On Day 5, I bring to you someone who actually helped changed the trajectory of my life.  Nugget Skates, a former youth minister no less at Arlington Church of Christ in Riverside California.

I met her on a whim in the midst of a chaotic and dark time.  My grandfather had just died, perhaps a week before and it was my grandmother who invited me out to morun with her- at the time I was worshipping as a Mormon.  I arrived to worship and mourn with my grandmother, and I was introduced to the five boy youth group, Cyndi Pardee (mentioned in blog #1), and Nugget Skates.  At the time, my life was fairly simple: I was thinking about finishing my high school career (I was 15), thinking about a career as an architecture major and architect, going to school at USC, going on a mission trip as a Mormon and having some number of kids with a beautiful Mormon girl (some things are just dreams right!).  But when I showed up to church that day, I was invited out to all sorts of activities at that church, and I found a home to be a kid and teen again, truly welcomed.  And this lady seemed to be at the head of it all.  She was a fairly extroverted yet older woman who loved kids, used words like “lovie”, was sweet as all get out, and was serious about faith.  I was invited to a devotional at her house, a place that soon became a safe place for me through the years, where she led the boys and I in a devotional with the lights dim and encouragements that “what was said here stays here.”  And those boys opened up, and she opened up, and even visitors opened up about their lives- the sinful, the dirty, the helpless, the dark places of our lives.  I was struck by the honesty, the genuineness of this lady whose heart and passion overflowed to these kids and truly developed life in these kids.

She led service events with the youth, led us into mission trips to Mexico to build houses, brought us closer to study in Bible Bowl with 2 Kings and Revelation, encouraged me to read Scripture with precision and passion at LTC, affirmed me as a child of God, and even led me and my dad on a study about Mormonism.  Yes, she thought Mormonism was very bad, even a cult, which I disagree with to this day.  Yet it was her love, her genuine character and passion for an honest faith, open to both doubt and confession and acknowledging of sin.  I learned there that I loved confession, that I loved a community that opened themselves to one another whether they knew each other for a week or 10 years.  That culture, that genuineness, began with her, and her own confession and acknowledgment of fault and failure.  It was her encouragement that led me to become a youth ministry intern one summer at the church under her, and I truly felt a call from her to work with youth.

At the end of my time there as a student in the youth group, I received powerful words during a graduation ceremony from her (and one of her speakers) that sealed my fate- words about my ability to glue to others and hold things together, words about my character of developing friendships, and words about my call to do great things for the Lord- all these words set my heart ablaze for ministry, and entering Pepperdine University.

She has been my mentor all this time.  She has been a light reminding me that I have been called for a great work.  Her presence was genuine, a presence that now reverberates in me as I walk into hospital rooms with strangers who need a genuine and honest presence.  Her presence reverberates in me because I am here because one day I met her, and she sparked the fire burning within me to be a helper, a healer, a presence, a caregiver and compassionate friend of youth.  How this person would be a female youth minister named Nugget in a church of christ I cannot say, but I cannot but say thank you Nugget, and that I owe you a great debt of love and gratitude.