I've been on back to back retreat mode for the last two and a half weeks. It's crazy, I'm exhausted, but God is stirring me up! I get this weird sort of "high" from working with teens and sharing the love of God with them.
My first retreat was at Lake Junaluska, where I was called as a young teen to go into ministry. It's always special to go there. It's nestled among some big Blue Ridge Mountains, and you can feel God all around you. I went with my home youth group. I haven't seen most of the kids all year so it was a great time to reconnect and see how far they have grown. We had a great time!
I left early to drive to Tennessee to meet my Maryland church youth group to do Appalachia Service Project. With this organization we go out into the Appalachia region and serve God by fixing houses. Our site was great, my group was fantastic! I love this trip because there are so many kids that don't regularly go to our church that go on this trip so it was real fun to get to hang out and have fun with them. I did sleep on the floor, shower outside, craw under a house to do work on a foundation, and live with bats...I'm pretty sure that gives me hardcore points. Although the fact that I ran from out of the house because I saw a toad, may give me some sissy points. We drove about 15 minutes to Kentucky to get some of the best soda I've ever had, Ale81. It was a really great trip. The ride back from the Tennessee mountains back home was AMAZING! The scenery was gorgeous!
This week I'm at an event called "Breeze" it was formally called Youth Annual Conference when I was a wee lass. It was always fun for me as a youth, here I got to learn how to act as a leader for my church, and connect to God spiritually. I'll be honest as a young adult leader, chaperoning and doing family groups, it was difficult for me to go to YAC. The last two times I had gone my heart broke. The kids didn't care to be here, they didn't feel the Spirit moving. Didn't want to do anything, I had to convince them to wake up to go take communion. I ended up crying at the end of those trips because the kids didn't care, and it shattered my heart and hopes for them and Christ.
This year I cried because the kids were feeling the Spirit. The Holy Spirit was in this place and the kids had it! And it was most evident by Tues, which was wild for kids to react and get spiritual on a week long event by the second day. Usually it takes about the last night. But God worked amazing things in these kids lives. Last night we had kids pouring out their hearts to God, and there were quite a few who were so filled with the Spirit they were speaking in tongues and convulsing. Which is quite uncommon as far as I know and have seen as a United Methodist, but it was really powerful to witness. God has touched the lives of so many at this event, and I pray, and ask for you to pray, that these kids will continue to take this home and be open to the Spirit of God in their lives.
God is good, all the time.
All the time, God is good!
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