God's ways are NOT our ways!

This weekend I took 15 highschool students from our youth ministry back to Muskoka Woods for a retreat called Blizzard. We met up with close to 500 other highschool students and leaders for an awesome weekend of connecting and challenge. The speaker this weekend was a man named Collin McKartney. There's so much that God taught me and reminded me through his messages but it'll take too long to explain on here so I won't even begin to try. But I really believed that God met a lot of our students in an amazing way this weekend. There was one girl in our group who God has been drawing to himself for the past 3-4 months now in particular. She is such a sweet girl who was really trying to figure out who God was. Friday night I had a really good talk to with her and then Saturday night she had sooo many questions after the evening session. So during the closing worship session we went into a back room of the gym and she just fired question after question at me for over an hour. We then had to leave because everyone had left and they were locking up the gym. At the end of our talk she knew she wanted to be a Christian but she wasn't sure if she could cause was too afraid to make the committment.
The next day we packed up all of our stuff and were waiting for us bus that was supposed to show up at 1:00. Two and half hours later it still wasn't there and we were still waiting. At 3:30 I arranged for parents to come pick us up since the bus was clearly not coming for us. At first I was really annoyed by the inconvenience of all the hassle of finding an alternative ride home. However at 4:00 when I was finally done making phone calls and arrangements I went into the lounge and Rodger (another leader asked me to come and join his conversation with this girl). Apparently they had been talking for the past 3hours and when I joined them this girl was wanting us to pray with her to make a committment to Christ. It was so awesome because if we hadn't been stranded for those extra hours Rodger wouldn't have had the time to sit with her for 3 hours and answer her questions and help her work through her fears.
It was also really cool how GOd knows exactly what we need in order to draw us to ourselves. Apparently yesteday the chorus to a Kelly Clarkson song kept running through her mind and she really felt that it was a message from GOd to her that this was a step of faith she needed to take. The lyrics that challeged her say this:

I gotta take a risk
Take a chance
Make a change
And breakaway
Out of the darkness and into the sun
But I won't forget the place I come from
I gotta take a risk
Take a chance
Make a change
And breakaway, breakaway, breakaway

It is so cool how God can take a secular artist and use her words to draw a teenage girl into a relationship with Him. This girl was scared of the committment but she knew it was a step she needed to take. During the weekend the speaker kept talking about how we need to breakaway from fear and bondage of this world and she knew the only way to do that was by putting her faith in God....So cool. Our devotions that we read through Saturday morning were from Luke 15.It talks about how God is searching and waiting for those who are lost to come back to him and find him. Saturday night I knew this is what was happening with this girl. God, the good shepherd, was calling her name and Sunday afternoon at 5:10pm she prayed a prayer of forgiveness and surrender to God. The last verse of Luke 15 says "But we have to celebrate and be glad, because this [sister] of yours was dead and is alive again; [she] was lost and is found". God can even use a Kelly Clarkson song and being stranded at Muskoka Woods to draw His children back to Himself. How Great is Awesome is our God.

Some days are rose bushes in desguise...

So yesterday was one of those days that you just feel like you got runned over by a semi. My sister, Lindsay, and I went to town to get a few groceries and walking across the street I honestly felt like my head was a balloon floating above my body. hehe. anyways...but God is so awesome and He knows exactly what we need when we need it (I decided the best way to describe yesterday was like discovering a beautiful rose in the middle of a thorn bush.)



Rose #1
It was my dads day off yesterday but he was called over to the church (which is across the parking lot from my house) because there was a mother and daughter who really needed to talk to him. A little while later he came over to the house and told me that the girl was my friend Nikki from highschool. So I went over to the church to catch her before they left to go back to Lindsay (a town an hour from me). I met her little 9 month old daughter. She then told me how she has really strayed from God since her mom and her moved from Haliburton. But they just made recommitments to God and she is determined to get her life back on track and raise her daughter knowing God. This honestly was amazing to hear because I knew that she had fallen away from God but had lost touch with her since I went out west for school and never thought I'd run into her again. Her and her mom are going to try and visit once a month which will be so great to be able to connect with her more and watch her grow.



Rose #2
After dinner last night a lady from my church came by with a letter from my good friend Vinceon. Vinceon was a guy who was part of a program called Canada World Youth and lived in my town this fall. We became really good friends and I got to share with him a lot about my faith and challenge him to seek God. He is seeking for purpose but he isn't convinced that God is the only way to find it. So anyways, it was honestly sooo exciting to hear from him cause now he is living in Kenya for 3 months. In his letter he wrote "It is not rare when we speak of you" (we as in his roomate Lekoya who is a Christian from Kenya.). It is my hope and my prayer that when they speak of me that Vinceon is reminded of the things I shared with him about God and that he will soon surrender his life to Him. I know God is pursuing him and I can't wait for the day I can rejoice knowing He is met God.



Rose #3
The last Rose of the day came when I had to go to College and Careers. Like I said earlier I was physically feeling like I got runned over by a semi and I so didn't have the energy to go. However, part of my job at the church is to bring leadership to the group and I knew I had to be there. On my way to pick up a new girl that I met at church Sunday, I was asking God to show me what to propose to the group we do Monday since our curriculm for our Bible study hasn't arrived yet. As I just waited for God he laid it on my heart to spend next Monday in worship and reflection of who He is and what He has done for us and then serve communion. This was exciting that God answered me so quickly, however to be honest I was and still am a little afraid to lead this night. I get so intimidated when leading infront of my peers because I never feel adequate enough to be the one in leadership. However I know this is where God has placed me this year and I'm excited to see God refine me in this. This morning when I woke up my mind was flooding with thoughts and scripture of what I needed to share with my friends in College and Careers. As I journalled it all down this morning I really sensed God just whisper "Trust me Leanne! Don't try and figure and plan it all out. Let my Spirit lead Monday night and just rest as you watch me move." So I'm excited to see what God has instore for C&C monday. God was awesome last night and gave me the energy to get through the entire night which was such a blessing. He also really encouraged me with reminding me that I am in the exact place where He needs me to be. Sometimes I get discouraged with being in Haliburton but yesterday was another great reminder that God is at work in my life and there is no other place I need to be but in His will.