Welcome to the online version of our weekly Port Ann Wesleyan Youth lessons … we offer an in-person version at the church each Wednesday from 7-8:15 p.m. and highly recommend attending those when you can. For those who can’t, we will kick off with another Francesca Battistelli song … “If We’re Honest.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDcTvtuuVU8
Prayer needs continue to be plentiful within our extended church family. Continue to bathe the coronavirus situation and the many ways it is impacting our families and communities in prayer. Pray for leaders of our county, state and country as they make decisions connected to how to best handle it — and the schools which have a lot of decisions to make on how to best reopen in the fall.
Pastor Paul and Sally were in Hershey today, where Sally received a CT scan, blood work and consultation about the cancerous tumor found in her pancreas. Please continue to pray for God’s will through this medical situation and for the extended family — Stevan, Jessica, Sher-lyn, Ella and Ezra — as they rally around Sally during this time of uncertainty.
Also, please pray for final arrangements that are being made over the next month for the tweaked family camp experience in late July — both our youth group 5-day opportunity and the three-day family camp schedule. Concerning that …
We are a month away from the start of family camp — and the youth experience we are creating as a substitute for the loss of our typical district youth camp.
Beyond the many activities and opportunities Michelle and I are planning, the lessons are pulled from the book of Daniel. Using the testimony of five real-life people from central Pennsylvania as catalysts, we will look at how teenagers should deal with trials and temptations, develop their God-given talents, transform their lives through the acceptance of Christ and troubleshoot situations that may attempt to derail us after turning our lives completely over to Him.
We strongly pray that everyone from our group will participate in person. Why? Here is an excerpt from the book we are writing that will act as our curriculum for the lessons. It is my personal testimony about camp meeting and one of the reasons being there (and in church) is important for all believers:
I felt like a total failure.
Sitting in a God’s Holiness Grove camp meeting service with three rambunctious kids – one of which a 2-year-old foster son our family was hoping to adopt – I struggled to keep all three seated and focused on the service. I so desperately wanted to absorb the evangelist’s message, but kept getting distracted – knowing their antics were likely distracting others around me.
The service ended with an altar call, and people in the audience were asked to come pray over those who were responding to the message. I felt an indescribable push to go up and pray for someone from our church. I knew leaving the kids alone was likely a mistake, but I couldn’t avoid the call.
After prayer, an older gentleman I barely knew came over to me and said that the Holy Spirit strongly encouraged him to tap me on the shoulder and thank me for how well I was doing with the three kids and how he was personally inspired by watching us from a distance during the week and that God wanted me to write stories about young people.
I was shocked. I felt I didn’t deserve any praise, that I wasn’t doing anything more than other parents with young children. However, his words really resonated with me. They helped me better focus on the next night’s message – one about enduring storms.
I remember thinking at the time that Michelle and I were fortunate – in nearly 12 years of marriage, we never really had to face any major life situations. The evangelist emphasized that every person of faith will go through times of storms – it wasn’t a matter of if, but when.
I didn’t think the message really applied, but I took some notes and stored them away.
A month later, the foster boy we were hoping to adopt was unexpectedly pulled from our family and sent off to live with an aunt in another state. A month after that, my father-in-law died, again, unexpectedly. Six months later, my own father died after an impromptu hospital visit for complications connected to pneumonia. There were several other challenges we faced during that time – the darkest, stormiest season we had ever faced.
Thankfully, I remembered the camp meeting service notes. Among suggestions the evangelist had shared that night included, of course, focusing more closely on God. He encouraged people in the midst of a storm to simplify, cut out ungodly activities and other distractions and focus on keeping God in view, much like disciple Peter needed to do when walking on the water to Jesus. The moment he took his eye off Jesus, Peter began to sink into the stormy, murky depths.
The storms we faced back then have helped shape our lives in the seven-plus years since. The lessons from that one service have been invaluable, and God provided those pearls of wisdom to me before I even knew I needed them. He even helped me better focus on that service by the events of the night before. He is so merciful that way.
The most important takeaway in this context – to me – however, is that we need to put ourselves in situations where God can speak to us.
Sure, God can get our attention in any circumstance – he spoke to Moses through a burning bush in the middle of the wilderness, and he can do the same for us. However, the odds of really hearing what God has to say to us increase by opening ourselves up to Him – and the best places to do that are among a church family that lifts us up, within God-focused camp meetings and youth camps and through quiet moments spent with Him through prayer and delving into God’s Word.
Fellowship is a HUGE part of the Christian walk, and one of the best benefits from a life in Christ. Can you feel the excitement Paul shares in Acts 2:42-47 (NIV) when talking about the early church and its roots in fellowship:
They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
It is a concept echoed in the movie “God’s Not Dead: Light in the Darkness” — church is not a place, but a people. Youth group is designed the same way.
Another take on what Christian fellowship should look like can be found in Hebrews 10:24-25 (NIV):
And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another – and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
As Francesca Battistelli shares in the “If We’re Honest” song above, each of us can be mired in our mess, building walls to block out others. But there is so much power in lowering those defense mechanisms and having honest discussions in the safety of a trusted fellowship.
This is one of the points also shared by Allen Parr in a video he did several years ago about why people should attend church. Check it out here:
What can we do to be a better extended family for you and your friends … a safe place to be honest and a fellowship where you can let your walls down? As I shared in the camp meeting testimony above, if we put ourselves in places to best hear God, it increases our ability to seek His guidance and follow His path.
If you have any questions, comments, concerns or prayer needs, please reach out to Michelle (570-495-3740) or myself (570-847-2718).
To catch up on previous weekly lessons, click below:
June 17, 2020: Savoring the Spirit
June 10, 2020: Tools of the trade
June 3, 2020: Beauty in the broken
May 20 & 27, 2020: Sowing seeds of salvation
May 13, 2020: Trash to treasure
May 6, 2020: Serving as samaritans
April 29, 2020: Adopted into the family
April 22, 2020: Living as lighthouses
April 15, 2020: Absorbing the truth
April 9, 2020: Preparation over procrastination
April 1, 2020: Standing up in the midst of a storm
March 25, 2020: What route do our roots run?
March 18, 2020: God’s calm guidance during a coronavirus craze
