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So I know it's been an incredibly long time since I have updated this blog. Hopefully I'll get more time (and more inspiration) to post. But I just had to post this. I just have to brag on God a little bit.
About two or three months ago, my friend Vanessa and I were sitting next to each other during a church luncheon. At this particular luncheon, we were discussing as a church the different areas of ministry we would like to see grow or begin. Youth ministry came up simply in passing. I turned to Vanessa and whispered, "What if you and I did the youth?" She replied, "I was thinking the same thing!" Right then, we knew it was a God-given idea. We started planning and deciding when we wanted to start.
After much discussion and consideration, we figured that we would start our new youth ministry on July 30th, at 7 pm. And since it would be our very first Wednesday, we thought it fitting to have a "Kick off Party". We planned play games, have free pizza, make free frappuccinos, and even have fun giveaways and prizes. We got an awesome team of people who wanted to help work with young teenagers. Then we realized that to buy supplies and prepare adequately, we needed an estimate of how many kids we expected to show up. We decided, "Expect 20-30, prep for 40." We planned to buy 10 pizzas--enough to serve 40 people--and tons of drinks and cookies to go with it.
After thinking it over and discussing it with some people around us, we realized 40 was a pretty big number for our very first night, so we dropped it to just prepping for 20 or so at the last minute. We bought enough pizzas and desserts to serve 25 people. Our team showed up ready and excited. Finally, 7 o'clock rolled around...and 4 kids from our church showed up (2 of them were my sibling, and the other 2 were Vanessa's kids). Vanessa's kids brought 3 of their friends. I was happy that we had some kids of our own show up and that they brought guests. I told everyone, "Well, 40 was a huge number. 7 is good to start off with! This is really great." But inside, I was a little disappointed. I had hoped for at least 10 or 15 kids. But we carried on the night, when suddenly, in the middle of a game, my dad stopped everything and said, "The lady who runs the driving school next door just called. She's bringing her entire class of almost 30 kids over in 15 minutes."
We made a run for it. Some guys from the team rushed over more pizzas, I reset all the games, and others made frappuccinos. All of the sudden, we were flooded with teens. They ate up the pizza, talked with the leaders, got prizes, and participated in the games. When told them who we were and what we were about, and invited them to come back next week, tons of them said they would be happy to come. The teacher of the driving school even said, "They had so much fun, I offered to let them come next week. But I told them they'll have to start class earlier and not get a break." And almost all of them agreed.
At the end of the night, we did a final count. We had forty-ONE kids. Forty-one! Not only did we meet our goal of 20-30, but we beat our prep number of 40! Honestly, when we said, "Prep for 40," we meant that 40 was our "just in case" number. We didn't really think 40 kids would show up on our first night. In fact, deep down, we only really thought that 20 or so kids would come. We even said we'd be happy if just 10 or 15 showed up. But we said "prep for 40" because we figured, "Hey, better to have left overs than not enough." But we did hit 40! We had forty-ONE!
Beating "the number" was really God's way of telling me, "Don't worry about this. I've got it." Throughout this whole process of starting a youth ministry from scratch, I've had doubtful thoughts come to my mind. Should we really be doing this? Will this really work? We don't even have youth in our church right now! Am I too young to be doing this? But I've pushed them away and replaced them with faith. I started to see us having a successful youth group. I started seeing teenagers experiencing change. I started picturing myself standing in front of a large group of young people ministering. I began to tell myself I can do it, that I'm not too young, and that it will work! When 7 kids showed up, those doubtful thoughts came rushing back. See. It was never going to work. What were you thinking when you said 40 kids? Getting that many kids will take you a long time at the rate you're starting at. But when those 34 kids came rushing in at once, God reminded me that He is ALWAYS faithful and ALWAYS willing to provide the desires of our heart.
We had a great night, and I was honored to be able to put on such a fun "Kick-off Party" with the incredible team of volunteers we had. But most of all, I'm thankful that God came through and showed to us all that He can do anything and that He will always provide. He was the one who brought those kids in. Not me. Not Vanessa. Not anyone on the youth team. Not even the driving school teacher. God brought them. We weren't the ones who beat our number. He did. He beat it by one.

Ask and you Shall Recieve...

So I posted about fasting once. I talked about how I was fasting. Well as I fasted, one of the things I asked God for was finances. I said "God, I really need a way of getting finances. Whether you open up more babysitting jobs or give me oppurtunities to work or just give me a real job-it's in your hands. I just need a job that will let me off on Sundays so I can still be with the kids in kids church." And that was all I prayed.
Well, on Thursday (Jan. 27th), I was at school. A woman came up to me and said "You're mom is on the phone for you." This never happens at our school, so my curiousity shot up. I picked up the phone. "Hello?" "I think I found you a job," my mom said. "What?" "Yeah! I found one. You're going in for the interview today after school." So here's how this happened:
My mom is friends with a woman (since I try to keep my blogs anonymous, we'll call her...ummm...Jill). Well Jill knows the owners of a restraunt about 10 minutes away from my house. And thes owners were talking to Jill and said "We need someone to wait tables, who is good with people and a hard worker." Jill said "I know just the person." And she called my mom and told her this. Well my mom then calls the coffee shop and says "My daughter is in school right now, but Jill told you about her. My daughter would be really interested in this job." The owners said "Great, can she come in after school." (Okay-side note: I'm currently involved in theatre at my school, and I'm in practice on Tuesdays and Thursdays after school till 5 pm. So I wouldn't be able to work on Tuesdays or Thursdays for awhile. Okay-back to the story.) "Wait," my mom says "She's in theatre and won't be able to be there till about 5:30. Is that okay?" "Yeah sure," the manager said.
So theatre gets out, and we go to the restraunt. The manager says "i'll be there in a minute." So we sit down. She comes out to us, and says "Okay, are you good with people?" "Yes!" I say. "Can you move fast? Can you move and be able to work 4 or 5 or 6 tables at a time?" "Yes I can!" I tell her. "Okay." So she talks to me some, explaining the restraunt and how I would work things, then says "If we hired you, what days would be a conflict?" I said "Well, I can't work sundays. And..." I then explained my theatre situation. In the end, I said "As soon as theatre is over, I am free on week nights and Saturdays." "Okay then," she said. "Can you give me your contact information?" As I was writing it all down, thoughts started running through my head. "What if she won't give me the job because of theatre? I can't quit theatre, because I said I wouldn't! Oh no!"
So I filled out the contact info, and gave it to her. "Great," she said. And the next five words that came out of her mouth were the best things I ever heard.
" Can you work Saturday night? "
"Yes! I can!" I answered.
"Okay good! So for now, until your play is done, you can work Saturday dinner shifts and fill in dinner shifts on weekdays. But you can't have that forever." "Why?" I asked. "because Saturday dinner shift is the best shift, and people will fight over it." "Oh, okay."
So this Saturday, I went in. I waited tables and did all that needed to be done. And at the end of the night, in tips alone, I made $58.
I thank God. I realized this:
1) I didn't call them. That job found me. God brought that job to me.
2) I didn't even have to fill out an application. They gave me that job.
And at the end of the night, the owners both told me "you did such a good job for your first night."
Thank you God!

Tie Love and Faithfulness around your neck. Write them on the tablets of your heart. Then you will have FAVOR and a GOOD NAME in both God AND man. -Proverbs 3:3