How can you beat the Summer School Blues?

Captain Diane Taylor encourages us to encourage young people as they return from summer school.

In the past couple of months hundreds of young people up and down the territory have attended summer schools, Territorial Music School, camps, holiday clubs, Together 2025 and many more activities. You might have been one of them. You might have been an adult on staff at these activities. The 20 September issue of this very magazine will be a memento of these summer schools, with reports about what happened.

I remember returning home from summer school more than a few years ago. The emotional and spiritual high. On cloud nine and ready to win the world for Jesus. Face aglow like Moses in Exodus 34:29 and 30, having just been in the presence of God. Not quite knowing how to articulate what I experienced but knowing I want to.

I arrive home to a non-Army family who ask if I had a nice time, if the food was OK and if I made any new friends – but they don’t get it and I don’t know how to explain what I experienced. Sunday arrives. I go to my corps and the people there are lovely. They ask me if I had a nice time, if the food was OK and if I made any new friends. The officer asks me to share something of my time at summer school and I do, as best I can. Corps folk come to me afterwards and say how well I spoke and how good it is to hear that I met with Jesus, but that’s about it.

By the next Sunday, it’s ancient history. And that’s when they set in. The Summer School Blues. Coming down from the high. Not knowing what to do with the experience I’ve just had. Looking for someone who gets it, who understands what I’ve experienced. Someone to journey with me and help me understand what God is saying and doing in my life. I return to staggering along in my young faith walk, tripping frequently.

As I write this today, I’m buzzing after Together 2025. Still singing ‘Holy Forever’ in my head, filled with emotions and the Holy Spirit. I’m diving deep into the river – I was listening, General! – I’m swinging from the chandeliers. I’m high as a kite and no illicit substances have been consumed. Brilliant, end of story. But is it? It shouldn’t be. And it shouldn’t be for our young people either.

Can we be people who don’t just ask ‘did you have a nice time’? Instead, let’s ask questions like: Did God speak to you? Is there anything you want to talk through? Is there anything you learnt you would like to follow up on? What did you learn that you can teach me? Can I pray with you about your experience?

It’s easier than ever for young people today to keep in touch with each other, but if we are thinking in terms of sharing faith from generation to generation, they have probably got something to teach us.

Scripture clearly tells us to encourage each other (see 1 Thessalonians 5:11; Hebrews 10:24 and 25; Hebrews 3:13). I’m sure many of us have experienced the Devil’s attack after we have had a close encounter with God. So if you know someone who has been to such an event, no matter their age, please help them to combat the Summer School Blues. If you have been to such an event, seek people out to share your experience with. Find someone trustworthy to journey with. Don’t succumb to the Summer School Blues!

Reflect and respond

• Have you ever experienced a comedown after you’ve had a close encounter with God? How did you respond?
• Send a message, a letter, a card or something encouraging – even the 20 September issue of Salvationist! – to someone you know who attended a summer event. Pray for them – and tell them you are praying for them.