This week, I've been helping out with a football camp that one of Ascent's staff organized for 7th and 8th grade boys in the inner city. It was called Faith, Family, Football. My primary purpose was to check the boys in when they got to the field and point them in the direction of the coaches so they could get their helmets and pads. After that, I got the chance to hang out with a boy named Desmond who was injured, but came to the camp every day, and various other boys that were either too old or too young for the camp.
My other role was to abide in Jesus and intercede for the camp. Which, really, was easier said than done. The whole time we were outside it was in the 90's, and we were sitting on the cement with no shade. It was very tempting to check out, to get irritable, or to be lazy. I had to constantly remind myself to ask God for more energy, a good attitude, and love for the kids I was around.
It was amazing to see the ways God was moving through the camp this week. Though we started the week with only 7 boys on the field, over 18 different boys were at the camp over the next few days. Those 7 boys that started on the first day came back every day of the camp. The boys were surrounded by over 10 loving coaches who got to really invest in them with love and encouragement. The atmosphere remained surprisingly positive (besides a few hours of extreme heat and fatigue), and the boys were taught how to encourage each other on the field. The coaches had the chance to speak to kids individually and the gospel was shared. It was an amazing event.
The other interns and I were sent back to the house in the afternoon, and a couple days we just interceded for the camp- asking God to bring more kids, for protection from injury, for specific kids, for the coaches, and whatever else God led us to pray for. We prayed for each other and for the community being formed here. It was an amazing opportunity to join with God's heart in praying for the camp and being able to directly see the fruit of those prayers.
But it was definitely a challenge to abide, and by Friday, I was physically, emotionally, and spiritually exhausted. We spent Friday afternoon at the International House of Prayer, and I prayed that God would pour into me. I was hit with a lot of lies that I had not done enough during the week- that I should have done things differently, that I should have invested even more into the kids at the camp, that I should have gotten the energy to run more at night to prepare for our next challenge.
As all of these thoughts were running through my head, the worship leaders began singing these words:
"Your banner over me is love. So refresh me and sustain me, for I am lovesick... I cease from my striving. I submit to your covering. I rest. I rest in you."
And I remembered the character of the God I have given my life to. He is not a slave driver. He does not look at me with disappointment. He does not love me because of what I do, or how well I do things... (My goodness, it seems like I have to re-learn that lesson a lot). As I sat before God, I was reminded that he is a Loving Father. He began to remind me of the ways that he had sustained me and given me good gifts throughout the week. How desperate prayers for energy and more of his presence had been answered, even though I didn't realize it in the moment. (The most prominent of these was that he protected me from migraines all week even though I was in the heat all day and tired with a changed schedule for the week- that really was a miracle!)
It never ceases to amaze me how much there is to experience in God. He always showers his love, always teaches, always gives us grace, always reveals new aspects of himself to us, and always gently reminds us of things we've had to re-learn a hundred times!
"I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples." - John 15: 5-8
Prayer Requests:
- The God would continue to keep my migraines away
- For strength for our next run challenge on Monday (July 4th)
- For all of us to continue learning how to abide in God's presence every day.
- That we would live a life where everything we do is submitted in worship of God.
- That we would experience more of the work and goodness of the Holy Spirit.
- That as we return to our work at Hope Faith this week, we would be given new eyes for the clients and would meet God in new ways.
Thanks for praying :-)
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