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.
