Dream Big, God's Bigger

Oh my goodness!!!  Ok, so it's going to be really hard to describe and insert everything from the past fortnight (2 weeks for you non-Irish readers) :)  I'm gonna do my best to explain the summer programme we did as best as possible.

Well, I guess it's not so much describing the programme as it is cramming all that God did and how He moved into one post.  He is truly moving here in Newcastle and I honestly believe this is just the beginning.  As a fellow person in ministry said, Summer Fused 2011 is a springboard for this coming year of ministry and we need to be asking ourselves, "What's next?"

These past 2 weeks we did a programme for the youth of the area around Newcastle.  There were 50 leaders (mostly Irish with some Americans sprinkled in) that lead 5 different groups of what would be equivalent to a 2 week VBS or church camp kind of atmosphere.  We ran two sessions a day with each session running two hours each so we were with the kids for four hours a day Monday through Friday for a total of 40 hours.  Now seeing that in a two week span there are 336 hours and most of the young people spent 296 hours somewhere else other than in the programme you may think it didn't really have that much of an impact.  But you'd be wrong! :) You see, we had 300 young people registered, over 33 Bibles distributed to those who didn't have one and wanted to get into the Word, and about a dozen young people between the ages of 4-18 giving their lives to Christ.

Never underestimate what God will do with your time, talents, and programmes if you simply surrender them into His hands.

That's the amazing thing about God.  It doesn't matter how much or little we plan, whether we know exactly where we're going or stepping out on faith, whether we have millions or barely 2 coins to rub together; if we surrender it to Him, trust Him, and accept the fact that His will is better than anything we could imagine, He will do amazing things.  We don't need to be able, but rather available.

Over the last 2 weeks God has been refocusing my attention from the question of "How will I?" to "When will He?"  You see, when I was here last I was talking with the guy who I'm serving under and he explained to me that there were 2 sets of young people coming through the Kairos.  There's the ones who were in one room (talking through issues/questions of faith and what it looks like to follow Christ) and the other room (where the girls were concerned with boys, hairstyles, make-up, clothing, drink, and drugs).  He wanted to make it clear that I would be coming back to work with the young ladies in "the other room".  I would be lying if I said I wasn't intimidated one bit, however.  You see, these young people are rough, come from a completely different background as I did, and aren't afraid to push you to your limit just because they can.  This left me pondering the question, "How will I?"

However, the last week of the programme 2 young ladies were back from holiday and were coming to join us.  And they just happen to be put in my small group during discussion time after the talk that day.  Funny thing is one of them was very boisterous in the fact that she would not talk at all during small group time while the other one was trying to yell over her to tell her to shut up because it would only be 15 minutes and she could suck it up. (I'm trying to give you an idea of why I was so intimidated).  What followed was anything, but what I expected going into our small group time.  Both girls began asking questions (even the one who said she wouldn't say a word.  And they weren't just silly questions to get us off topic, they were genuine questions of curiosity and confusion.  Though it may not have been the smoothest ride, God was breaking through to these young ladies, even if just in the sense that they were opening up and asking honest questions where they had doubt or uncertainty.

But it gets even better.  You see, afterwards I came out glowing and smiling ear-to-ear.  I began telling Ben (the guy I had the talk with earlier on in the year) about how they were engaging in the small group time, asking questions, and being open.  It was then that he asked me if I remembered the talk we had a few months prior.  I said yea, about the young people I would be coming back to work with.  He pointed at the young ladies and said, "They were the girls in 'the other room'."  That was when God opened my eyes to the realization that it's not about my abilities and how I will do something, but rather about when God deems appropriate and I simply have to be willing to be a vessel.

God knows what He's doing.  Sometimes I forget that, as I'm sure, if you're honest with yourself, so do you.  But the best part is, God can handle that and still work despite our forgetfulness, our doubts, our imperfections.  In fact, sometimes that's when He works best, when we come to the realization of how small we are and it's then that He is able to work in big ways, because we finally step out of the way because we realize it's not by anything we do, but what God does through us.

God is moving in Newcastle and in the hearts of its young people.  The leaders, we're dreaming big and remembering GOD'S BIGGER.