for the glory of the Lord

young life brings me joy. high school kids bring me joy. and lots of it. We had our first event tonight, a scavenger hunt. It was great. One of the perks of leading out of the area is the long drives. Which so often I do not see a perk, but as something that prevents me from spending a lot of time with girls. But it truly is a perk, especially when I drive by myself. Because that's so much built in time with just me and the Lord. And tonight I prayed. I got to pray for my time with one of my closest friends at stonewall, pray for the scavenger hunt, pray for specific girls, my small group, soccer, club this semester, campaigners. I just got to lift up so much and it was so great. Lift up my fears and excitements about different aspects of the ministry. It's incredible to see the Lord's power through prayer. And to see His perfect timing. Within the last 48 hours, there have been multiple girls who have kind of dropped off in the last few months, who have contacted me and showed up and wanted to talk about life. Praise the Lord.

Prayer overnight was last weekend. It's one of my favorite weekends of the year. It's incredible and powerful. This year was hard for me. The last time I went (2 years ago) I fainted because I have low blood sugar and I didn't eat food. I fell on top of someone while we were praying. It was embarassing and defeating. And because of my blood sugar issues, I am not allowed to fast. I know fasting is something that a lot of people don't like doing, but I would truly love to be able to participate in that. This past weekend was hard. Plain and simple. It's hard to not fast when 850 other people are. I get so nervous about not having food with me. I was so nervous to get trapped in the middle of the club room and start to feel light headed and need to get food in me. So most of the time I sat in the back. I realized how I am a slave to food. not sure if that's a bad thing but I am. and it's tough.  But regardless of that, it was a great weekend. I got to see two of my closest girls from stonewall experience the Lord in a new way. They experienced healing and were given a vision for who they can be in Christ. Incredible.
We (all 850 of us) prayed for healing, specifically for a little girl named Maury who has a rare degenerative disease that causes her body to convulse. She's confined to a wheel chair. Her younger brother has it too. Maury wasn't doing very well last week. And we all lifted her up in prayer. We got news yesterday that her convulsions have stopped and the doctors think they have a cure for her. Jesus is powerful and loving. He listens and He's responding. Incredible.

check out va young life. "For where two or three (or 850) come together in my name, there am I with them."

Something else I realized tonight, on my quiet ride home, was how much I avoid conflict. I don't like attention and I don't like to cause a scene, especially with young life. I love high school kids and I love their energy. But so often I am concerned with if they are disturbing anyone or offending anyone. I often find myself trying to get them to be quiet. I don't want them to cause a ruckus. I got to thinking. Why do I do that. Jesus caused a scene. He made a commotion, He offended people and He caused a ruckus. Why don't I live like that. We had 22 high school kids, running around a neighborhood tonight, asking for bandaids, old VHS videos, and beanie babies. There was laughter and competition. The older kids were leader the younger kids. They rang doorbells and got so excited when someone gave them an item. They sang a song about how beautiful jeremy's feet were. A police officer came, and told us someone reported that there was a group of teenagers who looked dangerous outside. He came and talked to us, and told us to have fun. There was no need for me to try to hold back these kids. It's ok for them to make a scene. It's ok that people notice us. We are doing it for the glory of the Lord. Just like Jesus did. So that is how I will try to live my life this week. I will not be afraid to cause a commotion or make a scene.