MESSAGE FROM PETE
September 2007

FROM THE METROPOLIS YOUTH & FAMILY MINISTRIES OFFICE

Escape the iLAND

By Pete Sotiras, Director

Even though I’ve been out of high school now for ten years, I still remember the excitement and anxiety that I had every time a new year rolled around.  All kinds of questions swirled in my head—what kind of teachers would I get?  Would they be fair or mean?  What kind of new people would I meet?  Would I make new friends?  Should I play a sport?  Would I be accepted on the team?  What clothes should I get?  The questions and concerns were endless.  Thankfully, I survived the experience, and joked with friends at the reunion about it, but at the time, it wasn’t so care free--at least for me.

Everyone has their own unique experience during their high school years but I’m sure everyone is concerned about something.  Each one of us wants to be accepted and to succeed in every area of high school life—friends, school, extracurricular activities, etc.  In order to for these things to happen, many times, we look to ourselves for solutions.  When we look to ourselves, essentially we’re thinking like this: I decide what kind of people I want as friends or I will figure out how much time to devote to school or for extracurricular activities.  I will figure out how to get out of this mess or I will figure out a way to make it through another day of school because everyone mistreats me.  I decide what will help me succeed and be accepted.  What we need to realize though is that none of us is meant to embark on any journey alone, especially the journey through high school.  There are a lot of decisions and challenges that you’ll face, as you begin your new year, so much so that you may feel like you’re on an island with no help.  Well, there is a way off the iLAND.

During this upcoming year, the Metropolis Office of Youth Ministry will focus on ways we can be rescued from the iLAND that we are stranded on to the ship of the Church.  The iLAND represents doing things our own way without seeing if that matches up with God’s way.  We are stranded on the iLAND when we care about ourselves and not about others, when we are self-centered and look only to ourselves for decisions in our life.  Our goal, as we will talk about throughout the upcoming year, is to escape from this iLAND by jumping aboard the ship of the Church, which rescues us and moves us full steam ahead in the right direction.  We get off the iLAND by turning to Jesus Christ to help us in our decisions.  When we’re on the iLAND we experience loneliness, anxiousness and unhappiness.  When we’re rescued by the ship of the Church, we are taken care of—we are replenished; we are given hope and we join the crew in order to help others who are also stranded on iLANDS.  As you begin another school year, please remember that you have the support and love from your Church awaiting you if you wish to go to her for wisdom and guidance, for acceptance, help and success.  

[Youth and their families can contact Pete at: sfyouth@sanfran.goarch.org.  You can also view and download this article from the Metropolis Youth webpage at: http://www.youth.sanfran.goarch.org/]