Tomorrow will officially be my last day in youth ministry. It’s been good. God’s done lots in and through me.
Since the reason I started this blog was to keep people up to date on things to pray for, and since I have not been doing a very good job at that at all, this will be my last post. So for the 2 people who check this, (I know who one of you are but don’t know about anyone else)… Thanks for following what little you saw here!
My last prayer letter: Summer 2013
There is some news that you might be interested in (if you haven’t already read it):
April Letter: Spring 2013 web
For all of you folks who read this blog and care about summer camp…the registration forms are now available at our camp website! Tell your friends and family and get your registration in to beat the masses!
I’m preparing for a GodTalk for FYG tonight (if the weather shapes up enough that I can drive!). I’ve decided to talk about hell. Not because I want to. I’m not sure anyone likes the topic. Unless maybe you are a judgmental sort that likes to think of people burning forever. *shudder*
I’m not so much planning on talking about hell as much as destinations. Over the years we’ve tried to paint a compelling picture of following Jesus. And yes, it is compelling! There are a lot of really good, awesome truths that are very exciting! But if you’re like me, we prefer to ignore the urgency of the real after life consequences for not accepting Jesus.
So, yes, I want teens to grow in understanding the Bible and believing it to be true. I want them to believe in Jesus. I want them to pray. And I don’t want them to go to hell so I think it’s time to talk about it and do my part to remind them (or tell them for the first time) how serious our beliefs are, especially in a culture that says we can believe whatever we want.
“We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.” 2 Corinthians 5:20
I am really thankful for the church I get to be a part of! I’m excited to be part of a church that loves Jesus, the Bible and people. I know when I go to church I’ll be hearing a gospel-centered sermon and sing songs that proclaim God’s goodness and love.
God has been really good to our church, enabling us to have a lot of good programs. One of my favourites is Ladies Sunday School. Each Sunday I get to spend time with a group of women, opening our Bibles and sharing things God has taught us and is teaching us.
But the reason I am bragging up our church is to let you know that we have recently launched a website. Included on the website are the weekly sermons in audio and/or print format.
Again, I love my church! So if you live in the Emo area and don’t have a church home…check us out!
“…Each one repaired the section immediately across form his own house.”
Nehemiah 3:28
I’m preparing for the next time we are meeting as FYG Leaders and for some reason (God?) this part of the story in Nehemiah came to mind. (Of course, the fact that our pastor has just started a sermon series in Nehemiah probably helped too!)
In case the correlation between FYG and Nehemiah isn’t coming to mind for you (what, you can’t read my mind!?!) let me tell you. The job of the builders was to build what was in front of them. Was the job bigger than that? Absolutely. But each person’s job was to do whatever was in front of them.
This is true for every Christian. We are part of a global team that God is using to ‘rebuild’: restoring people to a relationship with God. Sometimes we get to see how God is using someone on their part of the wall (a missionary visits our church, we read a blog, etc). Sometimes we get to go help someone on their part of the wall (short term missions trips, giving money, etc). And those times are really encouraging and lift our eyes to our amazing God.
But most of the time, we’re looking at our own section of the wall: the neighbours in our apartment; the cashier at the grocery check out; the people in our small group. God has given each of us a very specific section of the wall to build with Him.
In the case of FYG, it’s not just a section for an individual; it’s a section for our Leader’s Team and our supporting churches. Each time we have an event or Bible study we are in the process of building a wall; declaring there is a God who loves deeply and rescues sinners.
How are we doing at building the wall? As a team? As an individual? God is working in us, moving us to be His builders.
“For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases Him.” Philippians 2:13
It was an accident. The book I chose for us to study for Ladies Sunday School is titled “Experiencing Spiritual Intimacy”. I’m not sure what I was expecting but I know I was NOT expecting almost every lesson to be about the Holy Spirit!
When I first realized this, I was a little disappointed and worried: talking about the Holy Spirit for 10 weeks straight?!?!? But then I realized that this is a person of the trinity that I have not spent much thinking about at all. As we’ve been reading the different verses, it’s surprising how many times the Holy Spirit kind of sneaks in there without you even realizing it!
For example, I had not noticed that the Holy Spirit show up in the major moments of Jesus earthly life:
I’ve also been surprised to see how often the Bible lists the Holy Spirit as also responsible for things that I usually think of as Jesus’ work. For example:
Some of you were once like that. But you were cleansed; you were made holy; you were made right with God by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. 1 Corinthians 6:11 NLT (Italics added)
I’m not really sure how to work that all out in my head yet.
One thing I do know, and the study has confirmed, is that the Holy Spirit points to Jesus. That’s His thing. I read an illustration about this this week. It’s like at a concert where the lights go down and there is a lone musician in the middle of the stage with a spotlight centered on him. This is a time to be amazed by how intense and awesome the musician is; no one is thinking about how clear or bright or amazing the spotlight is! The Holy Spirit doesn’t point to Himself; He points to Jesus.
