Today has been full of fun and excitement as well as some pretty heavy, serious times. After a good night in the dorms (girls have awesome dorms!), we had some pretty good cafeteria breakfast and then started a day all about slavery vs. freedom. Each of the students had a "d-group" (discipleship group consisting of about 8 student and 2 leaders), where we had some great teaching about the reality and gravity of our sin. We took two paper bracelets, wrote sins that we personally struggle with (on the inside of the bracelets), and wore them all day on our wrists...as part of the evening session, the adults took a third bracelet and "shackled" the students' hands together as if they were handcuffed to represent the fact that sin enslaves us. After some prayer and meditation, they were encouraged to break free and throw away their "chains" - it was a very powerful moment. In fact, in our "youth group time" at the end of the night, we split into guys and girls and got very open and honest with each other about specific sins in our lives that we want to eradicate...and there was a combination of tears, shouts of joy, and earnest prayer happening! No one was forced to talk, but many were moved by the Spirit to confess things and get the burdens off of their chest in a safe, non-judgmental environment. Here is what I am even more excited about...students are being freed from sin and death...and we still have 3 more days here to get to talk about how to LIVE OUT this newly found Freedom In Christ! Today's theme (Freedom) was based out of Exodus 12 (the end of the 10 plagues, and the letting go--i.e. 'exodus'--of the Israelites from Egypt), and was obviously very applicable to us and our need to be freed from our own slavery to sin. Celebrate with us the many decisions to get radical about confessing and eliminating sin, and please pray for tomorrow as we talk about the "Crossing" (Red Sea)--where is God leading us, and how do we know his will, leading, and direction for our lives?? It will be an extremely enlightning and important day! Thank you for wanting to keep up and know what is going on as well as being in prayer for us as we are at Move. Please feel free to leave a comment on the blogs (as it encourages me to continue writing at 1 am or later as I go to bed! :). Love you all - God is good.
5 comments:
The time it says that I posted these are totally wrong! We are an hour ahead, and it puts the time down that I START blogging, not when I actually post the final draft...I posted this one at 1:15am! ok...goodnight :)
Praise the Lord. It sounds so exciting. Keep posting I like to read them.
May the Holy Spirit continue to impress upon each life the need to break free from the chains of sin and move into a new dimension of freedom.
I'm glad to read that hearts are being changed and that their learning how to keep them changed for the good with God in their lives. I pray that the students find this week to be unforgettable and lifechanging!
I hope to hear about how the week went at church (as well as on the blog). I'm excited to hear about the challenge of the final night. It's exciting!
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