3 days in the HOT sun painting a trailer. Building a ramp. Subway for lunch. Last week I felt like I was on the gospel version of Extreme Makeover! Missions week was a whole new experience for me. I took the week off of regular camp to sleep in a tent with girls who came to minister the gospel through service. Through it, I learned more about discipleship than anything!
We laughed together, painted together, and just shared life. Instead of having set times to pour into their lives, I had to make the most of everyday, normal life. God taught me to use every opportunity to speak truth into girls' lives and not waste a moment!
But more than anything, He taught me that He is the one who changes hearts. Monday night, I challenged them to grow in their knowledge of the God that they were serving. I was met by mostly blank stares. They grew up in church, what more did they need to know?
The frustrations I felt the next two days brought me to tears. My burden for the gospel overwhelmed my soul. If only they could know the wonder and beauty of a deeper relationship with Him! All day I was waiting to challenge the hypocrisy I saw in their lives - serving Him without a desire to truly KNOW Him. And yet, all opportunities to do so eluded me.
As I lay there dead on thursday night, my face in the grass, (no really, I mean it, I die in our skit ) God spoke to me. "Ellen, will you stop preaching to them and listen to my Spirit? I must do the work in their hearts. Listen to Me. Enjoy the time with them and trust ME. If I give you an opening, speak truth. But until then... " I was humbled more than you know. After the skit we laughed together and the leaders then sent them up to the prayer chapel.
They came RUNNING back an hour later, more excited than I had seen them all week. "Ellen! We all just realized that if we are going to share the gospel, we need to really know it! What can we study? Where do we start?" We talked for another 3 hrs about life and the importance of studying His Word and letting His truth influence every part of their lives! All the while I thought they weren't listening, God was working. One of the girls told me she had been thinking about my challenge all week!
By the end, they had planned a missions trip to Japan and a biblestudy leading up to it for those who were planning on going. Four of the girls have already started reading books of the bible! Is God powerful to save? Why yes. Yes He is =)
Saturday, July 23, 2011
Monday, July 11, 2011
A Heart for the Broken
In ministry, it is easy to become emotionally detached from the heartache that is embedded in so many girls' lives. Not this week. My heart was broken for them, in a way that it has never been broken before. Tears poured down my face on friday because I felt for them in a way that I cannot describe... my spirit groaned with words that cannot be uttered!
My girls this week were desperate for love. No one cared about them at home - their families were either addicted to alcohol or themselves. I spent the entire week, hour after hour, just listening to them talk about their lives, the mundane and the serious.
I was challenged by my own words to them. Do I truly believe that God is enough to satisfy every longing in our souls? Can He truly bring life and peace in the midst of severe trial? As I exhorted them to live for Him, to trust Him to lead and guide their lives, I laughed to myself. How much more do I need to trust Him for the future ahead?!!
After my tears had begun to cease, I went to find my girls and hang out with them. I found one of them in bed, crying over the lostness of girls she had just met that week.What grace God has to give us people to feel with! We talked for an hour, encouraging one other to live for Him - to love those who need Him. As we prayed together, I thanked God with all my heart for her fellowship in the gospel!
It is those moments that make all the trials of camp worth it. The moments when I'm straight up preaching the gospel and the girls can't take their eyes off of me because they are so enraptured with His truth. The times when we talk for hours, pouring His word and encouragement into their lives... even the moments when I'm acting like a maniac and they realize for the first time that being a Christian is a whole lot of fun!
Camp has taught me more than I imagined possible. More than anything, it has taught me that His gospel is the answer to every issue that life brings. His truth is life! So why are we so slack in sharing it?
My girls this week were desperate for love. No one cared about them at home - their families were either addicted to alcohol or themselves. I spent the entire week, hour after hour, just listening to them talk about their lives, the mundane and the serious.
I was challenged by my own words to them. Do I truly believe that God is enough to satisfy every longing in our souls? Can He truly bring life and peace in the midst of severe trial? As I exhorted them to live for Him, to trust Him to lead and guide their lives, I laughed to myself. How much more do I need to trust Him for the future ahead?!!
After my tears had begun to cease, I went to find my girls and hang out with them. I found one of them in bed, crying over the lostness of girls she had just met that week.What grace God has to give us people to feel with! We talked for an hour, encouraging one other to live for Him - to love those who need Him. As we prayed together, I thanked God with all my heart for her fellowship in the gospel!
It is those moments that make all the trials of camp worth it. The moments when I'm straight up preaching the gospel and the girls can't take their eyes off of me because they are so enraptured with His truth. The times when we talk for hours, pouring His word and encouragement into their lives... even the moments when I'm acting like a maniac and they realize for the first time that being a Christian is a whole lot of fun!
Camp has taught me more than I imagined possible. More than anything, it has taught me that His gospel is the answer to every issue that life brings. His truth is life! So why are we so slack in sharing it?
Saturday, July 2, 2011
ALL THINGS
"I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings." 1 Cor 9:23
This summer, I have become the intellectual, the athlete, the redneck (haha well at least i tried!) and the crazy middle schooler! I've played hard, laughed loud, and loved the unlovable for the sake of Christ. It has been one of the best experiences of my life!
This week, I duckied (guided single rafts) with a pile of crazy high school girls - who named me "mama duck" at the beginning of the trip haha. Down the river, they managed to get stuck on quite a few rocks.. which meant i heard "mama duck, come save me!" more than enough times! We laughed all the way down, all the while they were stealing my heart. By the end of the week, random boys were calling me that and wishing I was their guide!
The week has taught me that serving Christ in the little things is just as important as in the "big" things. Acting like a crazy girl, screaming and jumping into freezing water doing the "dying chicken" train at the beginning of the week set up the best relationship with a girl I've had at camp. She stayed up and talked to me till 4 in the morning on friday, sharing what Christ was doing in her life!
The exhaustion, the moments of wondering if I'm crazy, all those were worth it for the sake of Christ. He is worth our every moment! All of life should be this way. Every moment lived because the gospel has changed our lives, which makes us want to change others. That girl taught me so much as well "questioning the faithfulness of God is just dumb, He has shown us through the Scripture that He has always been!"
From the mouth of babes eh? =)
This summer, I have become the intellectual, the athlete, the redneck (haha well at least i tried!) and the crazy middle schooler! I've played hard, laughed loud, and loved the unlovable for the sake of Christ. It has been one of the best experiences of my life!
This week, I duckied (guided single rafts) with a pile of crazy high school girls - who named me "mama duck" at the beginning of the trip haha. Down the river, they managed to get stuck on quite a few rocks.. which meant i heard "mama duck, come save me!" more than enough times! We laughed all the way down, all the while they were stealing my heart. By the end of the week, random boys were calling me that and wishing I was their guide!
The week has taught me that serving Christ in the little things is just as important as in the "big" things. Acting like a crazy girl, screaming and jumping into freezing water doing the "dying chicken" train at the beginning of the week set up the best relationship with a girl I've had at camp. She stayed up and talked to me till 4 in the morning on friday, sharing what Christ was doing in her life!
The exhaustion, the moments of wondering if I'm crazy, all those were worth it for the sake of Christ. He is worth our every moment! All of life should be this way. Every moment lived because the gospel has changed our lives, which makes us want to change others. That girl taught me so much as well "questioning the faithfulness of God is just dumb, He has shown us through the Scripture that He has always been!"
From the mouth of babes eh? =)
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