From Adam Sharp, Youth Pastor: Crystal Valley Missionary Church

 

 

 

A Recap of a Youth Group's Commitment

I have a little puppy named Harriet and every time we take her outside on a walk she always sits and looks at the birds and just wags her tail. I don't know why but it brings me so much joy knowing she is having fun outside and noticing things that I pass by every single day. Mainly because I just don't have time to look at the birds.

This reminded me of what our students were going through this last month. They were taking time out of their day and noticing the little things that God is whispering to them. I know during one of the days when we fasted from lunch tables, we had a couple of students go and sit with a different group of students. They had a great time talking with them on why they were moving lunch tables for the day, and they had a great conversation on why they were fasting.

So many of our students have talked about how much they enjoyed actually hearing from God in different situations. Another fun story ...we had a freshman girl on a day when we were fasting from food who went into the choir practice room to pray. As she was praying for a specific friend to come to know Christ, that same friend walked into the choir room to find her. They had a great conversation about God. That freshman called me right after school in tears because God actually listened to her and then gave her the words to say to her friend.

I could go on and on about different stories from this fast and how even for me as a youth pastor, doing this fast with our students brought me to a very humble state. I had to confess to junior high students who didn't eat food all day or didn't have any caffeine, that I did. They were angry because they fought through the hard times and won out in the end and I failed. It was great getting called out by a junior high guy who saw me drinking pop on a day we were fasting from caffeine. He came and snatched the pop out of my hand and threw it away. I loved it!

I would highly encourage all youth groups to go through a fast like this. It will be a test and you will have students who totally hate it, but the ones who grasp it ...it can change their lives! Our student ministries won't be the same.