Saturday, July 12, 2008

Home

Wow, what a week. Tonight I along with over 80 of my fellow youth returned from the week of missions, worship, and craziness that is M-Fuge. Let me start by saying that I can't think of a better group of people to spend the week with in the city of Mobile; you guys are awesome.

Every year, God teaches me something new. This year, it was that I am important to Christ and that I am loved. Not loved only by Christ, but by my peers also. This past week, I feel like a friendship with a friend of mine was strengthened to the point where it could withstand a roundhouse kick to the face from Chuck Norris, and that, friends, is a strong relationship. Considering she is someone I saw as a sister before the week began, I praise God for how strong our relationship has become in the midst of a weekt that was God-centered. I praise God for blessing me with a friend I can also call sister.

Anyway, as for the missions itself, I got the chance to be a part of the Games and Rec track this week. My track leader, Dustin (aka Tim Cougar), was a blessing to me and hopefully to the rest of the group. He's an instrument for Christ if I've ever seen one. I feel blessed to have gotten to know him and to have been able to spend the week with him. As for our track group, there were 30 total, 7 of those being from FP, and what a group it was. I enjoyed the company of every person there. Two guys I met, Dan and Greg, were awesome guys to get to know and it was a joy to see the work of Christ carried out through them. They're a couple of classy guys, that's for sure. We went to an apartment complex called the Family Place, and just to see the joy in these kids eyes from just loving on them and playing with them and just showing the love of Christ was a blessing to sasy the least. The guys in my track group were incredible, and help make this week a memorable one.

At the beginning of the week, we talked among our church group about students, regardless of age, can make an impact on their ministry sites. I experienced this first-hand. Sara McCutcheon and Debra Story absolutely blew me away at site this week. Every single child they came in contact with, they loved on them like Jesus would and treated every child like they were special. Those two young women have great futures ahead of them for sure.

There's this thing at Fuge called Mega Relay. It's basically a relay between every single track group at the camp. It's the night of this event where people go absolutely crazy and have the time of their lives with a group of believers. The different parts of the relay are fun and at times absolutely crazy. I had to eat peanut butter and jelly off of a guy's face with a bun, if that gives you some insight. That was also the first time I"ve ever had jelly, the stuff's not half-bad. I am proud to say, that we won the relay part hands-down, but didn't win the spirit award, but it's ok, we had to give the other groups something haha, just kidding of course. As crazy as our group was, there was groups that went above and beyond, and were quite a sight to see.

As for me, I limped quite a bit this week. The first day on sight while we were playing kickball with the kids I stepped into a hole while I was running around and apparantly ripped a ligament of the bone in my foot. It wasn't my first choice on how to spend the week, but I wasn't about to let a bum foot ruin my week at Fuge. It's about the work God has for us to do rather than about us, and that thought helped me get through when my foot really ached.

This past week was incredible, and I praise my Heavenly Father for giving me the opportunity to experience ever minute of it. God moved in a big way and it was amazing to see up close and personal.

When I arrived home this evening, I brought my suitcase into my room, went to my living room, collapsed on the couch, and just began to cry my eyes out. I was already missing the people I had met and the great staff that guided us the previous week. The reality that I was back home and the reality of the real world had began to sunk in, and after a week with fellow Christians, reality wasn't the best feeling in the world. I was afraid of losing the intimacy I had found with God in the past week, which is usually the standard when coming off of the "camp high". I began to focus on things other than Christ in those moments and it made my doubt grow even stronger. I was able to see though, that with God's aide, and with focus on him, everything that is not Christ will fall into line according to his will. And that friends, is a concept, though hard for me to practice, is a concept that is attainable, and is capable of filling us with joy. Christ's love is bigger than our doubts and worries, and with focus on him, our doubts and worries can become next to nothing at all. Praise Him.

1 comment:

Elizabeth said...

im so amazed by your faith evan, and i guess its something to take notes from, you are a wonderful guy, and don't forget that. :)