Generosity

This past Friday the youth group that my husband and I lead in a little dinky rural town of 900 people, we had a fundraiser. It was a mystery dinner. Let me explain. We had a chef prepare some amazing food, but we made the menu names very mysterious and a tad bit risky. Diners at our restaurant had to order every detail of thier menu from cutlery to dessert. We had elders in our church eating spaghetti with a skewer and a soup ladel. It was absolutely hilarious.

We did this as a fundraiser to go to an up-comming youth conference in our area. Our goal was to raise $1000.00, which we thought was a bit high, but we really wanted to make a dent in our expenses. To make a long story short…we quadrupled our goal!

We worked really hard to prepare for this dinner, and the youth did a tremenous job of serving, hosting, cooking and cleaning up afterward. But the one thing that stuck out in my head when the night was over was “WOW, People are generous!”

Some of the people who came have never stepped foot in a church before…but they gave. Some people were born in that church….and they gave. Some people just sold a multi million dollar company…they gave. And some people smiled as they gave the last small change in thier wallet.

Why?

Was it the cause that people got excited about supporting? Was it the kids? Did people need a quick tax write-off? Were some people tired of being asked to help, so they decided to do thier good deed by donating?

I refuse to believe that anyone there gave out of guilt, pity or through gritted teeth. Each person left with a smile 4x the size they walked in with and no one was clutching their wallet as they ducked out the doors. The were truely cheerful givers.

That impresses me.

So, I guess my challange now is “how do we pay it forward?”

Any idea’s?

Plug for my Friend Justin

Hey Guys

I met my friend Justin at a BGCC thing called 20/20 summit last fall.  Since then I have been keeping in contact with him through facebook. Lately he wrote a note that I quite enjoyed. I encourage all of you to read it.

As christians we often get the “Judgemental” stereotype. I think this sums it up nicely.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=757580536&ref=ts#/note.php?note_id=19623296980

Much love

Blessings when we least Expect

I havn’t been doing youth ministry for very long…not in comparison to people who have been at it for decades anyway, but I never cease to be amazed at how BIG God really is.

This past week I was completely and utterly discouraged! There wasn’t a nice thing I could say about anyone young person in my group. They had all let me down in one way or another. On our way into the youth bible study that my husband and I lead, I had a little breakdown and explained through gusts of steaming “DUHHHHHHH’s” that I didnt want to see any of them for a whole week so that we could all make it out of a room alive.

When we arrived there was only one person there. I thought that God had really answered my prayers and was giving me a night off to cool down. Suddenly, I van pulled up and 7 kids poured out of the doors. It took a few moments to register the events. To anyone else that sight may not have meant anything, but to my husband and I that was BLESSING #1. You see, we have been praying and encouraging our scattered group to develop a comradery of sorts within the group. To become dependable on each other and to be able to rely on each other in times of need. We wanted them to start looking beyond the clothes, jobs, homes, & hair and to look at what they have in common…JESUS. This group had decided after church that they should all go to one members farm and try to milk a cow…how random!

The SECOND BLESSING came when I saw the last girl slide through the quickly closing van door. It was someone we had been praying for since we began as youth leaders. She had never come to a bible study and was pretty sparse at anything other than the “fun” events. I could not believe that she came! I was so excited I kept telling her how happy I was to see her out…until she started looking at me as if I was some sort of weirdo.

Going into the night I had a very well thought out message to present to the youth, one on grace. Moments before we walked in the door I wanted to change it to something based more one “Respect, Rolemodels, Responsibilities, and Dissapointment” to suit my mood better, but I decided that I had already poured all this work into the lesson on grace that I might as well use it. I was already a bit emotional, so I gave out the official warning to the teens. I was going to cry. And I did, But I also got through the whole thing. BLESSING #3 came when I realized that the kids were actually listening and taking this stuff in. They were responding, they were smiling and then…..they were crying.

The crying was actually BLESSING #4. Remember the gal I mentioned above? Well, something clicked that night. We spent a good part of the night sitting in the woman’s washroom (thats kinda where our girls like to hang out…I know its weird) talking and praying about what we had just read/ learned/ saw.  Very Cool God!

And finally, BLESSING #5…I had a parent tell me later in the week that there teen had come home and told them that it was one of the best bible studies ever.

I know it had nothing to do with me, God gave me all of it. And in addition he gave me all these blessings. Its funny that the moment we think that we can no longer go on, God just pulls us back up by the scruff of the neck and wipes off all the dirt, tosses a new shirt our way and says “You and me can do this!” Its that empowering grace that God gives us when we finally realize that we can’t do it by ourselves.

This is the vid I used to close the lesson. Powerful. 

Radio

As I was on a bit a shopping tangent today, I found myself switching between radio stations much to frequently for my liking. My usual station was playing some lame super emo-pop lyrics, while my next choice was making the most of the grunge phase. So next on the dial was the country station. Although at one point in my life I had sworn that I hated country music, I got over my foolish pride and realized that I did like the drawling twang of artists like Garth, Faith, Tim and George. Anyway, that is besides the point.So, I turned the station on just in time to hear George Stait’s hit “I Saw God Today”. If you haven’t heard the song before, Strait sings about a lone flower growing in the cracks of cement, a newborn baby, and a young couple in love. Typical country music topics. But the part of the song that caught me was how George Strait sees God in all of these area’s.As a christian, sometimes I limit myself to hearing or seeing God in strictly “Bible-y, Christian-y” things like scripture, worship, or church sermons. Yet, after listening to this song, I was reminded of how incredible God really is. He has made humans with utter precision, blesses relationships and his creations never cease to amaze me. A pastor once told our congregation in response to complaints about loud children in the morning service “Those children are proof that the Church is growing”. In a fitful child’s scream we can hear the future of Gods church! Whoa.This past weekend I attended a young adult conference and was challenged by a speaker to look for the Fingerprint of God in everything. But I guess Mr. George Strait just reminded me again.Peace