Fastbreak 2012: So far, SO great.

Since my last post Thursday night, Fastbreak has been non-stop. But I'm not complaining, so far the conference has been amazing. God is doing big things in these students' lives, and I feel so incredibly blessed to be a part of what He is doing here. 

This morning I led a seminar with my co-worker, Joe, explaining to students how they can share the gospel in a clear, easy way. Immediately following was Women's Time, where I got to be a part of a panel made up of a few female staff and students in different relationship stages talking about purity, relationships and God's grace. I am always very nervous to speak in front of people, but God totally overcame my nerves and my boss said I was a natural. Praise God.

The biggest event of the day was our outreach time. All the students were bused to different low-income areas around Dayton and the surrounding towns to hand out bags of food and talk to people about Jesus. My group is below, and they did so great. It was freezing, and a lot of them had never shared their faith in this way before, but they trusted God to work through them. 

Chris, Michelle, Kianna and Adam.

 A lot of people either didn't want the food or didn't want to talk, but just when we thought we were out of houses in our assigned area, we came across a basketball court where two guys were playing one-on-one. The two guys in my group walked up and asked to join their game, where they played for the next hour. They gave them the last bag of food, and got to talk to them for a little while after the game. I'm so proud of their desire to share God's love, and their willingness to step out in faith and trust that God would use them no matter what the outcome. 

That's about all the time I have right now, but if I can share one more thing, it would be to ask for prayer. Tonight is the last night of the conference, which usually ends up being the most emotional for the students. The conference culminates tonight, and a lot of the things the students have been impacted by comes to the surface. Please pray that they would be thirsty for the Lord tonight and would drink in what the Lord wants them to learn tonight. Our speaker, Daron is talking about identity, which is a very big issue for high schoolers. It's going to be a great night and I'm very excited to see how the Lord moves! I greatly appreciate your prayer, and look forward to sharing more with you after the conference is over! 

Some of my favorite moments are watching the students
worship the Lord with such passion and reckless abandon.

Fastbreak 2012: God is Greater Than

After a 2 hour car ride, a delicious mexican dinner, the Fastbreak set up crew all sat in our staff meeting realizing it was the calm before the chaos. Good chaos, but chaos none the less. The students arrive tomorrow, and not only do we have all the set up to do in a day, we are overcapacity at the Athletes in Action headquarters in Xenia, OH. This is of course a "good" problem to have. More students than ever have made the decision to attend this conference and we are thrilled. Fishers High School alone has more than doubled in attendance since last year. 

The theme this year is "God is greater than..." Our hope is that the students leave this conference with the knowledge and belief that God is greater than anything that comes their way. The interesting thing is that us as staff are all learning that in our own ways as well.

We are trusting that God is greater than our worry and scramble of how to fit all the students and where to house the overflow. We are trusting that no matter what issues and problems arise, God will be greater than them. This conference belongs to the Lord, and no matter what He will be glorified. Someone once told me that obstacles are just ways of seeing God's glory at work. If we never ran into obstacles, we wouldn't need God's help to figure out how to get around them. 

I'm excited to see how God works at this conference and shows the students and staff that He is "greater than." He is greater than worry, greater than sickness, greater than sadness, greater than computer glitches, greater than the weather, greater than ourselves. 

"Great is the Lord, and most worthy of praise." Psalm 48:1