A week ago, I was just finishing up our weeklong summer conference, Getaway. The week seems to always be a life changing time for students. God has been gracious and shown up and worked in the lives of students. This year, I was in charge of the program. I love getting to create space for students to meet with God. We had lots of high energy crazy stuff, worship, and speakers. But one of the my favorite things was what we did on Wednesday night. We slowed things down a little bit and allowed students to reflect on what God had been saying to them all week. The room was low lighted with tea lights on the stage. We gave them scripture to meditate on and had the band playing old hymns in the background. Each student had an index card and given the freedom to write whatever was on their heart. In the back of the room, we had strings hanging from the ceiling and clothes pins attached to it. Within a few minutes of the night starting, the cards began to fill up the strings. The students poured out their hearts to God and shared with such honesty and vulnerability. I was amazed as I read through what some of them wrote. God was speaking clearly to the students and they were listening to Him. We serve such an awesome God.
The very last night, we had the students respond one more time. The theme for the week was 'New'. We used the verse in 2 Corninthians 5:17- "This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life has gone; a new life has begun" We asked the students to think of one word that described their old self and come up and write it on a black card. As we assembled the board, you began to see that 'NEW' was written in large writing with the cards. It was once again a reminder to the students that their old life is gone, and in Christ they are NEW! It is only in Christ that they are able to live the way that he has called them to live! They are no longer slaves to sin, but sons and daughters of the King!
