This week was absolutely amazing. The youth, and their leaders, worked incredibly hard during their ministry time and played even harder during their free time.
One of the ministry opportunities the teams had this week was to participate in an “Ask the Lord” (ATL) treasure hunt. Because we like to encourage our participants to learn to hear the Lord’s voice in their own lives, we try to give them opportunities to do so while on the trip.
The way we set up this ministry, during this trip, was to divide the group into 4 smaller groups. Over the course of 3 days I had time to sit down with each of the groups and talk to them about hoto 4 smaller groups. Over the course of 3 days I had tw the Lord wants to talk to them and how they can facilitate that in their own lives.
After explaining to them the importance of being still before the Lord and allowing Him the time to speak, we put it to the test. Each group was able to spend a few minutes asking the Lord to give them “clues” for what to look for when they left on their treasure hunt.
The clues were used to get them started in the right direction and be on the lookout for people to talk to. We had clues that ranged from the letter “M” to a very specific individual with pink nail polish.
Once they received their clues, it was up to them to determine where the Lord was sending them. They were given instructions to ask the Lord for their next direction if they became stuck. Then I sent them out, many of them looking at me like I was crazy.
Their looks didn’t bother me because I knew they would come back with a different attitude. And they all did. We have story after story about how God lead the teams to their clues and the conversations that were started because of them.
In one of the stories, one of our youth saw the color yellow as a clue. In an attempt to grab some red Gatorade before heading out to the beach, he grabbed a yellow one instead. When his team made it to the beach they found a group of kids to play with. As he began to build a relationship with one of the boys, he asked they kid if he knew Jesus. The boy responded “no.”
As the game wrapped up, our youth asked the boy if he could tell him a story about Jesus. The kids replied “only if you have a lemon-lime Gatorade.” Because our youth did in fact have the yellow Gatorade he was able to share the gospel with the boy.
Another story involves on of the youth pastors. After receiving their clues, this group ran into some trouble leaving the property. Once they were able to leave and arrive to their destination, they had about 5 minutes before they had to return to the church.
The clues this team received included the letter “M”, a cross necklace, a woman with brown hair, and the color orange. They went to the Mall and had about enough time to walk around one store before having to get back on the van to come to the church.
The team made it to the back of the store without seeing their person. A little defeated, they turned around to head back to the van, when around the corner walks a brunette woman wearing an orange and green sundress and wearing a cross necklace.
It took them only a moment to realize this was who they were supposed to talk to. So the group approached her and was able to pray over her.
I wish I had the space to share all the stories with you, but just now the Lord showed up in big ways! I am so excited to see how this experience grows the relationships these participants have with the Lord.
