Vineyard East Youth

In the midst of my chaotic life of uncertainty and relying on God for every provision, pushing through challenges, attacks and discouragement of the church ministry that I am currently in, I cannot help but swell up with joy like a proud mama when I think of our youth ministry.  This past year, the youth of Metrowest, MA have experienced drastic change in group identity as we combined Framingham, Hopkinton, and Wellesley into one joint regular youth gathering.   The adult leaders (including myself) have also taken the “back seat” as far as leading the teachings, and are instead mentoring select youths to lead their peers in this new group. And I have been blown away by each gathering that we’ve had so far by their passion to grow, depth of discussion, and their devotion to each other as well as to the growth of the ministry.

We ended up having a series of discussions in the last few weeks about ‘why we believe what we believe – the basis of our faith,’ and ‘how do we respond when we are challenged about what we believe by non-believers.’ There have been hard questions, challenging biblical answers, and intensely thoughtful discussions.  As friends are also being invited and coming to Christ in the process, the regular youths are also getting more established in their faith, particularly the ones who are graduating soon and going off to college.  The youths are praying over each other, growing in the prophetic as we worship in music (also 100% youth-led!), and challenging each other to draw closer in relationship with God daily.  Words cannot express how great it feels as a youth leader to arrive to youth group and witness the seeds of God’s wisdom and giftings that have been planted over the years blossom before my eyes, knowing beyond a shadow of doubt that God is moving powerfully in our youth!  In this season, I have learned to speak only when necessary (which is quite hard to do sometimes), and leave the rest up to God/anointing of my youth.  I am reminded of John the baptizer who prepared the way of the Lord (who happened to be his cousin) but said, “He must become greater, I must become less.”

Just this past gathering, a new visitor (a sophomore) received some prayer for the first time from her friend who invited her and a few other girls in the group.  After a brief explanation of the Holy Spirit and then the hands-on prayers, she began to shake uncontrollably and was moved to tears, which she later explained that she rarely cries about anything.  Instead of freaking out (well, maybe a little at first), she was amazed and excited about the overwhelming warmth and the joy that she was experiencing, and is definitely thirsting to know more about our Jesus.  How powerful is that simple saying “taste and see that God is good!”

I echo Shawn’s blog about how our youths are desperately thirsting for something real.  Truths that are not just spoken to them, but actually experienced.  They need to know through experience that they are capable and have the ability to start walking in the kingdom today rather than tomorrow.  I truly feel something big is about to hit our youth in our region – my spirit jumps with excitement every time I think about it.  God, reclaim the youth generation and the generations to come!  May your kingdom come and surpass all our expectations!