Okay, so by everything that I've told you so far you might be thinking that since my youth group is so small and we do lots of awesome stuff together that we have always been incredibly close and very good friends, well boy would you be wrong. Now that's not to say that we weren't all friends the whole time, but we weren't always as close as we are now.
In our church the one thing that the Senior High youth group (grades 9-12) got to do every summer was go on a work camp. Growing up in the church my friends and I were all so excited to be in the Senior High so that we could go on the work camps and retreats and all the fun stuff that they got to do. Well, lets just say we were disappointed. I was in the youth group for 4 years, and only ever went on one work camp. Now, this is not me being all angry and upset that everyone else got to go on four and I only got to do one, that's not the point of this at all. You just need to understand that we were just frustrated at the time because it was something that was expected and once my class became freshman the whole idea of work camp seemed to be thrown to the way side.
So it was my Senior year of high school and I had never been on a work camp, and lets just say the whole youth group, myself included, was determined to make sure that the summer that coming summer we would be going on a work camp. Believe it or not, we got it all stored out. Our youth pastor, Ryan, found us an organization to go with and we found a week and place and it was all set. We spent the week of July 13-20 2013 in North Carolina.
Lets just say if we thought we were close and all good friends before we went down there, we were dead wrong. There is something about a 14 hour van ride with ten people and then working in the July heat and humidity in North Carolina that really brings people together. If you ever feel like you need to be closer with someone sign up to do a summer work camp with them somewhere in the south, it will really bring you together!
We left to go down there as a youth group and we came back as a family. I grew closer with those nine other people in one week than I had the whole 18 years I had been going to that church. That's not to say that I was not good friends with them before, but during that week our friendships were tested, pushed, and ultimately strengthened.
I will let you guys in on some of the details of the trip in one of my next posts, but for now I just want to encourage you that if you are thinking about volunteering to do a work camp or even just work in your community this summer that you should definitely get some people together and do it. It will bring you all closer to God and each other and will be an experience you will never forget!
Friday, March 28, 2014
Thursday, March 20, 2014
The Search
This week I am going to take a step back from going through the whole explanation of what my youth group has been up to and the things we have been learning and doing. Instead I am going to talk a little bit about what it was like coming to college and starting to attend a church here. As I mentioned before I had never been to a Sunday service other than the one at my church, so coming to college and going to a bunch of new churches was quite an experience.
The hardest part of the transition to college was not finding, trying, and exploring new churches, but it was the fact that I wasn't going to be at my church every Sunday. My church is relatively small and everyone knows everyone else, and to be honest we are all related to at least 3 other people in the church, outside of our immediate family. We are all close knit and leaving that was difficult. There is something comforting about knowing everyones name and having them all say hello to you and catch up with you each week.
It was especially hard leaving my youth group because they have become my brothers and sisters and I don't like not being able to see them each week. But as we all grow up we are going to start to move away from each other, that just makes the times that we are together even better though.
So the search for a church here began at a very large church that was in New Jersey. I don't know if you know anything about Hillsong churches but it reminded me of a Hillsong church. It was big and there were lots of people and a big worship band with lots of lights. I liked it a lot, however, I knew that it would not become my home church for college. As the weeks progressed and I tried numerous different churches, I eventually found a church that I enjoyed going to each week. It was very quaint and homey however, I was still incredibly aware of the fact that it was not my home church. In the end I came back after my first semester and found a church that I liked just a little more and have been attending there since.
Going to church at college is very different. After having a church where I feel so at home and then not being able to go there each week, is difficult. However, it is nice to experience different churches and see how different congregations join in worship. I am still very much partial to my home church and do miss attending there all year long, but with each passing week I am becoming a little more comfortable with the church that I am going to here.
The hardest part of the transition to college was not finding, trying, and exploring new churches, but it was the fact that I wasn't going to be at my church every Sunday. My church is relatively small and everyone knows everyone else, and to be honest we are all related to at least 3 other people in the church, outside of our immediate family. We are all close knit and leaving that was difficult. There is something comforting about knowing everyones name and having them all say hello to you and catch up with you each week.
It was especially hard leaving my youth group because they have become my brothers and sisters and I don't like not being able to see them each week. But as we all grow up we are going to start to move away from each other, that just makes the times that we are together even better though.