Since I had already planned to speak about “Who is the Holy Spirit?” next month at SafeHouse I’m going to keep enjoying thinking and reading about this ‘forgotten’ person of the Trinity!
Josh & Debbie at Debbie’s brother’s wedding
We had a great summer! A sure sign of a great summer is that it went by way to fast. It feels like school just let out and we were looking forward to spending time with friends and family, going to camp and a road trip out to Alberta. Now we’re on the other side of summer looking back and wondering where all the time went.
As great as the summer was there is something about being back at home, putting clothes into a closet instead of a suitcase and getting into a rhythm of life again that is comfortable.
It takes a little bit for the comfort to set back in though when it’s also a new season of work/ministry. Then it’s also a time to re-evaluate, make plans and get the troops organized. I’m looking forward to a few things that are in the works presently. Here’s a taste of what’s going on:
I met with the ISCF student leaders last week and we came up with some pretty good plans for this year. As it stands right now we do not have a teacher adviser or a classroom to meet in but we’re taking advantage of that and will be meeting outside while it’s nice and thinking about our options.
We also planned a schedule for our discussions. The first Wednesday of the month will be a prayer time for the school and each other. Week two will be about current events, led by one of the students. I will take the third week of the month answering some “What Does the Bible Say?” questions about God, Jesus, Heaven. Basically a bit of Theology 101 (but the word Theology sounds scary to most people so I’ll try not to use it.) The fourth week will be a Wild Card (led by the other student leader) which means it might be a game or a discussion or … well, anything!
There is nothing like being at camp that reminds me how valuable camp is to so many lives.
Junior Camp for me meant intense evangelism. After each meal I led a small group through the salvation story: who God is, what sin is and what Jesus did to take our punishment. Besides smashing eggs (as an object lesson), it was great to see how in every group there were at least a few kids who were totally engaged by the truths we were talking about.
Then in evening chapels I walked through parts of David’s life (being anointed, training in the field, killing Goliath, running from Saul, becoming king, good and bad parts of his reign) leading to the final night, talking about how David was not the perfect king but pointed to the Perfect King who would come. On that night I shared the story of Jesus’ life, death, resurrection and second coming.
It was a privilege to share with the kids how the wages of sin is death (separation from God) but Jesus died so we don’t have to. All we have to do is ask Him to take our punishment for us. He wants to! Or we can pay for it ourselves and God will give us what we ask for…life without Him.
Several kids stayed behind after morning or evening chapel and I was able to chat with them. One of the greatest conversations was with a little girl, who from what I had seen all week was in her own zone and not taking anything in really. It was after the session where I talked about Jesus, especially of His pain physically and spiritually. She said to me, “If Jesus loved us SO much that He would do that, we should think of Him all the time.” A little later she said, “We might have pain in our lives but He had way more than we do.” So cool to hear this girl “get it”!
Teen camp is always a little different. The issues are no longer “My sister keeps poking me.” Instead the building is filled with people who have been spoon fed all kinds of false ideas and half truths all year and are in the season of life where they are evaluating and choosing what they will accept. I again led a small group after meals. This time though, my focus was on why we should read the Bible and what it looks like to read the Bible.
I probably found it more meaningful than the kids did because as I was sharing with them I was reminded every time that life is so much bigger than getting up, going to work, going to bed. We are involved in something cosmically bigger, with angels and demons and God and our souls. More than that, if that is true, God has given us a book to learn about Him, about us and about our place in the world. Sure there are lots of things in the Bible that are hard to read through, but as we read it (especially after years of reading it) we start to think more like God does and start having answers to some of the tough questions that the Bible does not address specifically. (ie. should I buy an ipod?)
I was glad I could talk about that with the campers because on the second last day I had both morning and evening chapel to talk about Biblical Sexuality. We made it a bit less formal by letting them have hot drinks and I sat on a stool but a big part of what I talked about was “What does the Bible say about our sexuality.” In the morning I talked about God’s ideal for marriage and sexuality, including gender roles. In the evening I talked about boundaries, homosexuality, what Jesus says to those who have been sinned against and what Jesus did for those who have sinned (which would be all of us).
Some of what I said was strongly counter-cultural but I felt a need to speak truth in love. My desire was to present what God says about these things in a way that also demonstrates love from God and His people. I feel that too many times the church/Christians have spoken truth with no love and I feel that our culture speaks ‘love’ with no truth. You can be praying for our teens as they are very confused about what truth is.
There were definitely exciting and encouraging things happening in some teens’ lives last week. We had a young man come to camp who really knew nothing about the Bible, God or Jesus. All week he was soaking up all he could learn and responded in belief by asking Jesus to save him.
They were two great but also tiring weeks.
After a couple days of recoup, Josh and I came to Dorion Bible Camp. We have been here almost a full week and will be here for one more. Our role is different here. A lot less connection with campers. But even in a different role the value of camp is still the same: kids hearing about Jesus and accepting Him as their Saviour!
the.happenings 