Youth in Action

This week has been an eye opener for me. (Not that every week hasn't been...) It has spanned from youth groups, to swagger wagons, to capitalism. Yes, I'm random. Yes, that's ok. We'll start with the youth group and end with the swagger wagon.

When I was in Honduras we had a group come from Eastridge in Georgia. It was a fantastic group and because there was sickness in the mission, I got to step in and help lead. I would put it up there with one of the best learning experiences I've had to date. I organized a large group , answered questions, witnessed baptisms, and really got to be a part of an experience that hopefully, they will remember for the rest of their life. I was able to share my story with members of the team and was encouraged even more to seek what God has for me. The path that I am pursuing today is because of the late night conversations I had that challenged me to seek what God really wants in my life.

During the next months, I will be traveling with Mision Caribe visiting churches and conventions, raising awareness to the fantastic ventures of the mission. All this will lead to my trip in December, and my stay in Tegucigalpa after that. Obviously that means working for an the "American Dream" is out of the question, so I've been trusting God is going to provide... Enter the youth of Northern Georgia. They took up a donation for me and allowed me to meet my goal to fund what I would need to cover my cost of living for those months.

I am completely humbled.

As of 1 year and a half ago, you probably wouldn't see me in a room with anyone under the age of 21. I couldn't stand to be around kids. The youth of today really used to get on my nerves. I saw kids in general as selfish, spoiled brats who needed to have technology taken away from them, because Christmas came on a daily basis to our capitalistic society. Seems a bit harsh, but we're being honest, right? That is what I thought.

I'm a firm believer that God has changed my heart on the subject, because I had nothing to do with it. He hid from me that I would be working with teenagers and spending time in an orphanage in Belarus that would have such a HUGE impact on me. He shielded the fact that my first trip to Honduras was through TEEN mission on purpose, because if I would have known that, I wouldn't have gone. I've befriended teens and mentored them through experiences of my life. I have this crazy desire/burden to love them because God loved them first! And now, I live with a 15 year old who loves science and math and spends a lot of time trying to teach me his thought process. The thing that brought tears to my eyes though was the generosity of teenagers, most of whom don't have jobs, or a steady income. It is because of them that I'm able to continue God's work... Irony anyone? It's quite laughable how God continues to demolish my prideful behavior. What a schmuck I was...

Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity. -1 Timothy 4:12

THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH MY BLOG, BUT IT'S FUNNY... REALLY FUNNY.

And yes, the family I live with "rocks the SE not the SUV," so it makes it even more fantastic!