So the search for a church here began at a very large church that was in New Jersey. I don't know if you know anything about Hillsong churches but it reminded me of a Hillsong church. It was big and there were lots of people and a big worship band with lots of lights. I liked it a lot, however, I knew that it would not become my home church for college. As the weeks progressed and I tried numerous different churches, I eventually found a church that I enjoyed going to each week. It was very quaint and homey however, I was still incredibly aware of the fact that it was not my home church. In the end I came back after my first semester and found a church that I liked just a little more and have been attending there since.
Going to church at college is very different. After having a church where I feel so at home and then not being able to go there each week, is difficult. However, it is nice to experience different churches and see how different congregations join in worship. I am still very much partial to my home church and do miss attending there all year long, but with each passing week I am becoming a little more comfortable with the church that I am going to here.
Thursday, March 13, 2014
The Very First Time
So, I have talked about these "treasure hunts" before, and I'm sure you are all dying to know more about them and the experiences and stories that my youth group and I have acquired from them. So I will start with the first one that I was a part of. Due to circumstances which I do not remember, I was not able to attend the very first one so I do not have much information about it because although I was told about it I do not really remember much since I was not involved. So I will tell you about the whole groups second one, which was my first.
The very first time we were planning to go to a Hospital that is near our church and pray for some people. So we met at my church and went down to our youth room in the basement of my church. We all sat around and started with some worship music. All we did at first was let go of everything that was standing between us and God. All of those things that we were upset about or worried about whatever it might be we turned it over to God. We emptied ourselves out so He could fill us up with The Spirit.
After we had done that we just sat a listened. We were just listening to what God wanted to tell us and the clues He wanted to give us. Some people got words or phrases, others got images of people or objects, and some just got colors. Somethings were very strange and others didn't seem that weird.
I remember that night someone got the word baby, someone else got an image of a security guard, another got the color blue, and I got an image of someone with a cast on their arm and there were other words and images that people got as well. So we took our clues and set off to the local hospital.
Upon arriving there much to our surprise there was no one in the whole emergency room, not a single person. So we ventured on through the hospital trying to find people who matched our clues. We were struggling at first but then we decided that well, since someone has baby why not try the pediatric section. We headed towards there and to be honest we weren't expecting much because the hospital seemed pretty empty. When we got there the head nurse at the nurses station informed us that they only had one kid there, and guess what, it was a baby. We asked her if we were allowed to go back and pray for the baby and it's parents. She told us that she was only allowed to if the parents said it was okay, so we all said a quick prayer as she walked back to ask. When she came back she unlocked the door and let us in.
When we got back to the room we were greeted by a young couple who was standing next to the crib of their tiny little baby who was sick. They informed us that they had been there for a few days and that the doctors weren't really sure what was wrong with their child. After talking with them for a few minutes we asked if it would be alright if we prayed for their baby. Thankfully, they were very willing and allowed us to pray, so we prayed healing over their baby and when we were done the two incredibly grateful parents gave us a peaceful thank you, and we left.
Later, as we were leaving we did see a security guard and we were able to talk with him for a bit and then he let us pray for him. He didn't really have much he needed prayer for so we just prayed for whatever God spoke into us. After we prayed for him he showed us a few very cool magic tricks and entertained us for a while. It was wonderful to see the delight on his face every time he fooled us with one of his tricks.
No matter how many of these treasure hunts I do I will always be amazed by the crazy things that God throws into your mind that you think are so weird and will be of no relevance but ends up meaning the world to someone. It's amazing how many times you say one word and see it cut like a knife through people and they know that word was not from you but was from God because there's no way a total stranger would have known that.
I encourage you guys to start stepping out in your faith. You can practice this on your friends. To be honest it's much harder and more intimidating to try and get words from God for your friends because you already know so much about them so it's harder to tell if it's from your own mind or from God. However, it is good practice!
The very first time we were planning to go to a Hospital that is near our church and pray for some people. So we met at my church and went down to our youth room in the basement of my church. We all sat around and started with some worship music. All we did at first was let go of everything that was standing between us and God. All of those things that we were upset about or worried about whatever it might be we turned it over to God. We emptied ourselves out so He could fill us up with The Spirit.
After we had done that we just sat a listened. We were just listening to what God wanted to tell us and the clues He wanted to give us. Some people got words or phrases, others got images of people or objects, and some just got colors. Somethings were very strange and others didn't seem that weird.
I remember that night someone got the word baby, someone else got an image of a security guard, another got the color blue, and I got an image of someone with a cast on their arm and there were other words and images that people got as well. So we took our clues and set off to the local hospital.
