|
Teen Revival...
Taking small steps to
keep the fire going
By Kalista King & Rachel Mendenhall
This week, I asked a girl named Rachel Mendenhall to share about
something God has placed on her heart, as well as some others, and what
they are doing to respond to what God has placed on their hearts. She
is a member of our Corner Shack family, and is also a part of our Set
Me Free skit group. I have seen Rachel grow a lot in her faith over the
past year or so that I’ve known her, and it’s been a great pleasure to
get to know her more and grow closer with her through The Corner Shack,
the Set Me Free skit, and Saturday Night Prayer. This is Rachel sharing
a little bit about her answer to God’s call for her and the others
involved in this group.
“The new Youth Minister for EUM Church, Marty McCabe, has a group of
teens that get together every Wednesday to grow deeper in their faith
with the Lord. A small group from those nights took initiative and
wanted to reach out and share the gospel with the community. This group
has decided to go out to the Brethren’s Retirement Community and start
a regular prayer group there with the staff and residents that are
interested.
The group really took interest in the idea of reaching out to people in
need of some spiritual guidance and they ran with it. I would like to
say that I see revival happening in Greenville, and I think it’s going
to continue to spread. I see amazing things that are happening through
Christ!”
One of the most exciting things that I’ve seen happening in the youth
of Darke County is more and more teens who are stepping up and taking
leadership in their homes, schools, and communities. It’s so
encouraging to see these teens catch fire for sharing the gospel and
spreading it throughout their schools and communities in every way they
can.
On one of the Wednesday nights that we had Corner Shack, a few girls
came up to me and really wanted to talk. It was after we had just
finished up small group time, and I could tell that they couldn’t wait
any longer to tell me whatever was going on.
One of the girls named, Chassica Price, just attended the most recent
West Ohio Girls Chrysalis Flight in Piqua, Ohio, and ever since her
experience there, she’s had a fire to her that I’d never seen in her
before. She told me that she had heard about a conversation I had with
another friend about how cool it would be to choose a day to set out
for an adventure of sharing the gospel with people in different parts
of Greenville. (Like the park or Broadway... places like that where
people tend to gather.)
When she heard about this, she got an idea to get a group of people
together to go to the Brethren’s Retirement Community and pray for the
residents there. In less than 5 minutes, she had gathered 2 other girls
who loved the idea, and they were already determined to follow through
with it. When they came up to me and told me about this, I was
convinced that God had laid this on their heart, and He was going to
make it happen.
Hearing their idea, and seeing their excitement filled me with so much
joy because I was seeing these girls step out of their comfort zone and
answer the call that God had laid on their hearts that day. After
Chassica told me the idea, she went on to say that she wants to keep
her fire from Chrysalis going, and she felt like this was a good step
to take in order to do that.
Now most of you have probably heard, seen, or experienced what it’s
like to go to a spiritual retreat and come back with a new fire and
passion that you didn’t have before. However, it’s so easy to lose that
fire and passion when you leave an atmosphere of love and peace
surrounded by Godly people and come back into a world of pain, hurt,
and brokenness. Many times that fire dies down after trials begin to
strike, or when you get back around ungodly people.
This is why it was very encouraging for me to see Chassica taking small
steps in the right direction in order to keep her fire going from
Chrysalis, and deepen her faith through the power of prayer. To be
honest, these girls actually surprised me by their interest in starting
this prayer group, but it was truly an answer to my prayers for God to
raise up spiritual leaders in this generation.
I am so proud of what they are doing, and I am thrilled to join them in
this! Nothing pleases my heart more than seeing a passion in teenagers
to share the gospel and spread Christ’s love.
The girls recently called The Brethren’s Retirement Community, and
asked for the approval of this prayer group to come regularly and pray
for the staff and residents that are interested. They have not received
word as to whether it is approved or not so until they do, we will just
work on getting more people to join in this group, and pray for its
approval!
|
|
|
|
