Report 1

This week at Body Shop I gave a message for the open house event. The last few weeks have consisted of brainstorming of how I wanted to prepare the message. One night out of this past week I spent an hour walking and structuring my message in my head. After that I had the actually manuscript within my head. Another night shortly after that I spent roughly an hour reciting the message in my room. About a half hour before Body Shop began on Wednesday I recited it again. From 6pm to 8pm I was active at Body Shop supervising and hanging out with kids. 20 minutes out of the activity was my actual message. The rest of the time I hung out with the kids. The Great thing was that I got to talk to one of the boys who accepted Christ for the first time that night!

I have been learning so much in a pastoral position for Junior Highers. Simply understanding that I need to acknowledge each individual kid as much as possible. I understand as a speaker that the ministry isn't 100% on the stage...that may not even be half of it. I have been gaining great relationships with the kids. I havent been goofing around as much as last year. I have been treating them more like adults, that way they know that they can be open with me and open to understanding my messages. I have been trying to find the best way to have kids accept Christ in their hearts without feeling embarased. I have been struggling with understanding how to encourage kids to tell me or a leader that they made the decision. That has been hard. I have been giving them goofy, fun things to come up to me and do if they do instead of telling me word for word and that has been most effective so far. It is also interesting merging such passionate, life changing messages into a more crazy rest of the night. We do giveaways and play dodge ball after my messages so that has been interesting. It has been so great to work with such an interesting structured event. I am really enjoying the experience!

My spiritual life this last week felt dead on. I felt that my seeking for God's direction for the message was very respectful and open to His leading. I spent good amounts of time in solitude with the Lord going on walks and praying. I prayed for everyday things but within that time I would pray for the right thing to communicate to the teens for that night. My heart felt so good and content with the message topic (Real Eye's, Realize, Real Lies). I have been waking up at 8am and studying Acts before my days begin so thats been keeping my head strongly focused on preaching the gospel with passion wherever I go. I have felt very sharp in my discipline in the scriptures and meditation. It's been Great. When my heart is in line well with God's, I feel that my message are more accurate to the hearts of those listening.