This past Wednesday was our last night of Xtreme Faith, our high school Youth Group. We ended the year with a bang! Connie, our Youth Director, came up with a version of Amazing Race and the kids had a blast. It was a crazy end to a crazy year.
I am really going to miss the teens. I will see some of them at church over the summer and in the fall some of them will return. Yet, some of them will graduate and begin their lives as adults. This was our last year to really reach them and you begin to wonder if there was more that you could've done or said. Was it enough? Was I enough? The answer is NO. My actions will never be enough, I will never be enough. Only He is enough. We are there to plant seeds. Nothing more, nothing less. Our role in some of these kids' lives is over. Whether they are going to college, turned their back on God, or are just too busy to attend Youth Group....our opportunity to sow seeds with them has passed. The rest is up to God. Amen!
Next Wednesday I will begin a Bible study with some of our High School girls. Please pray as I prepare to meet with them. Pray for wisdom and discernment for me, but mostly pray that I will get out of the way so He can work! Some of the girls that are attending have had a hard row to hoe and they are struggling in many area's of their lives. Some are struggling with sobriety, some are struggling with other addictions, and most are straddling the line between God and the world. That crazy invisible, life altering line. For some that line is clear, for others it is blurry. Pray it would be visible to all. We will be studying 'Really Bad Girls of the Bible':) Sounds like fun, doesn't it? Yea, I'm looking forward to it. It's my prayer that each girl will see a little of herself in these 'naughty' women and that these girls can look past the junk and see God's redeeming love. "If God could use/change/love her, then maybe He could use/change/love me."
Haven't we all been there? I still am some days:)
4 comments:
If anyone has the patients for these teens it is you. I know that you are just being used by God, you will be able to get out of the way. Because you want so much for Jesus to be their only survival. I will pray for the group and that God can use you in mighty ways for His Glory. Love Ya, Tanya
Will pray that you will be a witness and share the words that Christ wants them to hear. i believe the biggest struggle I have is staying out of the way and missing his direction for my life - and others.
Heather, you are making such an impact in the lives of teens! I'm praying that your Bible study will go well and that relationship are formed and deepened during your time with the girls and that they come to trust you and JESUS!
Thank you, Heather, for relly caring about these teens you have served. No doubt your prayers are going to go with them, and only heaven will tell what a difference they have made. The book you have chosen for your teen girls' Bible study should be a good one for them to ideniify with some of the characters in the Bible. I read it quite a while ago, and I think you have chosen well...something that will get their attention and make them think!
Give me camp ministry any day over teen ministry. For so long I have felt that I cannot relate with that age group. But if we each do what we are designed to do, God will have the bases all covered! And camp ministry does have youth ministry emphasis. So there are times when I try to understand their music, and their struggles...oh my goodness...their struggles are so magnificent. It's hard to send some of them back home at the end of a week at camp...some don't want to go for they know what they'll be going back to, and it isn't pretty, or fun, or healthy. That's where the local churches and youth leaders have to take over and disciple those who made decisions at camp. We have them for a week, you have them for 51 weeks...may God give you exuberant energy!
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