Captain’s Log, Stardate 11.07.2006
Blog book giveaway:
To enter, go to the blog links below and post a comment there.
My Thursday book giveaway is Coldwater Revival by Nancy Jo Jenkins.
My Monday book giveaway is Lost in Nashvegas by Rachel Hauck.
You can still enter both giveaways. On Thursday, I'll draw the winner for the Coldwater Creek and post the title for another book I'm giving away.
Win an iPod Nano! Exclusively for my newsletter YahooGroup subscribers, I have a huge contest running until January 31st! Get more info on my contest page!
Click to join Camys_Loft
Check out Christian Women Online (click on the button above) to see what other women are blogging about this quote:
I've been doing youth group work for about 10 or 11 years now, I can't quite remember. The kids have probably sucked out all my brain cells by now.
When I first got interested in youth group, it wasn't some huge "calling" that stopped me in my tracks. It was the fact I sucked at Sunday School and wanted to serve at my church in some way.
At the time, my church had a full music crew and ran on oiled wheels. The only places open were Sunday School teachers, and I was terrible with kids. So I thought, well, what about youth work?
My friend's friend's church had a need for youth group workers, so I visited one day. And immediately I clicked with a group of junior high school girls who somehow thought I was cool.
It was then I actually felt the calling. I realized how much I enjoyed this work and could feel God's pleasure when I worked with the kids.
Not all the time. As different groups of kids came and went, we had a full range of personalities and spiritual maturities. Some days I really wanted to strangle them all. Other days, I was just tired.
I kept at it, because I knew this was what God wanted for me. No matter how bratty, whiney, stubborn, rebellious, melodramatic, sullen, frustrated, or confused they were, I stuck with it. (They're teens and pre-teens—can we say hormones???)
It wasn't until that first group of junior high girls had grown up, graduated high school, and gone off that I realized what those trying years were for.
Some of the girls went off to their own thing—other friends, other lifestyles, slowly phasing God out of their lives.
But some of them went on to colleges. To new cities. To new churches. To leadership in those churches. To missionary work across the ocean.
I thought I was just pitching seeds and they were raining on nothing. But all God needed was one seed in each precious heart. He grew them. He used us to water them. He transplanted those plants and they're flourishing in other places, doing His will.
People in Japan whom I have never met have heard the gospel because God used me to plant a seed and water it in one of those junior high girls. That just floors me. I feel so insignificant and yet elevated at the same time.
God uses all of us. He demands faithfulness—even in the face of bratty, whiney, stubborn, hormonal teens—so He can use us.
God, use me more.
Although if You could make them a little less hormonal . . .
TMI:
Bible in 90 Days: Day 9. I think the whole thing about faithfulness has struck me because I'm reading Numbers (and may I say, I'm totally stoked it only took me two days to get through Leviticus).
Those ritual sacrifices and those laws reflected God's holiness, so they demanded perfect faithfulness. Because of the covering of Christ's blood, I think I take the whole issue of holiness too lightly because I never had to spill blood to achieve it.
I am more aware of God's holiness, and I desire to give Him more perfect faithfulness. The day in, day out service. It might feel like drudgery some days, but seeds can grow from that.
Writing: I'm still working on plotting this darn thing. No more words yet. Please pray for some supernatural writers duct tape for all these darn holes.
Diet: I exercised yesterday! I want to exercise every day the rest of this week. Still can't shake this cough, though. But it's starting to get better. Why is it always the cough that lingers for weeks after a cold?
Blog book giveaway:
To enter, go to the blog links below and post a comment there.
My Thursday book giveaway is Coldwater Revival by Nancy Jo Jenkins.
My Monday book giveaway is Lost in Nashvegas by Rachel Hauck.
You can still enter both giveaways. On Thursday, I'll draw the winner for the Coldwater Creek and post the title for another book I'm giving away.
Win an iPod Nano! Exclusively for my newsletter YahooGroup subscribers, I have a huge contest running until January 31st! Get more info on my contest page!
Click to join Camys_Loft
Check out Christian Women Online (click on the button above) to see what other women are blogging about this quote:
"Just as an inferno begins with but a spark, a field grows vast and plentiful from the sprinkling of seeds"
~ Stephanie Fries ~
Steph's Poetry Corner
I've been doing youth group work for about 10 or 11 years now, I can't quite remember. The kids have probably sucked out all my brain cells by now.
