SAT Reflections

I just returned from a 5 day trip to Virginia Beach to work with a group of fantastic people on a Student Action Team.  For those of you who don't know, a Student Action Team (SAT) is where we pull in teenagers from all over the United States to campaign  in political races on behalf of conservative, pro-life, pro-family candidates. They are one of my favorite things to do.  Not so much because I like the campaigning but because of the people.  I loved the students and parents we had on our team this year, but today I want to focus on the group of people who led the team that I was on!  Each of them was an incredible blessing to work with and as usually happens when an SAT is over I feel sad that it's over so soon. I love it when God puts you in a place where you can learn from serving with others.  Student Action Teams are one of these places.  They are an incredibly high pressure situation. The average leader probably gets 5 hours of sleep each night and even less the last night of the trip.  There is  little time to be by yourself (for those introverts that thrive on that time) and recharge. You don't get the healthiest food (campaign food typically involves a lot of pizza and soda), you see people and interact with them from the time you get up until the time you go to sleep.  You have to become a navigator, driver, or both.  You have to keep your spirits up so that you can encourage the kids that what they are doing is making a difference.  You become the biggest cheerleader of the kids that you are in charge of.  In such a situation it would be so easy to start snapping at the other leaders and the kids that you're leading.  However, that didn't happen.  Each leader displayed an amazing amount of maturity and wisdom.  They were servant leaders who led by example when they felt like collapsing from exhaustion.  A theme that kind of became our default this week was "Hold Fast" so we decided to remind ourselves by using sharpies on our hands.  At the end of the day we didn't win every election that we needed to.  But in the bigger picture I felt like we did Hold Fast. We came through having built relationships that have God as the foundation. Relationships like that are the best!

Sharpie artwork to keep us going. I may or may not have been a little obsessive about this.

The fact that 11 people under the age of 25 were able to keep a team of 80 people fed, transported and alive wasn't due to any super power or skills.  God was the enabler of all the good that happened this week.  What happened brings 1 Timothy 4:12 alive: "Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity." Those of us who lead are young, very young.  We as leaders have very little life experience, but God can still use us to accomplish many things!  A very exciting thought. Thank you to each of you who let us be your leader and a part of your life for 5 short days!

Our group minus one on the last day.