WEEK 9
Part II Hours: (from Thurs.-Sun.) 3.5 hours mentoring, 1 hour Sun. School prep, 1 hour Sun. School, .5 hours Sun. morning worship duties, .5 hours counseling
Total: 6.5 hours
The rest of the week was fairly encouraging as well. I had to deal with a break-up in the youth group, but God had prepared the way very evidently for it to happen. Both kids are doing well and continuing to seek the Lord, and I know that would not have been the case before Wed. night's service. Mentoring Saturday was great. I took her out to Fazoli's for lunch and then to a senior recital of the keyboardist at our church. Sunday School went fine, although I wasn't able to cover much of the lesson. There was some good wrap-up discussion, however, about Wed. night.
Part I Hours: (from Mon.-Wed.) 2 meetings, 2 service prep, 1.5 service/worship/preaching, 1 wrap-up counseling/giving rides
Total: 6.5 hours
The past few days had been really stressful due to a situation with one of my youth boys... definitely the toughest thing I've ever had to deal with. But last night... There's just no way to describe it. I had planned on taking the night off basically--just planning some sort of a worship labrynth so I wouldn't have to preach cause I was so overwhelmed this week. A few hours before youth group, God began to deal with me that this wasn't His plan. He gave me a message about sin and ultimately about putting to death the sin nature and salvation. The text was in Colossians 3. I showed a video clip from fall summit about sin. We went through the list of sins, and then I used the illustration of how heavy my suitcase was on my Israel trip. I talked about how all I had packed was light stuff, but yet it still was such a heavy load. The connection was that sometimes we look at our sins as little and light, but they really aren't. They still turn into this heavy burden, and just like it would not fit on the plane as a carry-on, it won't fit into heaven's gates. Not only that, but we have to drag it with us everywhere we go in this life. I then explained the Gospel message, how Christ took all our "suitcases" onto Himself at Calvary.
I literally planned the whole service, beginning to end, worship included, in like two hours... which is unbelievably fast. We had a TON of teens there for us--close to twenty I think. It was the breakthrough I've been praying this group would have for three years now, and I'm not talking about the numbers. The Spirit just moved... people were sobbing. The "altar call" (which was unique to the message--they were to come forward to pick up my heavy suitcase, then set it down symbolizing giving it over to Christ and "putting to death" the sin nature) lasted for like 10-15 minutes with a steady stream of people coming forward. There was a girl there named Summer, only her second time, and all through the message the Lord kept pointing her out to me. It was like I just knew "You need to meet Jesus, and you need to meet Him TONIGHT!" Sure enough, when the call was given, she just started to WEEP. Finally she came forward, and she was all smiles and tears the rest of the night and open with the fact that she had given her life to Christ for the first time!
Another one of my boys had been involved in some demonic/Satanic stuff before starting at our youth group. He has never gotten out from under the oppression of it all, and he asked us to pray over him that Jesus would "cast it out like he did for the man in the synagogue that we talked about in Sunday School a few weeks ago." I don't think he was possessed, but I don't doubt that Satan had some powerful strongholds in his life. I've seen it over the past months. Anyway, we prayed... like seven of us, hands laid on him. And it was unbelievable! He was like, "I feel happy for the first time ever... I'm clean! I'm not sin anymore! And... people love me! I feel like people love me! I never knew that before!!!!" It was unreal... Hugging everybody--a kid who didn't want to be touched when he first came to our church. And one of my leaders used to be wrapped up in all that stuff too... and I just wept as I watched him just quietly write down his cell phone number on a piece of paper and hand it to the kid. He said, "It's going to be hard. It'll be real hard. But we're not his anymore. Satan's defeated already. We belong to God now." I told the kids this was a night for them to set up as a spiritual mile-marker, a spiritual memorial they can point back to of when they had met with God. Every counselor was busy after the service cause so many kids needed to process what God had done in them. Even my LEADERS had responded to the altar call to lay down any extra "junk" they had picked up along the way since they had been walking with the Lord. The Spirit was so thick people just sat there in quiet, not wanting to leave... Just AMAZING! Our God is so good and so faithful! Praise His name that He desires and is willing to speak to a group of teenagers' hearts. Praise Him that He loved us all enough to bridge the gap!
