21 Years Later
by Dennis Jaeger
Twenty-one years ago, I served my first full summer as Impact’s High School Minister. Our big project that summer was building the gazebo that, to this day, still stands in the yard of our teen house. With funding provided by who now has become a good friend, myself and a bunch of high schoolers who had never swung a hammer before spent 2-3 days a week planning, measuring, sawing, and hammering boards into a structure that, we hoped and prayed would provide respite for many in the years to come. The life-lessons we all learned were uncountable, and it remains one of my favorite projects during my tenure at Impact.
We wrote out numerous prayers for all those who would relax on the benches inside that gazebo and nailed them to the floor joists. I never imagined it would still be standing today. Those papers have long since disintegrated. It needs a little TLC. Some boards are a little rotted and loose. But it has stood firm through three hurricanes and thousands of people who have rested under its eaves.
This summer, I had the privilege of teaching a fifth-grade reading class. We had a blast and, much to Lluvia’s dismay, I rarely followed the curriculum (which is incredible and easy-to-follow). One day, we took a field trip to the gazebo to begin our class with a story-telling game. As we were sitting, I remembered back to the summer we built the seats we had just plopped down on.
I told the children about how we’d built it, mentioned that Geremy Varner, our middle school minister, had helped build it with me when he was in high school. And then I was able to look them all in the eyes and tell them that twenty-one years ago I had the honor of praying for them, long before they were born, because I, and so many others, had prayed for the people who would sit on those benches. Instantly, their faces changed. They realized the profoundness of that moment, and my relationship with them was instantly different. What a blessing to minister in the same place for so many years. What a blessing to pray for others. What a blessing to be prayed for. What a blessing to see God working in the lives of such wonderful children. And what a blessing for moments like these
