They Opened UP!!!!

Wednesday

Today was another crazy day! It started off normal, talking about Moses and the excuses he gave God for while he wasn’t good enough to do as God told him. And we reminded them that God does not call the equipped, but He equips the called!

Today we were able to split the preteens into 2 groups as well, more personal time without the awkwardness if there were deep comments or questions. We had a great discussion and time with them as usual.

We REALLY had the girl teens open up today! We still talked about Moses, but then asked them what excuses the give God for not doing what He has called. Some mentioned being unable to forgive, not prepared, anger, etc. We asked for some examples, and that led to some deep conversations and feelings that many of them had.

Our first example was from a group of girls (although one spokes person). There are 5 certain girls, in that same room, that were pointed out, that aren’t speaking to 3 other certain girls. It is weird. They wouldn’t go into too much detail while we were sitting there, so we planned on talking to them individually during basketball. Later she mentioned that she doesn’t like talking out loud, but she felt that God was giving her the strength and courage to do it! (PS…she hasn’t accepted Christ yet…)

One of the girls mentioned how frustrated she is with her mom because her mom didn’t tell her that who she thought was her dad, wasn’t. She’s also angry that her mom gave up her youngest child to another family, because she felt that she couldn’t take care of them all, and she feels her mom would have been able to do it! This girl is also somewhat on the “outside” of the group, so for her to share it was awesome to see! It was a very emotional time for her! She nearly cried every other sentence, and kept looking at the clock because she was “taking up too much time.” But we were all willing to listen and wait, especially since she said that this is something she felt God wanted her to share! At the end of her explanation, I told to her that a true father is something that is going to take care of you! She obviously had one of those and because she has accepted Christ, she has a Father that is in control of everything! She is such a sweet girl and now I know how to better pray for her!

We got over to the basketball court with 15 minutes until 4, so Jo, Elo and Laura began talking to the first group of girls that were having problems! 30 minutes later, they began talking to the next group. 30 minutes after that (the rest of us headed to the Soccer Field – I made a goal!) the last person took her turn! Come to find out, the reasons why the people aren’t talking is a huge misunderstanding…as usual! We are hoping everything will be cleaned up eventually!

That night it was my turn to speak! We talked about finding Rest in Christ! I had one of my preteens (Paulo) holding a 5 gallon igloo full of water and asked him if he would like some help…he said no…so will I was talking about how sin, anger, unwillingness to forgive, and our pasts weigh us down, I kept pushing down on the igloo…then he wanted some help! So Roberto was in charge of holding the other side, symbolizing Christ helping us take weight off. Throughout the lesson, Jordan (The Holy Spirit) was removing water to symbolize the pain, anger and frustration in our lives being removed.

In the end, there was still a little bit of water left, but nothing like before. I asked Paulo which igloo he would rather carry, the one that Jesus is helping him with and the Holy Spirit has taken off our burden, or the other igloo (which now had all the water). He preferred the emptier one! There are always going to be things in our lives that we are going to let weight us down, but when we accept Christ and allow Him to work in our lives, He can take that pain and burden away from us!

It was a good day!