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The Grand Finalé

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

Back to School

It would seem (if the stats according to wordpress are right) that there are actually people reading this blog from time to time.  Obviously that’s not news to you since you are reading it right now.  So to you I say thanks for stopping by.  I hope you visit some of the other pages on this site so that you can be praying for me since I need a lot of that!

Today marks day one of getting into the back to school routine.  Because I work from home I find it easy to get distracted and fritter my time away on facebook so I’ve set up for myself a bit of a schedule for ministry related work to help myself become a little more focused and disciplined.  (Part of that means keeping this blog more up to date)

I’ve also changed my prayer lists by dividing more personal items from ministry related ones.  The idea is that the personal ones can be covered during my morning devotions and then the ministry ones will become more of a focus within ministry time.  My hope with that is that I will be encouraged to pray more often and with better focus for the ministries I’m involved in, the people I work with and the teens I meet through those ministries.

Both are great ideas and I can already picture how much more perfect they will make me.  Ha!  But I really do hope that by being more disciplined and creative in these areas my love for my coworkers, specific teens, the work itself and (ultimately) God will grow.

Tough Conversations…

…are not a lot of fun to have.

It seems easier to just let things slide and hope they get better rather than confront and challenge people with a gentle and humble heart.  Unfortunately, that’s part of my job.  A part of my job that I don’t tend to do very well.  Thankfully the people (teens) I work with are great and don’t need correction very often!  I’ve got it really good that way!

My role related to GIFT just got defined a little more this week.  My job, in a nutshell, is to encourage the band members to encourage others; to teach them how to be good leaders.  You might be thinking, “Obviously.  Isn’t that what you’ve been doing already?”  Hopefully.  But for some reason it seemed to be clarified a bit more.  I’m not meant to focus on all aspects of the functioning of GIFT.  My main job is to train leaders.  To focus on those 14 (or so) individuals.

I guess that includes challenging them.  And learning more myself to pass on.

Knowing God

I can see a bit of myself in this section from J.I. Packer:

We find in ourselves a deep interest in theology…We read books of theological exposition and apologetics.  We dip into Christian history, and study the Christian creed.  We learn to find our way around in the Scriptures.  Others appreciate our interest in these things, and we find ourselves asked to give our opinion in public on this or that Christian question, to lead study groups, to give papers, to write articles, and generally to accept responsibility, informal if not formal, for acting as teachers and arbiters of orthodoxy in our own Christian circle.  Our friends tell us how much they value our contribution, and this spurs us to further explorations of God’s truth, so that we may be equal to the demands made upon us.

All very fine — yet interest in theology, and knowledge about God, and capacity to think clearly and talk well on Christian themes, is not at all the same thing as knowing him.  We may know as much about God as Calvin knew — indeed, if we study his works diligently, sooner or later we shall — and yet all the time (unlike Calvin, may I say) we may hardly know God at all.

– J.I. Packer Knowing God

Coming Soon to a Blog Near You

  There have been several topics on my mind to write about here but…as you can see my blog has been quite neglected.  So in order to motivate myself I am publishing what I have in mind to write about in the next little bit.  That way, if I don’t write about it within a decent amount of time you can get on my case.
 
~ An appointment with widom
~ Joy: Service and Selfishness
~ A thought about physical beauty for single ladies
~  And maybe even an update as to what’s going on in my world!

Why I Don’t Drink

  A couple weeks ago we had a little discussion in small group about why getting drunk is wrong, or if it is.  That got me thinking more about why I don’t drink.  I decided that I would list my reasons here.  Some are less serious than others, or less reasonable and they are not necessarily in order of importance.  Comments are appreciated.
 
1.  That’s how I grew up.  In my upbringing it’s assumed that when a person becomes a Christian they will quit drinking (and smoking) and that people who do these things either are not Christians or are weak Christians.  I was taught by implication that drinking is synonymous with sin, so it naturally goes against my conscience to drink, regardless that I’ve held the viewpoint that it’s not a sin to drink but a sin to get drunk.
 
2.  I’m in a prominent position in a cross-denominational setting, which means there are a lot of people with varying viewpoints watching me.  I do not want anyone, especially young people, to start drinking because "Debbie does it."  Romans 14 speaks about this well.  "It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother to fall."  (v.21)  I would rather not touch the stuff then to take advantage of the freedom I have in Christ to drink and help someone to their ruin by doing so.
 
3.  Because of what I said in number two, besides causing people to stumble, I can give up drinking when there is the possibility that by drinking I could bring question to my position and ministry.  In 1 Timothy 3:1-10 we find requirements given for overseers and deacons.  Now, I’m obviously neither an overseer (or bishop) or a deacon, but I am in leadership and so I can take these requirements as beneficial for myself as well.  Here is says that they should not be given to drunkenness or to much wine.  (This does not mean any wine, but I’ll cover that later)  I don’t want to be under question for something as unimportant to consume as alcohol. 
 
