Today I went to Advance, NC for a meeting with six others from around the Western NC Conference with the common goal to plan the SpiritUs beach retreat for 2009.  As I sat there and listened to conversations about name tag colors, staffing, t-shirt designs, drama scripts, and schedules; I realized the overwhelming responsibility that has been placed on the people in the room.

Year after year, teens come to SpiritUs expecting to meet God.  Some come bringing baggage of sins or relationship hurts, and others come for the ideas of awesome recreation and the beach location.  No matter why they come, we have been placed in a position to usher them into the presence of Christ.  Then I immediately began to get paniced and my pride began to grow.  I started thinking about the pressures of "What if we don't get it right?".  

Just then God smacked me in the face and brought me back to my rightful place.  He did so in the form of the closing prayer given by our conference director Caronline Wood.  During her prayer, Caroline asked Christ to begin preparing the hearts of each teenager that would attend.  She begged God to move in their areas of need and begin His work before they even step onto the Fort Caswell campus.  

I realized that I am but an imperfect instrument chosen to minister.  Chosen to guide and chosen to serve in this awesome area of youth ministry.  God is the author, the wooer, the molder, and the perfector of the faith and lives of these young people...

and for that, I am grateful!