Upon arriving there much to our surprise there was no one in the whole emergency room, not a single person. So we ventured on through the hospital trying to find people who matched our clues. We were struggling at first but then we decided that well, since someone has baby why not try the pediatric section. We headed towards there and to be honest we weren't expecting much because the hospital seemed pretty empty. When we got there the head nurse at the nurses station informed us that they only had one kid there, and guess what, it was a baby. We asked her if we were allowed to go back and pray for the baby and it's parents. She told us that she was only allowed to if the parents said it was okay, so we all said a quick prayer as she walked back to ask. When she came back she unlocked the door and let us in.
When we got back to the room we were greeted by a young couple who was standing next to the crib of their tiny little baby who was sick. They informed us that they had been there for a few days and that the doctors weren't really sure what was wrong with their child. After talking with them for a few minutes we asked if it would be alright if we prayed for their baby. Thankfully, they were very willing and allowed us to pray, so we prayed healing over their baby and when we were done the two incredibly grateful parents gave us a peaceful thank you, and we left.
Later, as we were leaving we did see a security guard and we were able to talk with him for a bit and then he let us pray for him. He didn't really have much he needed prayer for so we just prayed for whatever God spoke into us. After we prayed for him he showed us a few very cool magic tricks and entertained us for a while. It was wonderful to see the delight on his face every time he fooled us with one of his tricks.
No matter how many of these treasure hunts I do I will always be amazed by the crazy things that God throws into your mind that you think are so weird and will be of no relevance but ends up meaning the world to someone. It's amazing how many times you say one word and see it cut like a knife through people and they know that word was not from you but was from God because there's no way a total stranger would have known that.
I encourage you guys to start stepping out in your faith. You can practice this on your friends. To be honest it's much harder and more intimidating to try and get words from God for your friends because you already know so much about them so it's harder to tell if it's from your own mind or from God. However, it is good practice!
Thursday, March 6, 2014
An Unintentional Subculture
My youth group had been experiencing some incredible stuff through the power of The Holy Spirit. We were starting to dive deeper into scripture and worship. We were becoming totally consumed and were crazy in love with God. The only problem is, the rest of our church wasn't, and still isn't. Very slowly some people are starting to experience God the way we are and are joining us on our journey.
However, over the next few months we were all giving different testimonies in front of our church about the experiences we had praying for others and the different things we had been doing through The Holy Spirit. Every time we would share our experiences most of our congregation would come up to us and tell us about how brave we were to pray for strangers and how they would never have the guts to do that and that we were doing great things. Although, none of them seemed to be interested in what we were really doing. They thought it was cool for us to be doing all of this stuff, but they didn't really know how they felt about it or want anything to do with it.
Since we were experiencing all of these things and we were so in love and completely consumed by our relationships with Jesus and the rest of our church was not it was like we had a mini subculture growing within our church. We didn't mean for it to happen and it is not necessarily a bad thing because no one is rude about any of it. It's just rather interesting to observe.
The two groups of people in my church are divided by one thing, but incredibly connected by another. We have our differences, but everyone does. We have learned to get along harmoniously and work well together as a body of Christ. It still bothers some of us that they aren't experiencing or understanding The Holy Spirit the way we are, but you can't force anyone into it so we just do our best to love on our church and let God do His work.
My church has its own website which you can find here if you would like to check it out. They keep an up to date calendar so you can see what we are up to and there is also different information about our church and the different things we do within the church.
However, over the next few months we were all giving different testimonies in front of our church about the experiences we had praying for others and the different things we had been doing through The Holy Spirit. Every time we would share our experiences most of our congregation would come up to us and tell us about how brave we were to pray for strangers and how they would never have the guts to do that and that we were doing great things. Although, none of them seemed to be interested in what we were really doing. They thought it was cool for us to be doing all of this stuff, but they didn't really know how they felt about it or want anything to do with it.
Since we were experiencing all of these things and we were so in love and completely consumed by our relationships with Jesus and the rest of our church was not it was like we had a mini subculture growing within our church. We didn't mean for it to happen and it is not necessarily a bad thing because no one is rude about any of it. It's just rather interesting to observe.
The two groups of people in my church are divided by one thing, but incredibly connected by another. We have our differences, but everyone does. We have learned to get along harmoniously and work well together as a body of Christ. It still bothers some of us that they aren't experiencing or understanding The Holy Spirit the way we are, but you can't force anyone into it so we just do our best to love on our church and let God do His work.
My church has its own website which you can find here if you would like to check it out. They keep an up to date calendar so you can see what we are up to and there is also different information about our church and the different things we do within the church.
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