You and I are serving small churches. Ups, downs – it has it challenges and definite blessings. We know we love it or we wouldn’t continue doing this thing called small church youth ministry.

What you may not know is someone who has been one of your biggest advocates, my friend, Kami Gilmour.

Kami is normally a woman I’d be intimidated by. I mean, she’s drop-dead beautiful. When God was handing out beauty and handsomeness, the angels passed her and her husband, Tim, through the line like three times. Kami reminds me of all the girls in high school I wished I could be.

But God didn’t let  my insecurities stop me from being blessed by this whirlwind woman.  She’s like a tornado when she wants something done. She accomplishes more in two hours than anyone I know. So long story short: Kami became the Simply Youth Ministry Conference Coordinator, asked me out of the blue about 5 years ago to take on a piece of leadership and that’s when I became one of her loyal subjects.

Kami is a big piece of supporting all things Small Church Youth Ministry at Group. She’s the one who gave the green light to the 8 hour deeper learning track that has become part of the conference when NOBODY else was doing ita. Kami has been a champion of our little corner of the world.

Kami gets me; I think I get her. I feel safe with her and she’d the first call I’d make if I was in real trouble.  You know: not just the type of friend that will help you move, but the closest of friend that will help you move the body.

Kami’s leaving her role with the Simply Conference as of today. Will the conference fall apart? Nope. That’s because of Kami. She was smart enough to make sure this conference billed as “By Youth Workers for Youth Workers” became exactly that. She took a scraggly bunch of youth peeps around the country, gave them REAL leadership, and the conference has become one like no other. This last March’s conference received a 96+% approval rating – unheard of in workshop/conference world.

She’s not moving from the Fort. Collins/Loveland area. Her husband, Tim, will still be a captain at the helm of Group. She’ll still remain a part of a dynamo team known as IT3.

But things will be different. I don’t know how. What I do know is that we serve a God who surprises us repeatedly by pulling a spiritual “rabbit out of the hat” time after time.

Thank you, Kami. Thank you for…ah crap, now I’m crying on the airplane. My seat mate is looking at me funny. Kami, you just have to know my heart. When thinking of you, its very full.

Stephanie