Saturday Youth Service

On Saturday, we had the privilege of attending a Youth event at UEC, which turned out to be a truly special time for me and the team. The afternoon was spent playing Bean Boozled, doing a rock-paper-scissors tournament, handing out SWYOUTH shirts, Patrick and I sharing our testimonies, and watching an Alpha video. It was so fun to be able to be in the groups having fun playing games and trying disgusting flavors of Jelly Beans. I think the things that left the most impact on me were the testimonies and the conversations I got to have with the young women.

I think that all too often we can find ourselves comparing one another, thinking that someone has had a perfect walk with the Lord or an easy life, but when we share our stories, we find that as Ecclesiastes 1:9 says “What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun.” We all struggle, we all face hardship, we all live in a broken world, but we serve a God who is in the business of saving the people he has created and working all things together for the good of those who love him. That doesn’t mean that I, or Patrick, or any other Christian now live a perfect and easy life, but our God takes the brokenness of our lives to display his glory and show that it is in him alone that we find salvation and the renewal of our lives.