Welcome to our 16th online weekly Port Ann Wesleyan youth group session. We encourage everyone, if possible, to attend our in-person youth group meetings each Wednesday at Port Ann Wesleyan Church starting at 7 p.m.
Our opening song is the popular hymn “As the Deer” performed by Ricky Murphy (who will be leading music for our youth during camp) and guests:
Please continue to pray for Sally Sheets and Pastor Paul … she endured her first round of chemotherapy today for pancreatic cancer and is undergoing an additional 40-plus hour at-home regimen. She will continue this cycle every other week for quite some time. Please pray for the extended family and for doctors to handle the situation as well as possible — and that ultimately God’s will is done through all of this ordeal.
Please pray for Vacation Bible School and the potential young souls that can be won for Jesus this coming weekend. Pray that workers channel God’s Word, presence and love while impacting people from our local communities.
Please pray for camp meeting and our special youth program at camp.
Also, Jason has asked for prayer for his friend Hayden who is facing surgery Thursday for numerous broken bones in his foot.
And lastly, please continue to pray for the coronavirus situation among all families in our area — that leaders make wise decisions, that people find realistic solutions for financial, physical and emotional issues tied to this pandemic and that we, as a church, provide a lighthouse for God during this dark, stormy time.
Camp is coming — it is just around the corner. Perhaps the most exciting aspect of that, for me, is how I feel closer to God every time I am in nature.
Some of the best conversations I have with God are while sitting in the woods hunting deer. The stress of life quickly can fade away while kayaking down Penns Creek or catching fish at a nearby lake.
Nature also provides a bunch of neat object lessons and series of evidence that God is right here. Hunters scouting for deer season can know the best places to hunt without ever really seeing a deer itself — we look for signs: for tracks, scat, buck rubs and depressions in the grass where deer have bedded down.
As Christians, we may not necessarily see God in person, but we do see His signs — evidence of His majestic handiwork within the beautiful blooms of a colorful flower, in the miraculous life cycle (and incredible migration) of Monarch butterflies and the interconnected interactions between different species within a well-balanced natural ecosystem.
What happens when that ecosystem is disrupted? What if a major change shakes up the perfect utopia of a Christian life we enjoy, and how can God use those trials to serve His greater plan even if we never see the end result?
Take a few moments to watch this video about the unexpected ways Yellowstone National Park was affected when officials introduced wolves starting in 1995 after seven decades without the apex predators:
The wolves caused a massive overhaul within the Yellowstone ecosystem, with the ripple effect felt well beyond the deer and other primary prey species the wolves targeted for meals. Beavers, birds, plants and even rivers and the aquatic creatures within were all impacted.
Sometimes, the trials we face seem just as massive — we feel as if our very foundations have been shaken and sometimes, in the midst of the fear and anxiety felt while facing such trials, we can start to question our connection to God. We can wonder if He is really in control, especially if we pray for specific things we want to see done during that time of trial and not that God’s will is done through the situation.
Even times of wildfires within nature can trigger periods of new life and regrowth — and perhaps God is seeking a similar response from us during times where we face life’s fires and tribulations. May we double-down on our faith and use those periods as moments of regrowth in our steadfastness in Him.
This is the pattern Job followed — the same Job whose faith was tested severely. Job’s wealth, family and own personal health were stripped away, leaving him dangling. Job’s “friends” come to “comfort” him in the midst of all these trials, and instead share their own feelings of doubt toward God during an extended trial such as this.
Where does Job turn for solace and strength in God in the midst of the darkest storm of his life? Where does he locate the ammo he needs to shoot down the doubts and confront these “friends” of his?
In nature. From Job 12:7-10 (NIV):
“But ask the animals, and they will teach you,
or the birds in the sky, and they will tell you;
or speak to the earth, and it will teach you,
or let the fish in the sea inform you.
Which of all these does not know
that the hand of the Lord has done this?
In His hand is the life of every creature
and the breath of all mankind.”
Nature provides so many potential lessons for Christians — to bolster our faith, to prove God’s sovereignty to nonbelievers, to creating opportunities to reconnect with Him, and so much more.
We hope you will be joining us at camp in two weeks. If you have any questions about it, contact Michelle (570-495-3740) or myself (570-847-2718).
Here is another creative Ricky Murphy music video … this if Lauren Daigle’s “Still Rolling Stones:”
