Blast

I love student ministry. Honestly. Even when it's hard and you can't make students understand what you want them to understand, I still love it.

This past weekend we had our high school retreat. Props to the StuCo staff--this was an amazing event. The set was incredible, the sessions were incredible, speakers, arts, everything. And my small group was awesome. But I'll get there.

I've been leading a small group of high schoolers for the last 2 years. (I started out at CCC with junior high....not for me. God bless junior high small group leaders.) When they came in last year, my girls were freshmen, and we were really all feeling each other out, trying to decide if we were going to get along, if we were going to be friends, if we were going to trust each other. Apparently they decided yes to all of the above, because we are still a small group now that they're sophomores and I love seeing how close they have become. Here are a bunch of girls that didn't know each other a year and a half ago, and now they share their darkest stuff and constantly support each other. It's amazing to me.

It's also amazing to me that I have gotten to baptize 2 of them.

Last year, post-Blast, Megan decided to be baptized in service, and asked Nick and I to baptize her. It was the first time I'd done it, and it was incredible. Sunday night Erin asked if I would baptize her at Blast, and it was also incredible. It was so awesome to see both of them not be able to stop smiling, and it was amazing to hear them talk about what they felt during the experience.

There is something so powerful and emotional about students giving themselves over to God.

The only time I actually got emotional this past weekend was during the first session. After the message we were singing together, and during Here is Our King, I looked around to see 200-some students getting it. They were totally engaged, celebrating God, singing their hearts out, raising their hands, and joyfully praising God. And it made me tear up a little. Actually, more than a little. But I love that song--"here is our King, here is our Love, here is our God who's come to bring us back to Him..." How much more accurate can you get? And how awesome is it to hear students declaring that in song?

I am so glad that God brings us back to Him. No matter how often we slip away. No matter how many times we trip and fall.

And I'm so glad that I have my high school girls to remind me of that. Redemption is an incredible thing. Something that we take too lightly. But it can change our souls.