As much as I love OASIS it has been hard going through the awkward stage of joining a church and trying to get to know people. I've been doing everything I can think of to jump right in: Joining a small group, serving with the youth, helping in the office...even running a 5k! Still there's nothing I could do to just skip the "I-kind-of-know-you stage" while everyone else has these deep friendships...and the youth already have their favorite youth leaders. It's been hard, because I'm used to growing up in a church and having everyone know and love me. But I think I'm finally breaking past that awkward period.
The GodChicks conference was AMAZING and definitely helped me get closer to people- I spent all day Thursday setting up for the youth session...and then 6 hours Friday in the youth session. And once again I was completely blessed by God working through me. My favorite part aside from the amazing speakers at the conference, was when I leaned over to a few of my youth girls in their seats right before the event started, "Hey girls, do you want to go up front with me when worship starts?" "Yeah!" they responded excitedly. And when worship exploded, not just a few, but every one of the youth girls lept up and ran up to the front to dance around and celebrate in worship. This continued through the rest of the conference, and after the Teen Adventure (when we had 90 girls show instead of 50 like we expected) all the teen girls that came to the youth session also came up front to worship! I was blown away. It was so awesome to see young girls who could be spending their weekend jumping around at a concert for their favorite band, instead dancing around for God. Lord please capture their hearts for good! Show them how much You love them and how beautiful they are to You!
Also- how did I not know about Christine Caine?! For years now I've had a burden for girls sold into the sex trade AND for reaching Europe with the gospel, and those are her two primary ministries! I couldn't believe it. I know I'm supposed to be in LA right now...but something tells me that somewhere in the future I'm going to be working with her. I wish I could just live in her shadow for a year. Or five. I highly reccommend you check out her podcast. I've decided that even though I don't have a mentor to sit and talk with me yet, I'm adding Holly and Christine to my list of women I see as spiritual mentors in my life. Amy Carmichael, Elisabeth Elliot, Holly Wagner, Christine Caine. I've been following writings from the first two for most of my life, and I'm excited to start stalking Holly and Christine through their writings, sermons & podcasts. Lord thank you for awesome women to look to who exemplify Your purpose & passion in their lives!
And to top off the conference for me, was the hot air baloons. How did they know the song I've been listening to almost every day for the last two months is Hot Air Balloon? I couldn't stop beaming when I saw them.
Oh yeah. And to top off the weekend...I got to watch the Mariners beat the Dodgers. (Sorry pastor Phillip)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
0 comments:
Post a Comment