Planting the Gospel extended.

Last weekend we had the chance to take 8 of our high school students to Obsession which is a retreat directed to go deeper into God’s Word and hear what it means to be more Obsessed with Christ. Megan, who I talked about in my last update, was able to be there. Me and my roommate (Scott Hansen) had to drive up late due to work and missed the opening session. We were able to catch up with everyone later that night and I had the chance to talk to, or err…brush by a pass of words that really didn’t make sense from Megan. I wasn’t able to have a chat with her until the next evening after Scott’s teaching. I saw her sitting alone by herself with her head between her hands just sitting there. So I took the opportunity to catch up with her and see what she murmured the night before. What she had said that night was, “it’s frustrating.” I asked her what she meant by that and she goes on to tell me that she’s not hearing the answer she wants to hear. She has some background of abuse and she’s carrying it around all by herself. The struggle she’s fighting is laying it before God and forgiving the person involved. What a heavy battle!

I didn’t say much but really listened to her fight. She knows what God wants her to do but she doesn’t want to surrender. Just reflecting back on this, how many times do we act before we really hear or listen to what God is calling us to do. Later that night I saw a different Megan. She was dancing, laughing and hanging out with some girls from the other church. I heard that she danced so much that she had to go back to the dorms to shower cause she was sweating so much.

I hadn’t talked to her since then until this afternoon. As I was getting ready to take a precious nap I got a random text from Megan. She asked me if I was moving soon. I had told the students of my plans of starting another church and partially why I’m not the student minister anymore is because of those plans. I asked her why she was wandering this and she replied back with, “i dnt want u to go.” That floored me. I told her I really appreciated that and it reaffirmed why I’m still here in Valpo.

Sometimes we can get so consumed by our future plans that we miss the opportunities that are right in front of us. I pray this won’t get the best of me and I see those who God has put in front of me to love and show mercy to. Please continue to pray for Megan’s battle. Pray those hurting in Valpo. Pray for the Rapha Race that’s coming up this weekend. (I will give you an update next month about the Rapha Race. It’s a 10 mile/5K run to benefit the Rapha House.)