Operation: Andrew

This week was Operation Andrew, where the goal was to get as many people to come to youth as possible. We were trying to be “Andrews.” In the Bible, the disciple Andrew was known as the bringer, he was always bringing people to Jesus and that is what we want to be and what we want our students to be.

We had been hyping it up a lot, but Josh and I were not confident that it was going to work. There was a lot riding on this week and so we really wanted to give it our all. As we were gearing up for it, we had a meeting that Saturday before (1/24/15) to discuss a couple of things. Basically the mission we took on as a leadership team was to “Exhaust every resource.” We were going to use every avenue we had to get students there, text, tweet, FB, instagram, call, talk, EVERYTHING.

As we were talking, Josh gave us a number to shoot for. The number was 18. At the time, it seemed to just be a number pulled out of a hat, but looking back, I can see God working so powerfully the whole time.

As tonight came, a bunch of students came, we had pizza and cookie cake. It was fun and a great time. When it came time for service, as the students sat down, we counted it up and, including leaders, we had exactly 17 when the sermon started. This was very discouraging because we had been praying so hard and doing everything we could to hit 18.

We knew God would still work and that He was still sovereign, but it was like,” really God? 17? Why?” As if answering our doubts, ten minutes into Josh’s sermon, another student walked in. And he didn’t just walk in normally, he came in the wrong entrance, through the Sunday School room and across the stage, thoroughly disturbing youth.

It was as if God was flaunting that He really can do whatever He wants, He is in total and complete control. He sent another student to just come walking across the stage, so show us that He is in control and that He is going to do something huge in the student ministry.

Almost as if further confirmation that God is doing something here, while I was on my way home, something insane happened. I literally almost died. I was driving and suddenly a car swerved into my lane and was heading directly for me. Not swerving or anything, just in my lane doing at least 60 miles per hour. Had I not swerved off the road, we would have collided head on and I would have been severely injured, if not dead.

I am fully confident that this was the work of the enemy. It was a spiritual attack. Satan is terrified of what amazing things God is doing in Wakulla United Methodist and He will do whatever it takes to stop it. God came through once again and protected me. This has inspired me all the more to keep working for what God is doing in our county. GOD IS SO GOOD.

The Cattle on a Thousand Hills

I was reading a few days ago in Psalms and I came across a verse that I had read a number of times before, just mostly just glanced over it. Chapter 50, verse 10 states,

For every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills.

Now, what made me stop and actually pay attention to this verse? I was reading a book called Circle Maker by Mark Batterson. The theme of this book is “Dream Big. Pray Hard. Think Long” This verse is one he highlights in particular. So often we don’t pray big prayers because we either think they are too big or that they could never happen or when we do pray big prayers, we get discouraged because it doesn’t happen as quickly as we would like and so we stop.

This verse blows the idea that anything is too big for God right out of the water. It states right here that every beast is God’s and He owns the cattle on a thousand hills. Do you know how much cattle that is? So unbelievably much. This verse has challenged me to pray big prayers and to dream big dreams. One prayer it has specifically challenged me to pray is for our county. From the outside looking in, our county is a regular ol’ fried chicken lovin’, sweet tea drinkin’, Jesus-lovin’, Southern town. But spend any time here, and you’ll see just how broken it is. The divorce rate is one of the highest in the state, Our families are broken, our community is broken, our relationships are broken. This county is so broken and in desperate need of a savior.

I fully believe that God can and will do an amazing thing in our county. That is what God has challenged me to pray for, revival in our county. And for someone like me, who hates to ask for even the smallest bit of help, we cannot do it by ourselves, God is the one who will do it and I can only pray that He will use me in it.

LC

#forthecounty

So, so many things to update about. So many things have changed in my life as of late. I’ve taken a semester off of school, started dating Cameron, started working for Wakulla UMC, and moved out of my parents’ house, just to name a few.