Anyway, I was exhausted by the time I counseled, cleaned up, and gave rides home. But I could hold on to this spiritual high for a while! :)
Total: 6.5 hours
The rest of the week was fairly encouraging as well. I had to deal with a break-up in the youth group, but God had prepared the way very evidently for it to happen. Both kids are doing well and continuing to seek the Lord, and I know that would not have been the case before Wed. night's service. Mentoring Saturday was great. I took her out to Fazoli's for lunch and then to a senior recital of the keyboardist at our church. Sunday School went fine, although I wasn't able to cover much of the lesson. There was some good wrap-up discussion, however, about Wed. night.
Part I Hours: (from Mon.-Wed.) 2 meetings, 2 service prep, 1.5 service/worship/preaching, 1 wrap-up counseling/giving rides
Total: 6.5 hours
The past few days had been really stressful due to a situation with one of my youth boys... definitely the toughest thing I've ever had to deal with. But last night... There's just no way to describe it. I had planned on taking the night off basically--just planning some sort of a worship labrynth so I wouldn't have to preach cause I was so overwhelmed this week. A few hours before youth group, God began to deal with me that this wasn't His plan. He gave me a message about sin and ultimately about putting to death the sin nature and salvation. The text was in Colossians 3. I showed a video clip from fall summit about sin. We went through the list of sins, and then I used the illustration of how heavy my suitcase was on my Israel trip. I talked about how all I had packed was light stuff, but yet it still was such a heavy load. The connection was that sometimes we look at our sins as little and light, but they really aren't. They still turn into this heavy burden, and just like it would not fit on the plane as a carry-on, it won't fit into heaven's gates. Not only that, but we have to drag it with us everywhere we go in this life. I then explained the Gospel message, how Christ took all our "suitcases" onto Himself at Calvary.
I literally planned the whole service, beginning to end, worship included, in like two hours... which is unbelievably fast. We had a TON of teens there for us--close to twenty I think. It was the breakthrough I've been praying this group would have for three years now, and I'm not talking about the numbers. The Spirit just moved... people were sobbing. The "altar call" (which was unique to the message--they were to come forward to pick up my heavy suitcase, then set it down symbolizing giving it over to Christ and "putting to death" the sin nature) lasted for like 10-15 minutes with a steady stream of people coming forward. There was a girl there named Summer, only her second time, and all through the message the Lord kept pointing her out to me. It was like I just knew "You need to meet Jesus, and you need to meet Him TONIGHT!" Sure enough, when the call was given, she just started to WEEP. Finally she came forward, and she was all smiles and tears the rest of the night and open with the fact that she had given her life to Christ for the first time!
Another one of my boys had been involved in some demonic/Satanic stuff before starting at our youth group. He has never gotten out from under the oppression of it all, and he asked us to pray over him that Jesus would "cast it out like he did for the man in the synagogue that we talked about in Sunday School a few weeks ago." I don't think he was possessed, but I don't doubt that Satan had some powerful strongholds in his life. I've seen it over the past months. Anyway, we prayed... like seven of us, hands laid on him. And it was unbelievable! He was like, "I feel happy for the first time ever... I'm clean! I'm not sin anymore! And... people love me! I feel like people love me! I never knew that before!!!!" It was unreal... Hugging everybody--a kid who didn't want to be touched when he first came to our church. And one of my leaders used to be wrapped up in all that stuff too... and I just wept as I watched him just quietly write down his cell phone number on a piece of paper and hand it to the kid. He said, "It's going to be hard. It'll be real hard. But we're not his anymore. Satan's defeated already. We belong to God now." I told the kids this was a night for them to set up as a spiritual mile-marker, a spiritual memorial they can point back to of when they had met with God. Every counselor was busy after the service cause so many kids needed to process what God had done in them. Even my LEADERS had responded to the altar call to lay down any extra "junk" they had picked up along the way since they had been walking with the Lord. The Spirit was so thick people just sat there in quiet, not wanting to leave... Just AMAZING! Our God is so good and so faithful! Praise His name that He desires and is willing to speak to a group of teenagers' hearts. Praise Him that He loved us all enough to bridge the gap!
Anyway, I was exhausted by the time I counseled, cleaned up, and gave rides home. But I could hold on to this spiritual high for a while! :)
posted by Amber Janelle Livermore at 5:57 AM
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