When we seek God and wait to hear His voice,what He speaks will shape us.
This spring I took on the task of coordinating our summer missions program for youth groups and high school students, Mission Adventures. Mission Adventures leaders from around the world gathered in Ireland months ago and prayed about what our focus should be for MA, and God spoke Unbound. And there were three specific issues that God highlighted underneath that --- keys to our students living an unbound life --- Bravery, Identity and Idolatry. Is that the kind of stuff you usually talk about on a fun youth trip? Let's circle back to that in a little bit...
[Packing over 700 boxes of food bound for Honduras at Children's Hunger Fund]
We had four teams come July, about 40 students altogether. They stayed with us on our campus for the first couple of days and had teaching on everything from evangelism, servant-hood, and the link between prayer and missions before going out into the city for outreach. We had a wonderful mix of outreach activities throughout our weeks, from working with food distribution programs in the San Fernando Valley and South Central LA, evangelism in Hollywood and Santa Monica, working with three different missions in Skid Row, serving meals to seniors with the Salvation Army and cheering for athletes at the Special Olympics. I felt really blessed to be able to experience more of my city, humbled by the amount of neediness that we have, and so thankful that we could partner with so many different people who are working day in and day out to care for our communities.
[Prepping food for distribution at M.E.N.D. in the San Fernando Valley]
It was undoubtedly a growing experience for our students. Every week we had our first teaching from our Calling All Skaters founder Shaun Hover on evangelism and bravery. He taught us to celebrate bravery in one another, even if we go up to talk to someone and they aren't receptive. We know that God is good and that we're called to share His love, not only in our speech, but in our lifestyle. So many of our students stepped out and talked to strangers and wound up praying for them for the first time. Even seeing the level of poverty in Skid Row was incredibly challenging for some of our students, and while our culture conditions us to be uncomfortable and avoid the homeless community, we saw that the love of God compels us to reach out and love them.
[Taking the crew out to evangelize on Hollywood Blvd]
Here's my absolute favorite part. The final week we had two groups and on our last night together we spent time sharing highlights and testimonies from the week. I was expecting to hear stories about our students highlights and most impactful moments, and it certainly began that way. But as the night went on they began to open up about very personal issues, dark parts of their testimonies and share about struggles with identity. Their bravery lead to so much freedom and breakthrough in the room and opened up an amazing time of prayer as God came in and ministered to us. It was a powerful moment in time. It was community as it should be. And suddenly it hit me; God had fulfilled what He spoke to us --- we were being Unbound.
I saw so much bravery in our kids. Not just on outreach, but in their transparent brokenness with one another. I saw God affirm them in their identity and tear down the lies of the enemy that had been robbing them of their true beauty and worth. And I felt God challenging us on the last piece of the puzzle; idolatry. It's easy to grow closer to God when you dedicate a week to going after Him and being used by Him. It's easy to go all in for a week when it's structured for spiritual growth. But are we consistent? I felt God challenging me to tear down my own idols. For instance, I'm kind of an entertainment junkie. I love to veg in front of the tv at the end of the day. Too often entertainment is my main source of comfort and rest when I should firstly find those things in God. What things distract us and rob time that we know should be spent with our Father?
When we see the beauty of who we are in Christ, we can live bravely for Him and all the idols of this world can't hold a candle to the greatness of our God. This was more than the story of what God wanted to do with a group of kids this summer. This is the story of what He wants for me always; to be unbound. To be wild and free for my King.
Here's some footage from our time this summer with some explanation about MA from our new program directors and testimonies from students and youth group leaders.
God is good! Thanks for reading!
