Between Two Notes
In 2001, I joined the staff of Southwood and was privileged to join a church zealous to reach our covenant kids and their friends with the love of Jesus Christ. That first summer a young graduating senior named Chad Townsley sent me a note of encouragement: “Dear Ken, I am so incredibly excited that you are here. God’s goodness through you and Jeanette is already so present and I can’t wait to see what is in store for the future! —Chad”
Working in student ministry, I’ve watched God’s faithfulness as He worked in the lives and hearts of our students, their families and friends. More recently I was privileged to see God’s hand in the larger body of Southwood by serving as the interim pastor and then on the executive team with Jean Larroux and Bob Bradshaw as our new pastor made his transition to Southwood. It was my job to help philosophically align Southwood’s Student Ministries from the crib to college with the broader body of Southwood. My first love has always been student ministry and at this time we are abandoning our search for a “new” Senior High Director and I am headed back to full-time ministry as the Director of High-Life! I couldn’t be more excited!
Last month I received another note of encouragement from Chad Townsley, formerly a graduating senior, now an ordained minister on our staff: “Ken, ten years after writing a note to you about how excited I was to see what good and beautiful things God does in your ministry, here we are ministering in ordained ministry together. —Chad”
Who would have imagined that ten years later, the same student who was graduating from High-Life would be back equipping the next generation of Saints zealous for the Kingdom? I can’t wait to see who Chad and I both will get notes from this year! Our prayer is that God might, over the next ten years, do incredibly more than we could ever ask or imagine through High-Life Ministry & Southwood.