Well, my schedule is a little different AGAIN… Instead of going to Symphony on Mondays, we now go on Thursdays. And Excelsior is still not confirmed, but if it does work out, I will go there on Tuesdays. So now Monday has turned in to a sort of office day, where I can help work on proposals and other things for YFC in general.
This Monday in particular was an interesting one… As soon as I arrived at the office, I was leaving for the Cape Theological Seminary. One of our projects is to come in on Tuesdays and help them with admin type things, so they asked us to make a presentation for their Chapel on Monday. Little did I know what was to come… Denzel, one of the YFC staff had just said I would share a testimony of what it’s like in the projects, and that I might talk about some upcoming events. No big deal, I can handle that. But before I knew it, I had a guitar strapped on me, and I was leading worship. Not my guitar, but I just happened to open my big mouth and say that I would lead worship “if I had my guitar with me.” BIG mistake. God just loves to surprise me, I think. He wants to destroy my expectations and my ideas. I didn’t think I would be leading worship, boy was I wrong!
The presentation ended up being a great thing. Just to connect with the students and faculty there and potentially use them in the projects. I was more blessed by the fact that I met a woman from South Carolina and a man from Montgomery, AL. I didn’t realize how much I missed home until I heard his southern twang. What a beautiful thing! Never thought I would say that. We talked about football, grits, Starbucks and all was well with the world.
Since you pretty much know my weekly schedule now, there’s no point in walking you through each and every day. I will just give you some of the highlights and quotable quotes. First, SOS teens was particularly powerful this week. On Wednesday, we talked about friendship and how you are as a friend. We specifically talked about wearing “masks.” What mask do you wear to hide how you really feel sometimes? The youth truthfully responded. We got REAL, so to speak. This was a breakthrough for them! Usually it is a struggle to get them to go deeper, but for whatever reason, they felt completely comfortable going there. I definitely believe God is opening hearts, especially when we pray for that.
Another very cool moment this week was at Symphony High School on Thursday. Since our schedule was moved from Monday to Thursday, there is a sweet girl who no longer has class with us. She’s very disappointed about this, so she decided to come sit with us during her interval, which is a time for them to break, chill or eat lunch. At one point during this time, she turned to us and asked pretty abruptly, “What are you doing here? I mean, why would you come and teach a bunch of kids that really don’t care about anything you have to say?” I sat in shock for a few seconds, but immediately responded, “Well, frankly, I know that most of the kids here don’t care a lick about what I say, but maybe just maybe, if there was one student that needed to hear something, then all of this would be worth it.” She smiled, nodded and said, “Yeah, but I bet that’s hard.” I replied, “Yep, but we care, so that’s why we’re here.”
It was a beautiful moment, where God just flung wide open a door of opportunity to preach love into this girl’s life. It is hard to work in the schools and not be as open about God, especially when you have all different religions represented. Multiple Muslim girls were wearing their headdresses. We have to be careful with our words, but obviously God makes a way for us to get through to these young people despite the caution. I’m excited for more opportunities to come!
To end out a fantastically busy week, I got a call on Thursday to let me know I was leading worship at a local church called Kaleidoscope. I had visited two weeks earlier and before I knew it, I was invited to lead worship! Yikes! I can thank Uncle Rolf for that one. He was giving the sermon this morning and told the pastor of the church (Pastor Glen) he would take care of everything, including worship (aka, calling me). I was very worried all this weekend, and into this morning, but it never fails that God just takes care of everything. My worries and doubts disappear with the first chord, as I start leading worship, and after that it’s just Him. Despite me, God moves and uses my worship; His worship. Rolf actually asked me to share one of my songs more lovingly dubbed, “The Car Song,” for the offertory song. It’s a more embarrassing song that I wrote after I had a bad day and a bad car experience, but it was amazing how God used that song to speak to some of the congregation members. At the end of the service, Pastor Glen asked me to come back up and do one more song. I chose to do “All Who Are Thirsty,” which was co-written by Glen Robertson, the pastor of the church. I thought it might be an interesting experience to play his own song for him. He was very excited to hear that it was such a popular song in the states. I’m sure it is an amazing thing to see your music blessing people a world away!
Wow, what a week! Sorry for the lengthiness of this entry… For those of you who made it this far, you are my true friends. I have really been missing home this week. There was a Chrysalis Boy’s Flight this weekend, and I’m not there to see the life change, but I definitely know it’s going on! I’ve been praying for all of you there at Blue Lake right now! Fly with Christ!
Prayer request: My family… just pray hard for my family, specifically my sister’s health and my brother’s strength and perseverance. Also pray for more opportunities with students in the classroom!
-Kristen
