Monday Review: God works

Something happened Monday night that I felt was important to share in the students own words. What you are about to read happened Monday night, and I wanted to make sure that they were ready to share what happened before we posted anything.

I believe that it’s important to worship in community. And something I had noticed was that we seemed to be worshiping as individuals, without concern for anyone else. So with the help of Lori and Mike I designed an experience for our teenagers to worship together. We change the atmosphere by lighting candles and turning off lights. We assigned them to a specific seating order and I instructed them not to wear blindfolds or close their eyes. Not closing eyes is really hard for me and I was stretched as I looked into their faces.

We began singing together and after a few minutes I noticed that it didn’t seem like their hearts were in it. I wasn’t interested in forcing anything upon them so I asked if they felt awkward with the instruction they had been given. I wasn’t expecting the response that I got. Some were genuinely upset, some were confused why we would structure worship so much, and others genuinely attempted to worship. After a pretty lengthy discussion and prayer I put away the guitar and told them they could go to bed. But Reid asked if they could spend time together...and I left the room.

McKenna (writing for all the students)
So as you have read Jared’s plan left all of the kids rather frustrated and none of us wanted to go to bed. So as Jared, Lori, and Mike all left the room Reid asked if the kids could stay for a while. As soon as the adults left Reid suggested that rather than waiting our turn to pray we should all just pray at once, so when Reid never stopped praying I (McKenna) started praying with him for my own problems and concerns. Then another person joined in and eventually everyone was praying for their own needs and it was the coolest sound to hear everyone lifting up their needs. I decided to go around the room praying for everyone and by the time I got to the end, Steph and Reid started praying for my physical healing. Very quickly everyone was surrounding me begging the Lord for my healing. At this point everybody was screaming, crying and yelling to God. Reid and Harris began to plead God to take away their gifts in order for me to be pain free. This really touched my heart because although I have had other people tell me that they would take away the pain for me I have never had 14 and 17 year olds pleading God to take away what God has given them in order for me to be pain free. I don’t know whether the story I just told or this happened first but both are very important parts. I began to have horrible pains in my back. I haven’t had pain that severe since my disco-gram (the disco-gram was my worst procedure that was both a horrible procedure and also recovery). There is no better way to describe the way the pain came and went other than contractions. I was screaming, crying and begging God to take the pain away, eventually the pain would reside and I would get a couple of pain free moments. After a couple of contractions I began to get the pattern and expect the pain. I don’t really know why I experienced the pain last night but I know it was part of God’s greater plan for the night. At one point I had to lay down because the pain was to great to bear sitting up. So while I was laying there I literally felt God’s power run through my body. I know that I am purely telling my story but for most of the night the kids were serving me by lifting my petitions up to Christ. I am happy, no overjoyed, to tell you that many miracles happened that night. My soul and my mind were healed, however it is not time for me to be physically healed. God clearly told me that I still need to be at Steadman Hawkins and that there is a friend who needs my support. We all ended the night by singing, it was completely accapella and we didn’t know all of the words so we were just jumping from song to song and chourses that didn’t match with the verses. Then we all sat down and started talking about what God had shown them personally. The neatest thing about the night was that even though everyone was basically focusing on me, God showed each individual person something extremely personal, but thats their story to tell. As I was crawling into bed I looked for some verses in Job and they applied so well to the night. The verses are John 14:12-17, Job 8:21, 9:10, 16:5. This night was amazing and i strongly urge you to contact me over the phone when I get back from the mission.

Back to Jared
As you can tell God is really doing something in our students lives as they engage Him. Please pray fervently for them as they wrestle with things and take steps in their walk with Jesus. I will communicate any comments you leave to them this evening.

in His grip,

Jared