I would have liked to have blogged while I was there, but I can't figure out this blogger thing on my blackberry and I was too tired at night.
What prompts this blog is the fact that I left church on Sunday morning feeling a little empty. It seems that no one here understands what we went through there in Vermont. Nobody knows how we experienced God, how we all grew in Him and with one another. I realize from many experiences that this is a normal feeling after a mission trip, but this time was different.
First of all, let me say that the response in Vermont was very slow. It was disappointing to see how much people didn't care about what we had to say. Of course, what should we expect in Vermont? But we did come across several people willing to talk to us about matters faith and even hear what we had to say.
There was close to 0 people who sat and listened to us in the park on Monday night, but several people came close and listened for a while. And several conversations were started with people about Jesus and why we had come from Texas to share with the people of Vermont. I personally learned a lot that night about the place where we were.
On Tuesday night we did a concert in the mall and there were a few contacts we had made during the week that came to hear us - that's nothing small! Many people heard the message of Jesus as they walked by. Some even stopped for a while.
Wednesday night we shared with a church full of young people. Only two families of kids were from "church families". The rest were kids whose parents are not Christians. There was a group of kids in the back that were doing their best to disrupt the incredible Spirit-filled worship. But those same kids stayed after to hang out with our kids and to hear more of what we had to say. AND 5 TEENS CAME TO KNOW CHRIST AS SAVIOR that night!!! Thats not small!
Thursday night we did a concert at a different church and some of those kids came to hear us again. The church was blessed, and our kids sang more in the Spirit that I've ever heard.
My prayer is that adults in our church would hear about what the kids did and do likewise. I feel sometimes that our kids are leading the way into missions and this shouldn't be. We need to learn it from adults. Mission trips are not just for the young, they are for all. As Dillon Phillips shared in one of the services on Sunday, the Bible says "GO!" It doesn't say pray about going or go if you feel led. It says "GO". I understand we all can't go to everything that is offered but if we've made up our mind that the "going" isn't for us then we are mistaken and we are missing out on all the blessings of obedience God wants to give us.
And while I'm rambling, I would also like to say that North Side has the most incredible group of kids I've ever seen. They were 100% willing to walk up to people they didn't know and start a conversation about Jesus. They have a love for God and a love for others, and each other. None of them had to be told what to do, they just did it.
That's my report. I hope we go back to Vermont. The workers there really are few.
