Restoration

We just got back from a week in Louisville with our youth group serving on a mission trip.  Except for a two night hospitalization for Mike (stupid cellulitus) it was an amazing week.  The worship was amazing and the preacher was one of the best I have ever heard.  He preached on Joel chapters 1-2 and the theme for the week was Restoration.

I know that this week was for the kids but this youth leader was certainly blessed beyond words with the message and our service this week.  It has been a tough year for many reasons, and being reminded how God restores hurts, challenges, and disappointments blessed me.  I recently did a study on the life of Hosea and I studied how God redeems what the locust take and then to hear about locusts again in Joel blessed me.  It has been a year full of locusts and I have faith that God will restore the challenges.

My best girl served with these amazing girls at a park in Louisville.  I am thankful for Kim and Victoria who were the other gal chaperones on this trip and for serving our youth all week long.  Seeing these youth have bibles open each night during worship and take notes on the sermon just about made me want to weep.  May their hearts stay devoted to God.

Kyle, David and I got to serve along with some other awesome youth in a refugee community in Louisville.  We literally went door to door interviewing families on behalf of encounter ministries asking lots of questions about where they are from and how long they have been in America before offering services on behalf of the ministries.  Despite our current political climate regarding refugees I was blown away how many homes we were welcomed into. 

We also invited all the children we saw to come to the park each day from 1-3 for fun and VBS type of activities.  It blew my mind how many parents allowed us to take their children with us to the park-the level of trust overwhelmed me.  It was a magical week of learning about different people, different cultures and different religions. 

The evening worship was so good!  David was a big fan!

I took so many notes from this week but I will always remember the preacher challenging us that we cannot witness to the World if we look like the world.  We have to be set apart and look differently. 

I will also remember the phrase " I am not worried about you going to church I am worried about what you are doing to benefit the kingdom of God!" Amen and amen! 

We are not perfect and certainly we all have sins to lay at the cross, but this week I was such a proud youth leader to see our kids step up.  They stepped up when we went one chaperone down, they stepped up at their sites, they stepped up their behavior and were so good, and I am just so proud of them.  Youth ministry is a challenge (especially when someone always ends up in the hospital) but it is such an honor to see these youth outside their comfort zones serving the kingdom of God. 

I will never ever forget this week in the city of Lousiville learning about God's restoration from the locusts and watching our kids step up for the Kingdom of God.  It is always hard to come back to reality after a week serving the Lord but I am thankful for the awesome time we had. 

I am thankful also for the laughs that we have as a group!  If anyone thinks it is boring to follow Christ come hang out with us.  We crack ourselves up so much because there is such joy in serving the Lord.  We may have shushed a few people this week and set off an alarm or two but our joy could not be denied.  A life following Christ is a blast! 

I never will forget the beautiful people of all races and colors who also claim Christ as their savior.  I was humbly reminded this week that Jesus is not white and he welcomes all the little children of the world.  Heaven is going to be a diverse and beautiful place if it resembles Maplewood refugee community.