Full of Potential
Today as I placed the last minute details on a trip that has been months in the making, I was struck with awe and wonder at the plans God prepares for His children. In two weeks I will be on the road with a group of twelve teenagers in my care, five hours away from home, for six whole days. Honestly my mind has been glued to thoughts of the impact we hope to have on the children in the area where we will be doing Backyard Bible Clubs. It wasn't until late today that I stopped to reflect on my first missions experience.
I was a goofy seventh grader excited to be venturing outside of the city limits of my small town. I had no clue what to expect, but God knew what I would experience. It was there in New Orleans that I had my first touch with a ministry surviving on the backs and prayers of volunteers, instead of on the cash of a wealthy congregation. It was the first time I had ever seen poverty or homelessness in person. It was also the first time I had ever heard the gospel being shared, amazingly enough, outside the walls of a church. As I look back, I can see how God was laying the very first building blocks of my call into the ministry.
This will be the first missions experience for almost every student leaving with me in two weeks. They will be sretched to give without receiving in return, to love because they were first loved, and to tell because they have heard. Oh how I wonder what they will touch, see, and hear! I am both honored and humbled that God is allowing me to lead these twelve students on part of the journey with their Creator.
Philip, great post. Seeing as we grew up at the same home church, many of my "firsts" came in the same context as yours. My biggest "first" was actually meeting the new youth minister the church called the week after my family joined joined. I had never known anyone personally who was involved in full-time ministry and seemed to have a passion for God. It was a revolutionary moment, and literally the very day I met the youth minister I went home and thought, "I could do that." I do no think I was even converted at the time, but God was already putting some desires in my heart that came to fruition six or seven years later.
Another first, also at our home church: hearing biblical preaching. In the church I attended in early childhood, the sermons were very much 18 minute homilies designed to offer pop psychology with spiritual words. But when we joined a Baptist church in 1993, it was the first time I heard a real sermon. Both of the men who pastored that church while I was a member there, whatever other problems they may have had, were expositors who preached the Word and allowed the text to drive the sermon. I think this is especially true of the pastor who was there in 1993. So I learned a lot about how to handle a text of Scripture, though I did not know it at the time.