God Sighting: Created to Thrive
This year’s mission trip has been the most amazing, supportive, and life changing experience I’ve ever had. In the past, l’ve struggled to feel like I fit in, struggled to make new friends, and struggled to feel God’s presence. Yet, the Youth Gathering changed everything for me. Being in the presence of 16,000 Christians helped me realize that I’m not alone, and that my gifts are meaningful to serve God’s kingdom. In my world at home with friends focused on college applications, straying away from Jesus, it can be difficult to remember the love God has for me. Through new friendships, praising God, serving, and the speakers, I was able to become even more on fire for Jesus, helping me to discover who I was created to be, which was the theme of the Youth Gathering.
Walking into the Smoothie king arena, feeling the chilly air on my face while trying to keep our large group of 71 together was overwhelming. Once we got to our seats on the first day, we had no idea what was to come. My favorite part of that worship was the music, because they played my favorite song, Waymaker. God was with us while we sang, with us as we linked arms together, with us as we sang our hearts out. “Way maker, miracle worker, promise keeper, light in the darkness, My God, that is who you are.” My God makes the way for us, lights up the darkness and hearing it sung live was unreal. I loved Michael Chan’s message about seeds. We are seeds, created to thrive in difficult soil. Not to survive, but to thrive.
That first mass gathering was a lot! I felt that God was speaking to me through that sermon. I’ve always known I want to use my spiritual gifts to help kids, but I’ve been afraid it would be too stressful, difficult, or depressing, I was afraid the soil wouldn’t allow me to thrive. But, I was created to thrive in God’s presence and to love! God is a Waymaker who will guide me to do His work for all the children who don’t know about His love.
On this trip, l’ve also connected to more girls and grown closer to old friends through God. At the start of the trip, there was one girl struggling a little bit. But, the way God showed me to her, and everyone else, both helped show His love to me and helped them to learn to be kind to each other and feel welcome in a new group. I was in prayer about them every night which helped me to bless our new friendship and help me be the best possible role model to them that I could be. When I was a freshman, I never felt included or seen by the older girls and I never want anyone to feel that way! I think it’s so important to spread God’s light, talk to everybody, and be inclusive! To add, me and Jennifer have been great friends since Sunday School and it has been amazing to grow in faith with her as we go into senior year together! All of the late night conversations whether seriously discussing the devotional or giggling about nothing due to extreme overtiredness showed me that I have a community of people who are for me.
Although many from our group, including me, were at first disappointed with our service project, it was awesome to see our impact on the city. Our painting made the space beautiful, brush clean up made it more accessible and the tree trimming made it cleaner. God’s work doesn’t always have to be huge or grand. 1 Corinthians 15:58 says In the Lord your labor is not in vain. Nothing we did will go unnoticed by God, even if it seemed small. L am so grateful that our group had the opportunity to serve the New Orleans community!
I believe that God put me on this trip for these reasons. To serve, to build relationships, to love, and to praise. To learn, to cry, to giggle, and to mentor. I want to thank my mom for being so encouraging for me to go on this trip and loving me no matter what. I want to thank Pastor Nathan, a family friend, for supporting me in my faith journey and answering all my questions, serious or silly. I want to thank the freshmen girls who showed me God’s light on this trip, and my friends, Lily Fitzgerald and Jennifer Larson, for supporting me and always being there for me. Thank you to Simone Weber, one of our caring adult leaders for being an amazing small group leader and helping us lead synod/regional day worship. Thank you to all the caring adult leaders who helped with so much and care deeply about us. Thank so much to lan Hartfield. I wouldn’t have gone on the trip without him! Thank you for being so persistent and choosing to ask me to come when the spot opened up. Even when I’m stubborn and struggle with my faith, he never gave up on me. I would also like to thank Cambry Waddell, our youth ministry intern. You’re an amazing leader and person and God’s light shines so brightly through you. You’re so sweet and genuine and thank you for caring for all of us! Finally, I would like to thank all of our generous sponsors for your donations in support of this mission trip. We could not have had this amazing experience without you. Thanks for being a blessing!
Though this is not the most perfectly written essay, I hope my love for Jesus is evident, because that is what’s most important to me. This trip showed me that I’m created to love, to be me, and to tell everyone about Jesus. After this trip, I’m called to never stop sharing His love and to keep building the church so that everyone has the opportunity to feel that they too were created to be loved.
Kalleigh Champagne, Grade 11