Casting the vision

Every school holiday, our youth group either organizes or attends what we call a youth conference. And in two weeks and one day, it will be time yet again to put on the event where youth swarm our campus, attend several Bible studies, have small group time, play games and consume large sums of food. I have to admit I was struggling with grasping the real vision for this conference and although we've been talking about it for a couple of months now, it's finally upon us. Last night though, was one of those nights of just awesome inspiration and the ideas just kept coming. I've known for about a month now that I wanted the main theme of the conference to circle around the book of Nehemiah, but that's where the ideas stopped. Last night though, God just opened my eyes to some really cool things and I just pray that I can effectively implement them, which I know is possible if I rest on Him alone.

Our little youth group here at Calvary Chapel Jinja has been going through a difficult year and basically we've lost two youth pastors in the past twelve months. To go along with the wall idea of Nehemiah, we're pretty much crumbling and are in desperate need of rebuilding and just re-igniting the passion within the group for both ministry and their personal walks with God. And last night I realized that the usual format of inviting as many youth as possible from all over Uganda maybe wasn't the best plan for this conference and that for this one we needed to intentionally and powerfully pour into the kids of this church for the three day conference.

I'm so excited because Nehemiah is just so perfect for what our youth group needs to get back to. There are going to be seven teaching sessions: 1) Heart breaking over the condition of the "wall", 2) The importance of prayer, 3) The importance of unity, selflessness, and working together, 4) The reality of spiritual attack and how to deal with it, 5) The place God's Word should have in our lives, 6) The importance of worship, and 7) The importance of holy living (I'm still working on the right phrasing for the titles). But really I'm just super stoked because I've been at such a loss about what to do with our youth group and how to get us back to where we need to be and it looks like this could help.

The main reason why I'm writing this and kind of casting this vision is because I/we desperately need prayers for this event. Please pray for the details (weather, food, supplies, the electricity to stay, etc....); the speakers (that they would effectively communicate the message God wants the students to hear); the small group leaders (they would have wisdom to answer questions and counsel the kids and apply the teachings); for the quiet times (that the students would focus and glean much from that time); for the worship (that the kids would truly learn what it means to fall on their knees before His throne); and for me that I would allow God to be in control, that I would trust in His strength and not mine, and that I would take the time to "be about the better thing".