4.  To continue on this vein of how it affects others, causing others to fall or to question what I do in ministry, there is the element of what non Christians think.  For some weird reason, as far as I’ve experienced, in North America, in general, non Christians think that Christians don’t drink.  Why that is I don’t know well enough to discuss here.  Is that legitimate or not?  I don’t know.  But I think of a person like Daniel.  He was very influential in the government of his day.  People got jealous so they examined his life and job to see if they could find grounds to get him in trouble.  "Finally these men said, ‘We will never find any basis for charges against this man Daniel unless it has something to do with the law of his God.’" (Daniel 6:5)  I want to be like that.  So that people have no grounds to dismiss what I have to say about Jesus except my faith.
 
5.  Now, while alcohol in itself may not be wrong, getting drunk is.  This suddenly made a lot more sense as I thought about this this past week.  In our small group discussion I brought up that the last fruit of the Spirit is self-control.  When we’re drunk, we’re not in control, at least not fully.  I followed that thought a little more and it struck me, why is it that when people are drunk it is always bad, sinful behaviour that comes out?  It’s never godly behaviour.  Why is that?  Could it be that when we are drunk, and therefore lacking self-control, it is our natural selves that display themselves?  It’s who we are apart from the grace of God?  Paul often refers to the Christian life as a battle, a fight.  There are many warnings throughout Scripture to be alert and prepared.  If we want to be godly and holy, or in common English "good", we need to be ready to fight all the time.  There are a lot of ways that we can fail to be alert and fail to fight for joy and to be like Christ.  But when we’re drunk, that completely goes out the window. 
 
6.  To bring this back to me: I don’t like the taste of alcohol.  Anything I’ve tasted has not impressed me.
 
7.  Tying number 5 and 6 together, although not liking the taste of alcohol takes away 90% of the temptation to drink, I don’t like coffee either.  (Guess what I’m drinking right now?)  I hated everything about coffee when I was little.  The smell, the taste, everything.  Then I started liking cappucino.  Then I started drinking coffee with a LOT of sugar (ask anyone who I went to Bible school with) and cream, then I cut back on sugar right down to nothing.  Then cut back on the cream until now, I’m drinking it black.  I’ve been drinking at least a cup a day lately.  Do I like it?  More than I used to but there’s still times when I really don’t like it but like the idea of drinking it more than the actual beverage.  What’s my point?  The same thing could happen to me with alcohol and given my natural tendencies, I could easily become an alcoholic.  So, today it might be sipping wine with a group of good friends, then a girly drink out with friends and on and on.  It’s easier for me to just avoid it altogether rather than comfortable with it at varying degrees until I’m addicted. 
 
8.  Really, as I shared with a friend recently, it’s about realizing that God is the only satisfaction rather than going to alcohol as an escape or form of satisfaction.  This point relates to way more than just drinking.  This is where I feel convicted in this conversation and it is because of this that I cannot be judgemental to anyone who chooses to drink.  I have my own escape routes too.  Food is one.  Sleep is another.  Denial, entertainment, imagining…the list goes on.  Oh to remember: "All of You is more than enough for all of me, for every thirst and every need.  You satisfy me with Your love and all I have in You is more than enough."  We all have this problem so none can judge the other in order to feel superior.  Rather we should be helping each other in the fight, knowing we need help as much as anyone else.
 
9.  And finally, I enjoy the privilege of showing people that it is possible to have fun without alcohol.  In fact, more fun because there’s no hang-over.   

Camp ~ Waves of Grace

  The morning of the day between camps (Junior and Teen) I stood on the shore for a few moments of quiet, thinking of the week ahead and my lack of energy.  As I watched the waves and was praying for grace the phrase "waves of grace" came to mind.  Waves of Grace is a new organization (for lack of a better term) that is vision casting revival for Northern Minnesota/Northwestern Ontario.  (I’d give you a link to a website but it’s ‘coming soon.’)  As I thought on that I could help but wonder, is revival really going to come to our area?  "Yes."  Would it start that week of teen camp?  "Yes." 

Waves

  Waves often come in the form of gentle crashing.  Easily missed and overlooked but when noticed are riveting and awe inspiring.  So it is spiritually.  From the surface there was no huge crash of revival and it may even be said by some that spiritually it was an uneventful week.  Not so.  There were waves.  There were some teens who come from painful backgrounds that encountered Jesus for the first time and decided that they couldn’t live without Him.  During our sharing time on the last evening one girl had the courage to share that she had been assaulted and how that brought her closer to God.  Another young man shared a victory story about how he’s started studying his Bible.  One on one conversations with different campers as well as observing people showed that, whether they are aware of it or not, they have been growing in their faith this year.  They are more stable than they were last year.  There were individuals who consistently were meeting with God during the singing times. 
  At junior camp there were waves too.  We had a higher percentage of non-churched kids than normal.  Several of them stayed behind after chapel within the first few days.  I had the privilege of talking with one girl.  She’s only 8 but her face radiated a very real desire for God.  There were others whose faces were not lying that they were serious about God and meeting Jesus Christ.  And the questions they ask!  Beautiful kids.  Teen Camp Staff
  So the long and short is that God moved in those two weeks.  Subtly perhaps but in undeniable ways.  I was blessed to be a part of it.  I praise God that He gave me grace and energy to be a part of it.  Rather than longing to get home to get some sleep, I felt like I was leaving home, a place of family.  The consolation is that God isn’t done working but will continue to work throughout the year.  I’m looking forward to seeing what He has done when we gather at Sunny Cove again next summer.