Sand Blast day 3

After spending two days with the high school students while at Sand Blast, I was reminded how much I absolutely love what I do!!

The conversations…watching them worship God…walking with them as they decide to let God change some things in their lives.

Going into a retreat like this, you kind of expect some people to “lean” in this general direction. But to have the majority of the students not just “lean”, but make a conscious, well thought out, God inspired decision to follow Jesus, not just in Florida, but for the rest of the summer…..for the rest of their lives….it gets any pastor excited!!

On day 3 of Sand Blast I saw all of this come full circle. It wasn’t decisions based on emotion. It wasn’t a “spiritual high”. It wasn’t a bunch of teenager just “getting their Jesus on”!!

What they had been hearing in the teachings, in conversations with other students, in conversations with adult leaders, in quiet time where they were seeking God, being still and waiting for Him to speak….was like a spark smoldering on a piece of paper.

It started to slowly burn and catch fire…

In other words, what they knew about being a follower of Jesus in their minds, started to move to their hearts. They knew what the bible has to say about what a follower of Jesus looks and acts like, they were taking the information and letting it infiltrate their hearts.

Sunday started off with early morning worship on the beach, breakfast, free time, lunch, then the afternoon gathering.

The worship was just that…worship, us praising God, relenting control in adoration of Him. It was during this worship God’s Kingdom broke in right there.

Healing.

For about 2 months prior to Sand Blast my right shoulder had been bothering me. The extent of the pain culminated mid-May, around the time of the Student Life picnic…I couldn’t throw a football 2 yards without pain shooting in my shoulder. It was the kind of pain you couldn’t put your finger on. It wasn’t muscular…it was a deep, concerning pain.

There was times when I would worship and raise my right arm and the pain would cause me to put it down after 30 seconds.

So back to worship, Sunday afternoon at Sand Blast.

I was about to teach on how the Kingdom of God is here when we make decisions to love other people, when we come together and worship our creator, when we make a decision to follow Jesus and get baptized in front of our peers….and through healings. Of course I believe that the Kingdom of God is here, but God made it very personal, very surreal that Sunday afternoon.

To this day I can raise my right arm and my shoulder not hurt. I can throw a football the same distance I could before all of the pain. I don’t wake up in the middle of the night anymore because my right arm is numb and my shoulder in pain.

I thank God every day for showing us in the here and now that His Kingdom still reigns! I thank God for His Kingdom breaking in during worship, during the still moments, and in healings.

And that was just the 1^st part of day 3 at Sand Blast….you will have to come back later for what else happened on that Sunday….

Here’s a hint….more of God’s Kingdom breaking in…..

Sand Blast day 2

Saturday started off with some worship early in the morning on the beach…what a good way to start off a morning…the best thing was, it was student lead and student inspired!

After breakfast we had a bunch of free time. Volleyball, hanging out at the pool, swimming in the Gulf (which by the way was beautiful), great conversation, and napping! After lunch we had our afternoon gathering.

I have to admit, I started a bad habit Friday night that lead into Saturday afternoon’s gathering. I would look over my notes for the teaching while we were worshipping.

Sometimes we get so distracted and so enthralled in what is currently facing us we forget that during worship we are supposed to be worshipping our Creator, not thinking about what is for lunch or what we need to finish on our to do list.

But anyway…I was looking over my notes and I can remember the exact song we were singing while I was doing this…”O Happy Day”. I heard God say “what are you doing”? And in all my humbleness and wisdom and practicing James Chapter 3 (taming the tongue), I replied “You are God, you can’t see what I’m doing? I’m looking over my notes”! What a way to talk to a God that gives us unfailing love, grace, and mercy huh?

So I heard Him say “worship me”. It was one of those moments that you don’t question why, you just do…

As I started to worship my Daddy God, I found myself on my knees in full submission to Him. As I continued to worship the feeling I got was like when someone hugs you and doesn’t let go. His presence was so overwhelming all I could do was cry. And it wasn’t like God was trying to smite me or “deal” with me, He was loving me. So there I was, on my face, a big ball of mess!

As we started the last song I heard God tell me “you’re not going to teach”, I was like what? He then told me again “you’re not going to teach, let go of your agenda and let me be God” Normally at this point I would start stating my case and come up with a good argument. But not this time! As the last song started to finish, I got up and asked Chantal is God was telling her she needed to say something to the students. She smiled and shook her head yes, and I told her it was her time.

