Inside Out

This weekend I was blessed with the opportunity to go with the youth from our church on a retreat with First Chinese Baptist Church of San Antonio. FCBC has a youth retreat every year, and this year Alamo Stone partnered with them and I was asked to go as a Devo Leader for the girls. It was an absolutely amazing experience. It started out a little rocky, having not ever really done anything like this and being scared about going I finally decided that I felt like God was calling me to go, so I did. We got there and like most middle and high school kids, the limits were pushed and tested, but all in all, not as bad as I expected. Thursday night we had an intro to camp and worship service with the amazing speaker Pastor Dames, followed by our first group devotion time in which I had five girls in my group, three middle school girls from our church, and two high school girls from FCBC. It was an amazing group of girls that I loved getting to sit with for an hour each night and just talk with and teach and answer questions. I went in thinking an hour would be a really long time, but by the second night I decided an hour was not long enough with these girls. Friday morning came early and throughout our very eventful day we had worship, activity/rec time, a workshop (in which I went to the high school girls workshop on relationships which was taught by Mrs. Dames) then some good lunch, free time, dinner, another amazing worship session, the best of all the activity/rec times probably (in which we played this noodle fighting game that all the kids loved and that we ended up playing the whole hour instead of switching to our second game which would've been human Foosball) and then a really cool devo time where my girls really got to just open up and tell each other about their faith and how they came to know God's awesome saving grace, as well as some of their struggles, and got to ask me questions, followed by an amazing conversation with one of my high school girls just about boys before bedtime. Some of the devo leaders stayed up and worked on stuff for the next day's events and ended up not finishing up until like 2am. Saturday morning also came way to soon at 7am and the day was very similar to Friday with the exception of we only had one activity/rec time and that's when we had this Scavenger Hunt, Amazing Race style, and then we had an earlier dinner and devotion group before worship which was a bummer because the night before I asked my girls for any questions they had and that we would talk about them Saturday night and we ended up only answering like three questions and I know there were plenty more, it was a bummer to have to cut it short, but believe me we took every last second we could before praying and running to worship :) and after worship we had kind of an altar call without the kids actually walking to the front which was interesting and nothing like what I expected and there was sharing time and announcing of winning teams (Team 1, my team, got third in the Scavenger Hunt and 5th overall for the weekend out of 8 teams) and then some Ice Cream before yet another late night. Then Sunday morning we woke up, packed up, and drove home. The kids stayed at FCBC for worship, but unfortunately I had to work so I ran home to change and take a twenty minute nap before eight long hours of lifegaurding.

The weekend was absolutely amazing, I went into scared and not sure of what to expect. I went in not feeling confident enough to lead, but wanting to take the opportunity to serve the youth and be there to support them and just get better connected with some of our kids and God did amazing things! He opened up relationships I wouldn't have expected otherwise and He used me in ways I never would have expected. He used my story to comfort others and to be able to answer some questions of others, and my recent knowledge from studying to answer questions, he used me to serve our youth and I had a ton of fun doing so. The opportunity to go this weekend was such a blessing and helped me see that camp ministry is still very much an option and passion of mine. It also helped me see what things I like and have a passion for that very well could not be random thoughts but rather God telling me to pursue something, and what things are just going to stay hobbies and not be any type of career option. God is good, all the time. All the time, God is good!

The speaker this weekend was so absolutely amazing! Praise God! He astonished me with the way he was able to grasp and maintain the attention of the kids for at least an hour every time he spoke. He brought it too! He taught us some reggae dance moves. The theme of the weekend was "Inside Out" and he really just taught the kids as well as us what it means to live for God daily from the inside out. The Thursday night and Saturday morning worship sessions were probably by far my favorite. He used lots of scriptures and tons of Old and New testament Bible stories to really bring the Word of God. The things that stuck with me the most this weekend are, the three things you must do to live daily for God from the inside out, which are:
1. Believe in the grace of God and the saving power of Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior
2. Rest assured in that belief and stand firm in your faith
3. Be obedient
as did what he said Saturday morning when he focused a little more on being obedient and just some things we can do and he reminded us that we need to:
1. Know (and study) the Word
2. Preach the Word (not saying you are called to be a Pastor, but you are called to share the Gospel with others)
3. Fulfill your ministry (whatever it is God is calling you to do in order to glorify Him to your fullest potential)

He was a very practical speaker I feel like and he really challenged us the last night I think. I have come back from the retreat refreshed and renewed and feeling challenged but in a way in which I know what it is I need to be doing to be constantly and faithfully living for God daily from the inside out. Obedience is better than sacrifice.

"First clean the inside...then the outside will become clean." Matthew 23:26