my weekend.

on friday night we headed up to our church's camp with 200ish high school students.
the bus ride was mostly filled with anticipation.
i stayed in a cabin {filling in for a leader who couldn't come} and to my {great} surprise... i was a leader (by myself) to 15 senior girls.

it was fun.
they were calm, sweet, kind, honest, vulnerable & fun.
saturday was the longest day i've had in a long time... from 7 am til 1 am and i guess that's what friday was too... i didn't start feeling the effects of it until monday.
that felt awesome (insert sarcasm & smile).

but really, the weekend was amazing.
the theme was Greater Than.
basically, fill in the blank... Jesus is greater than ______________________ {everything but our unbelief}.

on saturday morning Luke talked about how Jesus is bigger than our circumstances. And he dismissed us to our small groups to talk about the pain in our lives.
i have been part of & facilitated many small groups.
some of these girls i don't know basically at all and some i know just by name... anyways... they shared and like i'm sure any of us could share.... there's a lot of pain in all of our lives..
be it relational, health, stress.... i mean the list goes on.
i've never been part of a small group where i am also tearing up as they are sharing the circumstance on their mind.

the whole point of small group is that i don't share details. but, there is something so refreshingly honest with teenagers that i have yet to find in any small group with people that are older.... it's as though they haven't been betrayed or become cynical. like these young women SHARE.

the beautiful thing about it all was that if i am being totally honest i was feeling a little bit weary. like we give our lives to this and sunday night after sunday night pour out our hearts to these students and try to love them and.... sometimes you see fruit and sometimes you're discouraged... but this weekend it all became really clear after that first small group meeting.

one: these girls have real pain.
two: the only solution to their pain and working through it is JESUS CHRIST.

they're not going to find that at their schools or sometimes not even at their homes... if we can offer them a place to hear about Him, worship Him, and then encourage them to live for Him. EVERYTHING we are doing (FOR HIS GLORY) is worth it. every sacrifice made, every sunday we serve.... all of it... is totally worth it.

like i heard someone say recently, 'i think we all forget that eternity is a really long time.'

i was eternally impacted this weekend. because God is greater than..... everything.
love,
kg