To be honest, I don’t really remember what she said, I know it was good and it was what God wanted said at that moment. He then told me to tell the students to throw away their agendas that they brought with them on Sand Blast, and allow His agenda to take over…and boy did it.

What happened in the gathering room at Surfside Retreat Center on June 11, 2011 was one that people who went on Sand Blast will never forget…it was a time that the Kingdom of God was felt…it was a time when the rule and reign of God was presence and gentle…it was a time when people made a decision to turn and walk towards Jesus, no matter what happened in the past, no matter how much they felt like they didn’t deserve it, no matter who was next to them…

One thing remains….

Sand Blast day 1

I have to say I love planning and preparing for events in Student Life. But come the day of the event my shalom and patience get stretched to the max! So the week leading up to Sand Blast I gave the adult leaders the authority to hold me accountable to not losing my shalom and patience come the Friday morning we were scheduled to leave for Sand Blast. Well that Friday morning one of the adult leaders saw that some of my shalom was falling off my face, and simply reminded me to breathe.

It was the exact thing I needed to hear!

I took a minute, told myself about 30 times people first, then in my head regrouped and started to see things in a totally new perspective. Isn’t awesome when we allow people to point out things in our lives, then humbly go to God and ask for His help?

So we loaded the trailer and the buses and headed for Panama City Beach, Florida….and the anticipation started.

Do you remember the feeling you used to get on December 23^rd….2 days before Christmas? Remember wondering what gifts you were going to get? If you were going to get that one thing you have been asking for the last 6 months?

I had that feeling on the bus heading to Florida…the anticipation of students standing before God saying “I relent my life, future, dreams, worries….to you…I trust you”!!

We were making good progress until we hit Alabama. Traffic.

I dislike traffic….really, really dislike traffic!

After 25 minutes of stop and go traffic we were crossing the Mobile bay. We stopped for lunch shortly after Mobile Bay at our traditional stop…Wendys, and we were back on the road.

We arrived at Surfside Retreat Center around 4:30pm, unpacked Ms. Pam’s van, the trailer, and the buses like busy little ants and we started to enjoy the beautiful blue water of the Gulf, the view, and the community.

We got settled in, went over a few rules and expectations, ate dinner, then the gathering.

I have to say, it’s been a while since I saw over 50 students so ready to worship our Creator! During worship I could hear God talking to me like never before. I was like He was standing next to me, with his arm around me, directing my every thought and word and move. During the teaching I had stuff in my notes that I wanted to say and I could clearly hear God say skip over that, and move to this. After I was finished the teaching (which by the way was about the Kingdom of God: what it looks like and how it is relevant to us today) we started to worship again. Normally at this point students, student leaders, and adult leaders would start to move to pray for people. But this time nothing!

This was the 1^st of many times during Sand Blast I would have the decision to throw away my agenda and allow God to carry out His agenda. After about 45 seconds (which felt like 10 minutes) I asked God “what are you doing? Don’t You want to move in these students’ lives?” He simply told me to be patient….I was like right!!

He then told me that the students and leaders need to see me move and pray for people 1^st, and then they would follow. And as it turned out, God knew what He was doing, I just had to be obedient and wait on Him.

As it would turn out, there would be a lot of being still, being patient, obeying God, and waiting for Him to move….all of the stuff we love…right?

You will learn more about how all that played out in future blogs!

Expectations...

That is what I asked a group of high school students to define last night at our very 1st roundtable Tuesday.

Its a question I had to ask myself.

What do I expect? From myself? The students? Leaders? Sand Blast? God?

The one expectation I have is relationships. For the students to grow in relationship together, to me, and more importantly to God.

As we started the 1st activity for this summer, I think it may be happening already. Last night some students expressed some huge expectations for themselves.

So expectations...if you dont have some for the summer, I want to encourage you to set some. It could be something as simple as helping out more around the house.

A wise man once told me "failure to plan is planning to fail". If you dont set expectations for the summer then you might look back and say where did the time go?

I will leave you with this. One of my favorite movies is the 1st Transformers movie. When Sam finally sees his car is a robot, the robot transforms back into a car and opens the door, inviting Sam into his story. Sam then looks at Mikalah and says " in 50 years, dont you want to say you had the guts to get in the car"?

In 50 years wouldnt you like to look back and say, "I'm glad I set those expectations. I made some friends I still talk to today, and God met me where I was!!!!

Now that my friends are some pretty cool expectations!!