Teen Revival
First summer ministry without our “beloved youth pastor”
By Kalista King 

As you heard me say in my article a couple weeks ago, “Though I do believe it is important to serve in our home towns and communities, I also believe it’s important to serve outside of our comfort zones in other places around the world.” In that article, you heard from Cheyanne, who had gone on a Youth for Christ mission trip to The Bronx, New York. 

This week, I asked a good friend of mine to share about a mission trip she is going on this week with her church. It brings great joy to my heart to see these teens being willing to reach out and serve others as an act of Christ’s love. I’m sure many of you know this, but mission trips are not exactly easy. It’s a lot of work just to simply raise enough money to go, plus all the work that you do while you’re there. 

Every mission trip is different, but despite the differences, you are still extending Christ’s love to others through helping and serving them in many different ways. Out of extreme humility, the girl who wrote this article requested that I not mention her name because in no way did she want this article to be about herself. Her intentions are to put the focus on God, not herself, as she sets out on this trip to fulfill the mission that God has called on her life this week... 

“On July 14, 2012 my youth group from Castine Church of the Brethren left for our annual summer mission trip. This year we are going to Allen, South Dakota to do various service projects and lead VBS (Vacation Bible School) for the children in the community. 

This is my fourth mission trip that I will be attending with my youth group, but this will also be our first year going without our beloved youth pastor, Brian Delk who passed away on April 3rd of this year in a car accident. His service to our church and youth especially went above and beyond with the time he put into our lives, our summer mission trip, and anything else that involved the youth group. It will be very difficult for all of us going on the mission trip without him this year but we have been blessed with the much needed support from other individuals in our church who have continued to put on this trip and those who are going to be leading it. We would not have been able to go this year if it wasn’t for their own personal time, effort, and commitment to continue on with our journey to South Dakota. 

As for our youth I have seen a tremendous change in hearts which strive even more since the accident, to put Pastor Brian’s Christ like lifestyle and teachings into practice in their own lives.  These two things have shown that God has something in store for this ministry and even through our great loss, God is in control and He has a reason. 

In Jeremiah 29:11 it says, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future”. That in itself is a very hard verse to trust especially when the death of a loved one is involved and we do not understand why. I do believe that promise from the Lord though, and as He helps us overcome this specific hardship I know that He is faithful to those who follow Him through all the ups and downs of this life. 

As it says in 1 Peter 1:6-7 “In all this you will greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.” 

How true this verse is, for what other reason do we suffer on this earth but to bring God glory and honor through everything He has put before us.  I ask that you would keep all of us in your prayers so that we can discover God at an even deeper level on this trip and that we would realize as a group that our God is a MIGHTY God and He can and He will work to fulfill His plan that He has only just begun in our youth. Thank you, God bless!