Can you tell your story in 2-3 minutes?

Last Wednesday was my first time as the "youth leader" of our youth group at our church. It was a night where the Spirit spoke to have the night change, and I listened and obeyed. (That does not always happen with me. )

The group is going through the Apostle's creed and last week was about Christ's death and burial. For some reason, I did not "feel" it, but I planned and got ready anyway. At the last minute, I was told that one of our kids has a birthday (they are REALLY important here, the whole cake and present type of event), so I had to rush to the store and get in ice creamy type cake since he is allergic to flour. :( We had a GREAT time just being together. Our youth group is very small. We normally have around 6 -10 kinds and they are all from different churches. The bonding time does not really happen very well. I decided to make this time just that, so we sat and talked about nothing and everything! It was great to laugh and just be "normal" and not "formal" with each other. I could tell however that the group would not do well with the subject at hand. They were took squirlly for "death", so I prayed and God answered. I started by pretending that I was one of there peers, gave them my bio, and then told them to try to have me consider following Jesus. It was a great way to see where each one was on their journey. After each took their turn, it was obvious that we needed to work on telling our spiritual stories. I gave them instructions and broke them up in twos. They each had 2 minutes to share how Jesus has changed their lives. They did it!! It was great!

Note: I was especially blessed to have one of our new believers (from the snowboard camp) come and jump right in. She is a wonderful young woman and really wants to learn the ways of Jesus! Please pray for her! You can use the name 'Hank'. :)

Tonight, we are gong to "FEEL" the crucifixion, death and burial of Jesus and then react to it via creative expression. This group knows all about this subject because the country teaches it from crib to grave, but do they feel it so that they understand that Jesus' sacrifice was more than just a religious story? We will find out tonight!