Page 5 - CBFK SUMMER Newsletter 2020

by Sharon Felton, Minister to Students, Faith Baptist Church, Georgetown
I miss our students and their families. I genuinely do like our students! They are funny, smart, and unique young people.
Glitching, or internet lag is bad.
Not everyone has the same internet ca- pacity or access to technology, which is one more area that magnifies the eco- nomic disparity
in our country.
Zoom is your friend and a nec- essary annoyance which also high- lights the goofi- ness and insecu- rities of all of us!
Nothing com-
pares to in person
community. Tech-
nology is so help-
ful during this
time but it is also
no substitute for
in person com-
munity. I love it and am annoyed by it.
I genuinely am excited to see people’s faces and hear their voices but it also leaves me feeling empty and distant. And while Facetime, Zoom and Skype are “face to face”, it’s challenging to read emotions and body language through a screen and know how to respond.
We absolutely need to be able to devel- op relationships in person. It is the best way to learn how to relate to one anoth- er, especially for teenagers.
Teenagers are at a critical point in their development where they are learning how to interact with each other and who they are in relationship to others.
Middle school is when teenagers’ self-confidence is tested. They become keenly aware of how others perceive them and they are very conscious of experiencing life in their own skin.You can actually watch middle schoolers be- gin to be aware of how others view them and how they view themselves and they are working so hard to “be cool.” It’s crazy, but we’ve all been there and it is magnified when it’s on screen, right in front of everyone’s face!
necting their video or by putting a funny picture up instead.
People, teenagers especially, need to in- teract with one another, person to per- son to learn how to read each other, to begin to understand non-verbal cues, and to learn that we are all real humans, experiencing many of the same things, to know that we are not alone. It’s hard to express real emotions through emojis.
We can display our tech savvy and make it look like we are in outer space or on the beach! It’s all so very artificial.We need gen- uine community and God knew that be- fore the world began! Yes, right now, in the middle of a pandemic, it is better than noth- ing. However much I appreciate the virtual world we are living in, I so miss connecting with people in person!
When we are able to safely be together, the most important aspect
will be to sit with each other. Experienc- ing each other’s presence, listening to each other, laughing and crying about what we have all been experiencing, to- gether.
What I’m Learning About
Youth Ministry
During Our Pandemic
Finding your identity and having to go through social and emotional develop- ment in video chat is challenging and at times painful. Many students literally make themselves invisible by not con-