To start off, up until about 2 weeks ago, I had been kind of down and depressed. Then KABANG!! Things started happening. I got closer to God, for starters, and then everything went uphill from there. Because I was closer to God, I felt school going more smoothly, and I stopped worrying so much about different things. I felt like I got involved more in church, or at least started talking to leaders about getting involved and talking more with other church members.
First of all, Wednesday (the 8th) I was approached by the youth pastor about doing worship in Sunday school for the teens. I had volunteered to help him out in whatever needed, and apparently, that was what. So I told him I would pray about it, and Sunday (the 19th) was my first time doing it. More on that farther down.
Then, Thursday (the 16th) I went to worship practice at church, figuring I wo
uld continue observing and taking it all in as I had the past couple weeks... God had other plans. Adam, a college student that is member of the church was back visiting, sharing his amazing testimony about what is going on in his life. Thursday he shared about what was going on in his to the worship and tech team, and then Sunday he shared in church. Anyway, Thursday night was crazy, the whole time I wanted to get up and shout how great God is, just from hearing such things in person. It's one thing to read in a book, or hear from a third person, but to actually hear it told from the guy himself who went through it was awesome!!! So after he shared his testimony, the worship team did one song to practice for Sunday and that was it....or so I thought....After Pastor Phil left, the remaining worship team members continued playing. There was one song that was played over and over and over again, as the Spirit just came down upon all of us in the church...during practice! It was totally an increidible experience that strengthened my faith that night. Before I left, Martin (soon-to-be worship team leader) asked me if I was interested in starting to play the bass on Sundays. Of course, I didn't have to decide immediately, but I was to take time to think and pray about it. How many amazing ways God can work in!! I have been praying that God get me involved again, and all of a sudden, everything at once! So, because of how awesomely God moved, I ended up arriving at home 2 hours later than expected. Luckily, I was able to call from church before hand....
My family and I went camping Friday night (the 17th). We had a really good time as a family to cool off... quite literally, as it hit 45 degrees that night....
But when Sunday (the 19th) came....ohohohohoho...... To start it off, I lost a bet and had to wear orange since Mizzou lost to U. Texas and I had to borrow a t-shirt from Jessie..
. Anyway, TJ (drummer on team) gave me a ride to church, so it was really cool to get 10 minutes to chat with him. At church, I was in watching the team practice, and then I felt drawn towards the kitchen. So I went to investigate, and ended up spending the rest of the time in there lending a hand where needed to help get ready for church and the baptism/picnic to be held afterwards. In Sunday school it was my first week leading worship in class, and it went really well, except I forgot the verses in the first song. As it ends up, the group knew the song well and followed another person easily enough. After that, I was kind of nervous, but luckily that was all the unfortunates. Other than that Sunday school was really good. In the service, my family and about 10 other people were recognized as new members of the church. After praising God for a few songs Adam shared his testimony. As on Thursday, he was super-pumped and excited to share it with everyone, and it was amazing! So many people w
ere just crying out to God. His Spirit just moved among everyone as David (teen worship leader) led a worship time, a time of people just pouring out their hearts to God. It was awesome!!! I felt God speaking to me during this time, but with one problem. Before, I had become too comfortable thinking that I knew what university God was going to put me in. I thought I knew what direction God was wanting for my life, and now it seems He threw it all up in the air again. He made me stop and remember that I can't become complacent, because He wants me to rely on Him for EVERYTHING. Apparently, I was a little too comfortable for Him, and He shook me up.After church we went to the Guadalupe river for baptism service. Once more, I asked TJ if I could hitch a ride with him. I didn't realize that we would leave the church almost an hour after everybody else!!!! We were basically just hanging out with other teens that had - like Adam - come into town from college for the weekend. Once we got to the river, the baptisms were awesome!!! It was neat to see adults, youth, and kids alike proclaim their faith in God! One thing I found out at the picnic was that I can still joke around and just share laughs with people in church, something I really hadn't felt comfortable to do since we were visiting STL.
It was a long 4 days, but it came with everything.... school, amazing spritual revival, closeness to God, closeness to family, boredom, busyness, awesome testimonies, young men seeing visions and dreaming dreams, baptisms, resting assured in God, and resting confused in God.... everything in such short time!!!! The one biggest thing about is though, is that God is who He says He is. He is faithful and He answers prayers. I had been praying for a strenthening of my faith, and God delivered 1000 times more powerfully than I ever could have dreamt possible!
Serving an awesome God,
Aaron
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