This last year has been a crazy one to say the least. I had some great times and I had some really bad times too. I am very excited for this year though, I cannot wait to see what God has in store for me.

Already, just nine days into this year, I know it’s going to be a good one. God has already shown me so much just in these past couple of days.

One of the things I am most excited about for this year is something that has been the passion of our leadership team at WUMC for quite some time now, and we have finally been launching it with our students. #forthecounty has been something that has been on the hearts of our leaders for a while.

What #forthecounty means to us is that we are doing everything through the mindset of getting the name of Jesus and His incredible message out to every single person in our county. Everything we think, say, and do is through the lens of will this help us to be more for the county. We recently launched this idea to our students, we went through a series entitled “#forthecounty” where we broke down what for the county means, what it means for us as a youth group, what it means for them individually, and we gave them an opportunity to make a commitment to be for the county in their schools, homes, and lives.

We are so excited about this plan for our county. It is our passion and our desire to have every single person in our county come to know Jesus as their Lord and Savior. It is our hope that this spark for Jesus spreads throughout our county, our state, our country, and ultimately the world. We know God can do amazing things and we fully believe that He can use our little youth group to do big things in our county.

#forthecounty

LC

You reign in our hearts. You reign above all. Be lifted on high. There’s no end to Your love. There’s no end to Your love. You’re with us.

Hi hey hello,

Last night at church, we talked about vengeance, about how vengeance is not ours, it’s God’s. We went through Obadiah and looked at what God did.

Many times we look at God and then look at the world and see a bunch of bad people doing very well, and a bunch of relatively good people, having a really rough time. In our silly, fickle minds, that doesn’t make sense. We think God just overlooks what the bad people are doing, when in reality, God sees all of it. Edom thought they were hidden from God, high up in their cavernous home. How silly are we as people to think that God can’t see us hidden away in our little hiding places. God sees it all. Repercussions for actions will come, it may not be in OUR timing, but it will be in GOD’S perfect timing.

We also talked about how there are those things in our life that we just want to, in the words of my pastor, “put through a meat grinder” instead of give to God. There are always those people who will bother us no matter what. That thing could also be you, something you do. For me, that thing about myself that instead of giving to God, and letting God deal with it, I just want to deal with it in my own little way, is laziness.

Specifically these past few months, laziness has totally consumed me. I have had so much time with which to do so many worthwhile things, but I have squandered my time. I had all summer to really seek God and work on that while I had all this free time, and I didn’t use it at all. Don’t get me wrong, I did enjoy sitting around doing nothing, but I am really upset that I blew all that free time. Not even simply spiritual things, I could have been working on friendships, reading books, focusing on my health, finding hobbies, instead I sat around and watched television all the time.

Determine never to be idle. No person will have occasion to complain of the want of time who never loses any. It is wonderful how much can be done if we are always doing. 

-Thomas Jefferson

What is your one thing?

Title Lyrics: With Us – Hillsong Live 

-LC

There is no power in hell or any who can stand before the power and the presence of the Great I AM.

Hi hey hello,

Last night at church we talked about a variety of things. There was one thing my pastor said that really stuck out to me though. He told a story about how his father wasn’t there for much of his childhood and then died when he was very young. But, before he died, he bought a bible and marked it up for his son. He gave it to him before he died and my pastor has been able to pull it out and is gaining so much insight from it.

He correlated that to how our Heavenly Father wrote a book for us, the Bible, but we do not take full advantage of it. God gave us the Bible to instruct us on how we are to live our lives, and yet, many Christians nowadays have not even read all the way through it. I am guilty of that, but I am working on it! I’m over halfway through a read through! Anyway, he said that we have this Bible, that lays out how we are supposed to live for God, and yet sometimes we act as if God has left us out to dry, with no help. Not only did He give us an instruction manuel of sorts, but He also gave us the Holy Spirit, to help us in daily life!

Have you spent time in the Word today? Do you plan to? Is that something you regularly do?

Title Lyrics: The Great I AM – New Life Worship