After a wonderful fall of ministry, I'm excited and grateful for the time this weekend. The youth have worked hard to fundraise for the trip and we're ready to go! In the process of planning and preparing for this retreat I've been reminded of God's faithfulness and goodness in past youth retreats.
- This past October at our High School/Young Adults retreat, one our youth confessed for the first time the anger and pain he has felt as a result of his absentee father. He has begun to learn and grow in his understanding of God as his Heavenly Father.
- Last summer we challenged our youth to take risks of faith with Jesus. After struggling with homelessness in the last year, one young man returned home to find that his mother's work hours had been cut. With the family struggling to make rent he prayed for God's provision. The next day God provided a new housemate who was employed and able to contribute to rent and the young man's faith grew.
- In 2008 after experiencing the passing of a family member one of the youth encountered God in a new way. While worshipping at the retreat God gave him a comforting vision of him standing with Jesus and his family member. It proved to be a deeply healing time.
The youth group staff and myself are looking forward to being apart of God's work in our youth this weekend. The theme for the retreat comes from Psalm 139. We pray that God would work mightily through His Word, times of musical worship, fun activities and conversations to lead the youth into deeper relationship with Him.
We'd love to have your prayers for the weekend. As we've been praying, here are some things that God has put on our heart:
- New Decisions and Commitments: We hope for the youth to encounter God in a new way that leads to "decisions" - decisions to follow Jesus for the first time and decisions to trust even more deeply in Him
- Unity and Friendship: We pray that God will continue to grow the friendships between youth and adults in our group. It's our hope that the love of Christ will be evident in our youth group when we return to have our arts-outreach program "REEL Joy" in February.
- Spirit-led leaders: Please pray for our speaker Tommy Nixon and he shares the Word with the youth. Please also pray for our adult staff to pastor, play and pray with youth in a Spirit-filled way.
- Safe travels and Safety at camp
I look forward to posting an update next week!
Grace and Peace,
Elliot Ling
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