I love seeing God work!

I (Amy) just got home from a weekend at the Oregon Coast for our hi school youth group Bridges Fall Retreat. This is our third year staying in a big house called Gearhart Lodge in Gearhart, Oregon. The high schoolers love staying there. I was going to try to book something new this year, but they made me book at this place again. It makes for some great Hide and Go Seek in the Dark with all sorts of nooks and crannies. =)

God was really working this weekend. First, a few months ago we decided to let the teens plan their own retreat. A core group of teens met together each Sunday night for an hour before youth group to plan everything: what we would be studying, games, food, etc. The youth really came thru - even more than I thought they would! One of our senior guys took the lesson time on Saturday morning, covering chapters 1-2 of the book of James. I heard lots of comments from the teens about how helpful the lesson was and I think they will always remember one specific illustration he gave on suffering thru trials. (Another senior guy was going to take chapters 4-5 in the evening, but had to cancel for being sick).


We had four teens lead small group discussion times. They all wrote out their own discussion questions ahead of time and took it all very seriously. And they did great! Other youth helped with leading worship, cooking, food prep and clean up. We were so proud of them!


God was really working this weekend. I mean, I could really feel the power of His Spirit!! One of the desires that our teen leaders expressed during the first planning meeting was that unity would be built and cliques would be torn down during the weekend. I really saw this take place. During free time, there were lots little groups of game-players throughout the great room - people mixing that you wouldn't have expected!


This morning, for our very last session together we held a Breaking of Bread service, similar to what we do at our church every Sunday morning. We come together to remember the Lord and what He did for us on the cross. We partake of the bread and wine together which symbolizes his body broken for us, and his blood shed for us. If you know even one teenager, you know that it is hard to get them to open up. The session started out pretty quiet, then one by one teens started sharing about what Jesus means to them. We were about to close with a final song when one boy spoke up. (This is a boy whose family has gone to our church for this boy's whole life. Yet he has gotten into a very rough crowd and doesn't even attend school right now. At the last minute, an older couple who has been mentoring him talked him into going on the retreat.) So he speaks up at the end of the Breaking of Bread and shares that he really was struck by one of the verses that we covered during our lessons from the book of James. It's a verse in Chapter 4 that says "He gives more grace." He shared about how he grew up in a Christian home, but that he is personally not a believer. He said he has seen God work thru hard issues in the lives of his family members. He said he wants to keep coming to youth group and learn more about God. With tears in my eyes, grateful for this young man's honesty, we closed our service with our last song which states, "What can I say? What can I do? But offer this heart oh God, completely to You...So I'll stand with arms high and heart abandoned in awe of the One who gave it all."
This would have been a satisfactory ending to the weekend, but as we all cleaned up the lodge to head out, one of our youth leaders pulled this troubled teen aside and for the next 45 minutes clearly shared the Gospel with him and what it means to be a believer. Right as we all started heading out the door to go home, this leader drew us all back inside to share that this young man had just made a decision to place his faith in the Lord Jesus!! It was something I hadn't even prayed to expect for the weekend. And God just came thru and showed Himself once again to be the amazing, faithful, merciful God that He is. Thank you, Lord Jesus!