Being Incarnate

The past few weeks I have really been able to see God's call for me to be here come into fulfillment. When I felt God calling me here to Moose Jaw in February God told me that I had to be incarnate with these kids. meaning to live amongst them in their everyday life and learn how to free fall into trusting the hands of God to catch us. Since I have been back from camp God has opened up amazing opportunities to just love these youth and be apart of their lives in every aspect and through being there in the really hard times God has opened doors for me to speak His truth and love into their lives and God is really beginning to soften their hearts. Here are a few stories to encourage you.

One Friday night one of our girls was having a really hard night and so I invited her and her best friend to come to the lake with us and spend the day just with the girls to get her mind off of things back home. we went and had a great time. the next wednesday she was really sick so I took her to the hospital and spent 3 hours with her there with her best friend to find out she just had the flu. The next day we took a bunch of our youth to go see Evan Almighty. We went back to Joe's Place and talked about what we thought of the movie. This girl perks up and says, Evan reminded me of the staff here at Joe's Place. I asked her what she meant by that. She responded that like Evan in the movie Joe's Place staff have heard God call them to change the world and they give up their weekends and nights off to come and be friends with the youth at Joe's Place because they want to help the youth make better choices and have good lives and know more about God. Wow! I didn't actually realize that the kids realize that we do this because we love God and our being obedient to Him. It was cool to hear her recognize this. She then went on to share how the night before I had taken her to the hospital and it really made her realize how much I loved and cared for her because I was there all night with her even though I could have been doing lots of other things. That night I drove her home and she was sick again so I brought her into her house and after throwing up she felt better and then went on to show me everything in her bedroom and tell me more about her life. Please keep this young girl in your prayers. she is coming to church with us now on Sunday and is really beginning to seek God.

This same girls best friend is a girl who is very obnoxious and loud and is often in need of patience and grace. However the past two months shes been really maturing and God appears to be changing her heart. She comes from an alcoholic home where her mom practices withcraft and her dad is mormon. The other night at Bible study we were talking about what true love is and I was reading 1 Corinthians 13 to them. She began to tell us that she's been reading her grampas old Bible in the places where he's underlined. She began to quote scripture that she's memorized and was like "The Bible has some really great things to say...Do you guys have other verses memorized that are good that I should look up?" Adrienne (the girl I work with) and I just looked at each other and had this excited smile on our faces. We shared with her some of our favorite verses and she frantically was writing them down. It was so exciting to watch her be hungry to read God's word. Please pray for this girl also as she seeks after God. She is also beginning to make better choices about drinking and has gone an entire week now without a drink. This is amazing since the previous two weeks she had gotten drunk every night.

Also pray for us tomorrow (saturday) as we are taking 30 of our youth to a Saskatchewan RoughRiders game (football). The team chaplin goes to Joe's church and has arranged for us to get in free and also have lunch with some of the injured players before the game and then have refreshments after the game with the Christian players who are going to share their testimonies with our youth. Please pray that God will soften the hearts of our youth.

The past couple weeks I've also been connecting with a lot of young and pregnant moms. This has been such an amazing ministry to pour out the grace and love of God. Please pray for us as we minister to these young moms.

The last thing I wanted to share with you is from something I read yesterday in my devotionals. I was reading from Isaiah 26. Verse 12 says

"LORD, you establish peace for us; all that we have accomplished you have done for us. "

God reminded me that I can trust him with the ministry that I do here at Joe's Place. sometimes its discouraging at times because we just feel like this is too big of a job for us to do. But God gently reminded me yesterday that our success and our failures are in God's hands because He is the one who does all things. I got a letter from a friend from home a few weeks ago that came at such perfect time. She wrote "Leanne, you aren't called to be successful. You are just called to be obedient." Thanks Michelle. It is so true. All the results of the ministry we do here is not because of how great youth workers and ministers we are. It is because we are faithful and God is powerful and softens hearts and opens minds and draws these youth to the arms of their heavenly father.

Thanks again for all your love and prayers. You guys encouraged me so often and I miss you all greatly.

Have a great week and may God bless you richly as you pray for His work here in Moose Jaw.