boss was. dudes, she had pipes that could out do singers who had been singing for years. she had the kind of magnetic personality that just made you want to get to know her and be around her to see what would happen.

she was (and is) beautiful. she loved (and still does love) God. her family kicked (and still kicks) butt.

she, lise and i quickly struck up a relationship that endures today. with previous groups we had years to develop relationships. with jessy's group we had 9 months. we packed a lot of conversations, a lot of band practices, a lot of lunches at the Eastern Buffet in Laurel, Md, a lot of discipling and talking about our lives in light of God's Kingdom in those 9 months. it was a whirlwind.

and then we moved. and it hurt.

but we still talked online several times a week. and when we would go back for visits to maryland, we hooked up and ate chinese food. and we even got to spend five days with her the next summer at the Creation Festival (the picture above was taken there). she started at mcdaniel college that fall and we continued to talk and it blew my mind listening to her speak her heart about ministering to other students at the college. she continued to blossom and grow and amaze me with her compassion and love for others.

and at one point i almost got to make good on my threat to jackass boyfriends. she hooked up with some dude that i call "hoor-geh" (don't ask) and i was suspicious from early on. the more she told me, the more i thought i ought to pack my bags and head to westminster, md to administer a beating. i even devised a quick solution to make him repent his ways (don't ask). but luckily, jessy dispatched him. but she hurt. bad. i still contemplate my final solution for him and wonder what i would do if i met him in a dark alley...

jessy graduates from mcdaniel in may. she is an awesome woman. lise and i miss her terribly. but i know without a doubt that whatever she does, wherever she goes, she will make her way with the help of God. she makes me very proud - we're lucky to have her as a friend.

and hoor-geh - if you're reading this.... beware of dark alleys...