Youth Weekend Away Part 2

From the opening note of our worship time, the Saturday evening meeting began to flow with the life of the Holy Spirit. Pastor John shared about heaven and hell, drawing from the book Visions Beyond the Veil. It had a powerful impact on all of us and the meeting continued way past the official ‘end time’ as the young people sat and encountered God in a fresh way. We also spent time praying for the girls who wanted to become like ‘Mary’, an amazing woman of God who ‘gave birth’ to Jesus. Don’t worry, it has nothing to do with them getting pregnant!! No, it is a metaphor for growing and demonstrating Jesus’ life and love in their own lives and seeing this impact and influence the world around them. We have some very special girls in Energy, I’ll be doing a separate blog about this later in the week. The day came to an end as ‘Intro Matt’ made a welcome return and we had some fun and games as the youth tried to ‘Beat the Leaders’. All in all, the Leaders did pretty well!

Sunday dawned bright and sunny and full of the fresh mercies of God. We had a short time of worship and then Pastor John spent some time talking about sex and relationships with the older youth (Year 10+) whilst Sue and Alison did something a bit more ‘age appropriate’ with the younger ones. Referencing his message from the previous evening, he explained more about making choices that will help us enjoy ‘heavenly sex’ or ‘hellish sex’. The world has destroyed, damaged and demolished anything good relating to sex, relationships, marriage and more. Satan knows that this is one area in which human beings are vulnerable and he makes no allowances for teenagers! Pastor John’s message was powerfully prophetic but intensely practical as well and his words really hit home. The young people listened carefully and I knew that if they really caught hold of the revelation behind the words, they would truly grasp that God wants the best for them and that, through the power of the Holy Spirit dwelling in them, CAN walk a sexually pure life in this sexually immoral world.

As the weekend drew to an end, we finished with one of the ultimate expressions of unity and a rich means of grace to our lives: communion. We broke bread together and ministered to one another before sharing briefly something that God had done for each person over the course of the weekend; people had really entered their ‘promised land’.

Thanks to all of you for your prayer and support. Thanks also to the team who came and helped out, especially to our Friday night Taxi Driver (Marky P) and Kat and Jamie for chef and worship leading contributions respectively. Most of all, thank you to the Young People of BCC: it is a privilege to be your Pastor and see you grow up both in the natural and in the spiritual too. God has gifted me with some amazing teenagers and despite all your ups and downs, I can honestly say, I think I have the best job in BCC!