When I first got interested in youth group, it wasn't some huge "calling" that stopped me in my tracks. It was the fact I sucked at Sunday School and wanted to serve at my church in some way.
At the time, my church had a full music crew and ran on oiled wheels. The only places open were Sunday School teachers, and I was terrible with kids. So I thought, well, what about youth work?
My friend's friend's church had a need for youth group workers, so I visited one day. And immediately I clicked with a group of junior high school girls who somehow thought I was cool.
It was then I actually felt the calling. I realized how much I enjoyed this work and could feel God's pleasure when I worked with the kids.
Not all the time. As different groups of kids came and went, we had a full range of personalities and spiritual maturities. Some days I really wanted to strangle them all. Other days, I was just tired.
I kept at it, because I knew this was what God wanted for me. No matter how bratty, whiney, stubborn, rebellious, melodramatic, sullen, frustrated, or confused they were, I stuck with it. (They're teens and pre-teens—can we say hormones???)
It wasn't until that first group of junior high girls had grown up, graduated high school, and gone off that I realized what those trying years were for.
Some of the girls went off to their own thing—other friends, other lifestyles, slowly phasing God out of their lives.
But some of them went on to colleges. To new cities. To new churches. To leadership in those churches. To missionary work across the ocean.
I thought I was just pitching seeds and they were raining on nothing. But all God needed was one seed in each precious heart. He grew them. He used us to water them. He transplanted those plants and they're flourishing in other places, doing His will.
People in Japan whom I have never met have heard the gospel because God used me to plant a seed and water it in one of those junior high girls. That just floors me. I feel so insignificant and yet elevated at the same time.
God uses all of us. He demands faithfulness—even in the face of bratty, whiney, stubborn, hormonal teens—so He can use us.
God, use me more.
Although if You could make them a little less hormonal . . .
TMI:
Bible in 90 Days: Day 9. I think the whole thing about faithfulness has struck me because I'm reading Numbers (and may I say, I'm totally stoked it only took me two days to get through Leviticus).
Those ritual sacrifices and those laws reflected God's holiness, so they demanded perfect faithfulness. Because of the covering of Christ's blood, I think I take the whole issue of holiness too lightly because I never had to spill blood to achieve it.
I am more aware of God's holiness, and I desire to give Him more perfect faithfulness. The day in, day out service. It might feel like drudgery some days, but seeds can grow from that.
Writing: I'm still working on plotting this darn thing. No more words yet. Please pray for some supernatural writers duct tape for all these darn holes.
Diet: I exercised yesterday! I want to exercise every day the rest of this week. Still can't shake this cough, though. But it's starting to get better. Why is it always the cough that lingers for weeks after a cold?
God Bless youth workers. I had a solid family heritage leading me to faith, but it was my youth workers I looked to for guidance more than anyone else. Maybe I need to look one of them up and encourage him with how his seeds have grown in my life? Well done for watering those seeds in hormonal ground.
ReplyDeleteI laugh because here I am 48 feeling all those same hormones raging! They aren't exclusively for the teens I fear! And like those kids I have whined and fussed but a seed does grow in my heart! I think you have a special talent to work with the youth. I find them very difficult to communicate with. I am still looking for where I am supposed to be spreading my seeds. Wonderful posting!
ReplyDeletehehehehehe ... i wish He would make ME a little less hormonal sometimes, too!!!!! :)
ReplyDeletethat's awesome ... God is SO good to allow you the privalege to see your seeds grow and bloom! you're doing a great work trudging thru those hormones and loving those kids :)
Hi Camy,
ReplyDeleteHaven't visited in a while. I sure like stopping in here for a smile. Hope you are well!! See you soon. Lynn
guess what! i got my letter in the mail today that i got accepted to grad school!!! thanks so much for your prayers. now i must just pass this final semester......
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing this Camy - and I totally see why they thought you were cool;-)
ReplyDeleteI'm supposed to be writing...
Deborah:
ReplyDeleteContrats on Grad School! That is amazing!
Camy - I exercised today too. With writing, my schedule gets so hectic it's hard to make time...
Tina
Lev and Numb . . . hhmmmm . . . only two days to get through Lev? eh? Cool.
ReplyDeleteYou go girl!
Camy, that floors me too how many seeds grow from one. Awesome!
ReplyDeleteI exercised today and I've been doing it for a few days. I got an ipod, and I listen to worship music while I walk the treadmill. I feel so refreshed when I'm done!