Thursday, October 8, 2009

What Did I Get Myself Into?

"I can´t do this..." were the words of my friend last Friday. Busy preparing for an upcoming conference in a new position and leading the junior high youth group was all beginning to weigh down on him about fifteen minutes before the Friday night service. Before I could even think about what I was about to say, "I´ll preach for you tonight," came out of my mouth.
So, 15 minutes before the service started, I now found myself prepping to preach to about 75 junior highers about dating and relationships. I quickly printed out my notes from two sermons (one to just guys and the other to just girls) I had preached to my youth group back in NY in a series called Guy Talk / Girl Talk. I then quickly worked to combine the two into one. Prepping so last minute, I wasn´t comfortable doing it in Spanish, so I called one of my friends and asked him to translate for me. (Poor guy, he had to translate for me talking in first person as if he were me in a talk about dating and relationships... it added some humor though). We went over it quickly during worship and then prayed, and then it was go time.
I felt really good about the way it went. I was concerned that while he was translating I would be too focused on listening to his translation to make sure it was right that I would get distraction. But the Lord answered my prayers and I wasn´t distracted by his translating at all, and he did an incredible job communicating what I was saying. I challenged the kids to make a stand for purity and then we ended the night with communion.
After communion a young girl whom I have never talked to before came up to me and started telling me about how she was sexually abused as a child. I was able to pray with her for forgiveness and healing. As she sat there in tears, the Lord ministered to her powerfully.
The whole night was powerful and amazing. While I love the administrative work have been doing, I was missing the practical ministry of preaching and one-on-one impartation and ministry. This night was such an answer to prayer and filled that hole perfectly. God is doing amazing things here.

1 comment:

  1. I love how God throws things our way and prepares us for it at the same time. I've been experiencing a lot of "go" times these past few months, and while sometimes it's intimidating and a bit scary, He changes our perspectives and helps us see how He's working...

    Yes, He is amazing :)

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