Newsletter the Fifth: God answers our prayers

In January our director, Curt, introduced a book to staff entitled “The Prayer Life” by Andrew Murray. It’s a really good book, I would suggest it to anyone; it spurred a great deal of change in the way we view prayer for our ministry, which has created some wonderful and fruitful ideas at YD Adventures, OR.

For one thing, we have a prayer room now. We divided the day into hour-long slots and staff sign up for one slot each at the beginning of the day. There we go to talk to God about our trips. We ask Him to be our focal point; we put the trips in His hands; we ask that students hearts would be ready, that our words would be His, that teens would see Jesus in us and come to understand His love for them.

I have noticed a more apparent emphasis on prayer before and during trips. Our trip leaders have made it clear that we can’t do anything unless that’s what God’s doing and that we must ask for His help.

This summer has been incredible! The desires of my heart are no longer just thoughts lodged in there waiting for God knows what; they are realities lived out by my friends and me here at YD Adventures. We pray that students see Jesus in us - and they do! We pray for the right words to speak - and then speak them! We pray for teens’ hearts to be ripe - and they ask Jesus to be their Lord and Savior! But it’s not us; it’s Christ in us, and it’s so exciting!

I spent the off-season and all of training praying that this summer would be the one that I would really step up and let Christ use me. I want to bow my head and weep in humble adoration as all the memories of this summer wash over me and I realize that I stepped up, and God used me. I was driving a friend home from base the other day and I said, “I think, of our three summers, this one has been the best.” He agreed and I continued, “I think it’s because we invited God and He showed up.” He agreed again.

You want stories? I’ve got stories.

I trip led one particular youth group for the second year in a row this summer. I love that because I am familiar with the students and their struggles. I think it was a surprise to one girl to discover that I remembered that one of her greatest fears is heights; last summer she climbed a little but never rappelled (in fact, as I was explaining how to rappel, she sat there and bawled her eyes out in fear, without even being near the cliff!). Remembering this before the trip, my staff and I prayed that she would be able to conquer this fear. This year she faced and conquered her fear of heights by rappelling down that cliff! It was a huge break-through for her and built up her confidence quite a bit. On her evaluation card she wrote that the rock climbing was a big part of the spiritual growth she experienced on the trip.

On another trip I remember that we specifically prayed that the students would see Jesus in us and experience God’s love through us and be drawn to that. I led devotions on the first morning and asked them to read Romans 8, esp verses 35-39. I told them that nothing, not the things other people did nor the things we did, could separate us from the love of God. I asked them, as they read, to pray that God would reveal to them the things they believed separated them from His love and that He would show them how far from the truth that is.

That theme just kept presenting itself throughout the trip. We talked about listening for God’s voice, stepping out in faith, abiding in Christ, all because God is Sovereign and loving and knows what’s best for us. We began to get comments from the leaders, “The students have been commenting about how real you guys are. It’s really cool.” I remember specifically coming away from one discussion that I led and a leader came to me and said, “That was exactly what these guys needed to hear. Thank you.”

On the last night we took the group for a walk and Christina (coworker, we just call her C) presented the gospel in the darkness of night. The stars were out, the night was cool, we could here coyotes and owls, and a shooting star streaked the night sky. C began in Genesis, talking about Creation and the fall of man, the love of God and how that led Him to give us a way out, all so we could be reconciled and back in relationship with Him. We then sent them back alone in the night (we call it a solo walk) and asked them to find one of their leaders and talk to them about how the story of their life fits into the story of the Bible, and any decision God asked them to make about living that out.

The next morning we heard unanimously from all the leaders that students had responded positively. One girl in particular said her parents sent her on all the retreats and camps they could and she was always the “bad girl” because she didn’t want to be there. She said she had recently challenged God to show her His love and now, through the conversations and activities and the love the YD staff exhibited, she felt He had answered her prayers and that she really, really wanted to move forward in relationship with Him.

On my last trip we did an activity called “Voices of the World” and talked about being the beloved and learning to tune out all the other voices that tell us what to do and how to do it and what we should be but can’t and just listen to the voice that says, “I love you. You are My beloved.” The next day on my boat I asked the students what God had been teaching them on the trip and one girl said, “He’s teaching me that I can hear His voice, if I am listening for it, and that the ways in which He speaks are infinite; He speaks through the Bible, nature, other people, and so many other ways.”

There’s more; this has been a wealthy summer in terms of students giving their lives to Christ for the first time or recommitting. Also, I have never seen so many personal issues be brought up before; on more than one trip students have admitted that they were thinking about suicide or that their parents were physically abusing them. This is big stuff!

This summer has been bathed in prayer and God has been incredibly faithful and loving throughout. I love to see Him at work!

Please continue to pray; I leave today for another trip and am pretty close to completely worn out. Still, I’m excited to see what God does!