We ended the month with a Girl’s Day, taking the teenage girls of the church to spend a day with them ministering to their needs. We brought in a specialist in children and young girls’ ministry and covered topics from God’s love to finances to relationships. It was humorous to watch the girl’s dismay at having to take the cell phone off the “must-have” list and replace it with clothing and food. It was also a great joy to see them understand that God does love them and cares about what they are dealing with. The girls were very open and ready to receive from the Lord. One of the teenagers shared with me that it changed the way she thought about what kind of relationships are appropriate for a believer. Another girl told me that the teaching on tithing was new to her, but now she understands how important it is. This is such a crucial age to reach, if the we do not train and teach them, then they will learn from the ways of the world. I am encouraged by what God is doing in their lives and know that He is going to use them for His kingdom.
We celebrated Easter with the youth in our weekly Saturday meeting. The theme was “Living by the Grace of the Cross”. We had several new people in our meeting, and lives were touched as we celebrated what Jesus did for us on the cross. We had a great time and I learned a few Lebanese traditions, as well. The favorite here is to crack eggs. You take your colored egg and hit someone else’s. The egg that doesn’t crack is the winner, you keep going until both ends are cracked. I was out pretty quick, but it was still fun. It's always a fun and lively time with youth, be sure to check out the pictures.
I shared with the youth saturday night about how God uses in spite of our weaknesses, and most times IN our weakness. We looked at men in the Bible who God used to do great things and bring glory to His Name. When God first spoke to these different men, all of them gave excuses as to why God could not use them. Moses could not speak well. Jeremiah was too young, and many more. God did use these men, though, and He will use us too! Our weaknesses do not disqualify us from being used by God. It is the opposite though, in our weakness He is made strong! God is not looking for perfect people, but for people who will just surrender and let God do whatever He wants.
On December 22, we turned our regular weekly youth meeting into a Christmas celebration. It was a great time with the youth of Abundant Life Church filled with fun games, and of course plenty of food. Everything in Lebanon involves plenty of food. The theme for the night was "Rebirth of Hope". it was inspiring as we focused on the hope that was renewed when our Saviour came to live amoung us, and the hope that is reborn when He comes to live in our hearts. We were filled with hope for this new year that we will see God do a new thing in the youth of Lebanon.
Today, I was the speaker at our weekly youth group meeting. I have been meeting with the group since arriving in Beirut, but this was my first chance to share a message. We decided to do something a little different this week, we met on top of the roof of the building. There is a really nice view, you can see out across the city. The weather was also pretty nice, we meet after the sun set so it had cooled off by the time the meeting started. The meeting began with a time of worship, and then several of the youth had prepared a skit that illustrated the subject of my message. The youth were touched as I shared about "Fixing Your Eyes on Jesus". As we look to Jesus, we seek His will not ours, we look to Him for guidance and not to the wisdom of the world, and we don’t see how big our problems and weaknesses are but we see how big our God is. He is more than able to overcome even our biggest problems! The youth have an amazing vision to influence the nations of the Middle East and as we fix our eyes on Jesus, we will see Him do more than we could ever imagine!
