Month-old memories of HSLT

HSLT rocked!
First of all, I was so impressed with the character of the 19 teens that went to HSLT this year. What a great group! For the guys, each guy had a turn as the 'Man in the Middle' - and each one was very open and honest about how God was working in his life and willing to share his struggles. This is the first step to making progress in an area.

During evangelism time, I got paired with another adult leader, John (mainly because none of the teens wanted to go with us). The first guy we talked to was walking down the beach with his wife. He had his ankle wrapped, so I asked him about it and we got to talking. He was Baptist but hadn't been to church for a while. We encouraged him to get back to church.

We then went out onto the pier. It cost a dollar to go on the pier, and $7 if you were fishing. The first guy we talked to was fishing - his family was out on the pier with him. He claimed he was saved, but hadn't been to church since he had been in Iraq. John was familiar with the area he was from (Johnson City, TN) - and may have actually had some relatives that went to his church! We encouraged him to get back to it.

While we were talking to him, an older guy walked by and I felt the prompting to talk to him. So I went up to him and asked him how he was doing..."fine, first vacation in 3 years!" "You're not retired?" "No, are you retired?" he asked me. Turns out he was almost 87 years old - and had been working real estate for the past 57 years. He told me how he had helped out various charities by doing auctions for free. He told me about his implanted defibrillator and how his wife was probably watching us from her hotel room. I asked him if his defib were to stop working and he were to die today if he knew 100% sure that he was going to heaven. He said, I don't think you can know for sure. So I asked, if I could take just a few minutes to show you what the Bible says about knowing for sure 100%, would you want to take that time to do that? Sure! So we went through a 'Do you know for certain' tract - and when I got to the point about asking Christ into his life, I asked him if that was something he wanted to do, and he said, SURE! He said, why don't you pray first and I'll repeat after you... so I prayed with him and I am confident that he knows for sure that he'll be in heaven - not based on anything he had done, but on the promises of God.

(Melissa says, at this point, she'd have just gone home!)

The next guy we went up to was just staring out at the ocean - John introduced us and I said, let me just cut to the chase - if you were to die today, would you be 100% certain you'd go to heaven? He said, yes. I said, how do you know? "I've never done anything wrong!" Nothing? Ever? Nope! You've never lied? Nope. (Except for right now!). Once I finally convinced him that we are all sinners and in the same boat...I asked if he would like to know what the Bible says about how you can know for certain. So we went through the tract and I got to the part about praying - and he said that he would prefer not to pray out loud. So I asked if he would like me to pray and would pray along with me. So I prayed for him - and told him that if he was sincere in his prayer that he could know for sure that God would answer that prayer. Praise God!

Two other significant events:
During our service project we went to Elevated Ministries to help them set up a kiosk and a desk - so while we were there I asked if they needed any computer work done. They said that their wireless router had not been set up yet. So I went to work on it, but did not get it done in the time that we had. I felt bad, and told them I'd try to come back next time. But as it turned out, we did not go back there - so the next day when we were getting our service project assignments, I asked one of the guys who was going to Elevated if any of his guys were computer guys - and he said that he was a certified network specialist. Yay! So he was able to get them set up and we were all happy.

The second significant event:
Wednesday night I was a little overwhelmed about how we would be able to implement all the things we had been learning. I was reminded of Romans 8:11 - where it says that the Spirit who raised Christ from the dead - that power - dwells in us. So that night I shared with the teens that verse and how we can't do it on our own but need the Holy Spirit to do the work in our lives. The next day, Kimball was leading worship - and I heard this line - "There's a power in His breath living inside us. The power that raised, raised, raised Christ from the dead." - and the rest of the song tells about how He has overcome. I about lost it when I heard this song - and asked Kimball later - Where has this song been? Why have we not done it before now? He replied, "About the time you were sharing that verse with your group last night... I was writing this song." And he was kind enough to sing it again Friday night at the closing worship. Thanks, Kimball!

If you would like to hear more of the testimonies from the teens who went to LT - click on the link on the title of this post (gracesummit.org/20070812.asp)

I may not post that often, but when I do...Look out!
Yack