Thankfulness Day Two...


Today I am thankful when we catch glimpses of God's work in youth ministry. Tonight at youth group we kicked off a new small group ministry. I had worked really hard to get everything ready, recruited leaders, and contacted teens to be there. While the turnout wasn't as large as I had hoped, I still felt encouraged. I felt encouraged as I watched a brand new 20 something youth worker say, "I LOVE MY SMALL GROUP (believe me, that's a big deal when you are leading a junior high group!)" I watched as her co-leader, who just recently graduated from our youth ministry, nodded in agreement, and I secretly cheered "Yes," feeling like one of our teens made it! I listened as another leader shared how one teen in her group thanked God for the small size group, because it gave them a chance to reach out to more people. It's not all that often that you see tangible fruit in a youth ministry and it is far too easy to focus on what's didn't happen. Tonight, I am thankful for those little glimpses that serve as reminders that God never stops working.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Mother's Heart...

Image
It was the night before we were ready to leave for Ethiopia that it dawned on me. We hadn’t given the necklace to Biruk yet. When we had exchanged necklaces with his birth mom ten years prior at the orphanage, we had no idea when we would give it to him. We just knew that we wanted him to be old enough to appreciate it, as it would be the only thing he would have from her. We had no idea if we would ever see her again.  There have been several moments in our journey where I’ve had to pinch myself, because it has felt like I was dreaming. That night as we put our final things in our suitcases, took a deep breath, and came to the realization that we were not only taking our kids to Ethiopia, but that Biruk would in fact meet his birth mom…well, you had to pinch me, because it felt like I was dreaming. It also felt like the perfect moment to share this gift that we had been holding onto for 10 years. So we pulled out the necklace and gave it to Biruk. While words can be few and far
Read more

Stories Matter

Image
Yesterday, my family and I found ourselves at a local elementary school’s culture club, presenting about our trip to Ethiopia. Even as I write those words, it kind of blows my mind how God has continued to use our story in unexpected places. When the kids were old enough to understand, we began to talk about taking them back to their birth country when they turned 10. We figured at 10, they would be old enough to be pretty good travelers, but still approach the adventure with a childlike wonder. What we didn’t plan on, was that the year Biruk turned 10 would come on the heels of me taking a brand new job, our family moving to a new state, and buying our very first house, in an economy that felt as though it was tanking!  I remember talking to my counselor one day and sharing with him that while we had always promised this trip to our kids, it just didn’t seem to make financial sense. After all, last time I checked, Southwest Airlines does not travel to Africa. He said something
Read more

The Hands That Hold Your Heart...

Image
I have somewhat been dreading writing this blog entry for the past week.   The more I have thought about it, the more I have realized that my words probably won’t do a great job conveying my heart.   For the past several weeks, I not only thought about our little Baby B half way around the world, aching and longing to hold him, but my heart has been heavy for his birth mom.   While Wednesday marked the 3 year anniversary of our adoption journey (we signed our very first adoption paperwork May 8, 2010), just two days later marked a day in which Baby B’s mother signed papers to give consent to our adoption. Yesterday was a huge step in our journey.   We now wait to be assigned a court date to travel to Ethiopia, which our social workers says could happen any day.   Technically, tomorrow will be my official Mother’s Day as an “expectant” Mom.   While I have felt “expectant” the past three years of this journey, having an actual face and name makes it so much more real.   Tomorrow
Read more