Days 2-4

--Surprise#1 of day 2...my computer broke. So I haven't been able to blog regularly on here. I have been keeping a journal so I will include some excerpts of those. God is amazing. He really is so huge. He keeps reminding me over and over that in my weakness, He is strong. Sometimes, out of habit, I try and become the strongest person possible. On my own. When I do that, I'm not strong at all. The only way I become authentically strong is when God is strong in me.

I like that.

On Friday, Day 2, God blessed me immensely. Is that a surprise? Yeah, I love blessings from God. They are like presents wrapped up that make my heart swell. I got to spend some one on one time with a very special jr. high girl. I normally help facilitate a jr. high bible study at 7am. These kids, even though school is out, still faithfully attend Bible study at 7am!!! Isn't that awesome? Well, Friday morning was an exception. Only one of the girls showed up so we went to Starbucks, got some drinks and had an informal study. I love one on one time.

Friday night is the big jr. high youth extravaganza. It was such a blast. We had a huge water night. We set up a bounce house in the parking lot with a sprinkler attached to the wall. The kids loved it. They were soaked. We had a trampoline with water being sprayed onto it. There were other random sprinklers, food, games, and a whole bunch of wet kids. Oh...and loud music. You can't have a jr. high event without loud music.

Bruce spoke on love. Of course 1 cor. 13 was read. I hope those kids know how much we love them and through that are able to grasp the love that God has for them. I pray that our words, our physical beings will not get in the way of what God has in store for each of these amazing kids.

Day 3

Why is it that my family is the hardest to get along with? I love them and they mean the world to me. We just can't seem to get along. I feel as if the people in my family switch who they are mad at every five minutes. It's so frustrating.

Anyways...BEACH DAY!!!! I love it.

I went fishing off a pier. Actually, I had a spool of fishing line w/ hooks attached to it and dropped down into the water. Bruce had it rigged up when I joined the fishing party. I stood there for what seemed like hours with my hair swirling around my head. I know what it feels like when a fish bites. It's exciting.

A month ago I went deep sea fishing. I caught so many fish. It was so addictive.

I waited at the end of the pier. Waited for a fish to bite. Just one little fish. That's all I wanted but Noooo!

I wonder if God feels like that. He waits for us to bite. Just one bite of faith, or trust, or friendship. Maybe on some days He gets lots of bites and on other days He doesn't get any. How disapointing. I don't want to disapoint my God.

I also see it in light of a different metaphor. God wants us to be fishers of men. Diligently. I gave up on those fish pretty quickly today. No bites after an hour and I was done. If I gave up that quickly on the unsaved, where would the world be? How would we become saved? I'm sure God could/would still save us but our Christian walk would be so much different.

Day 4

I love Sunday. I love church. I love the busyness. I have worship team practice at 8am. Then jr. high sunday school and then church...followed by a full work day at Starbucks. During sunday school, the jr. high boys and girls split up. Us girls talked about keeping our mind pure and different techniques to achieve that. I think they grasped all the concepts and saw the usefulness of each even though there are sacrifices to be made such as not watching movies with any sort of sex scene that might get stuck in our heads.

I found out some news about one of my jr. highers that is very disturbing. I trust God with her. I know he is going to keep her safe from all harm but it's hard. I want to rush in and try and save the day but I can't.

There are so many joys with being a youth leader but there are also a lot of hardships. There are so many times I just want to cry for these kids. I yearn to see them saved.

God,
Protect these kids. Please wrap your love around them and help them to walk in your spirit and in your grace. You alone are sufficient. Teach them that.

I love you Father.

Good night.