I want to share with you about the past weekend in New Jersey where I spent the weekend with the Cornerstone Youth Group of Cornerstone Church in Wyckoff, NJ.
On Friday evening, we went to a camp called Star Lake in Bloomingdale, NJ not too far away. The leaders of the group put everyone on teams and I ended up on Pink Team with three youth and a leader (five including me). We found out that night during worship and such that the theme of the weekend was "REVIVAL". I'm hooked.
We go over the passage 1 Kings 18 with Elijah putting the prophets of Baal to the test (they don't even get an 'F', that's how horribly they did on the test). The overall topic was idols and those things that we tend to put before God.
On Saturday, we had some time with the Lord to find out our personal idols, then had some game rotations (Up-Jenkins, Ultimate Frisbee, Gestures, and Basketball). We lost horribly at Up-Jenkins, but dominated the other three, even with our team of five (most other teams had seven to nine people).
After lunch, we played a game called 'Stix', basically an INTENSE combination of Four Square, Flag-Football, and Capture-the-Flag. By intense, I seriously mean the possibility of broken bones and severe injuries intense. One youth even bit through his lip and couldn't close his mouth all the way.
The night session I saw these youth take the topic of idols seriously with pretty much all of the youth that came coming forward and choosing God first once more and setting aside their idols.
I went with the three youth on Pink Team to bury our 'Mr. Potato-Head Idol' in the woods and I took the time to pray over the three of them. They in-turn prayed over each other and myself.
Wow was all my mind could say to that.
We went back in to join the rest of the group for an amazing time of worship and even time to pray over the nations. These youth…fifteen to eighteen-year-olds from America, Ireland, and even Estonia…made commitments to allow God to use them wherever He desires.
I was reminded all weekend of my time at PenHOP (Penang House of Prayer) in Malaysia where the man leading prayer one morning told the group of a vision he had from God about the youth of Malaysia being the tidal wave to take back the country for the Kingdom of God. As God reminded me of this, He shared with me that it will not only be the youth of Malaysia, but the youth of EVERY nation that will be the tidal wave to re-take the nations for the Kingdom of God.
Part of Georgetown on Penang Island
By youth, I mean my generation (twenty-somethings) and the next generation (teens). I was floored and just worshiped God all the more for such a revelation.
I fell in love with all of these youth. I am honestly sad I had to leave to go back to Florida. One of them, even said some of them thought I'd be someone else who had let them down, but they realized I wasn't like that person and that they all loved me. (Dang Gina! Way to make me tear up Curtis!!)
Anyways, God has some amazing plans in the works and as this past weekend has continued I have learned that I will indeed find my way to Ireland (maybe even to France to lead missions with the Irish), only my time-line of January is not His time-line, so I will be pushing it back a few months. In the meantime I will be getting my way to Gainesville, GA to help with the next Kingdom Dreams: Project Searchlight to help with the three squads who just came home and where God is leading them!
I have such a burden to encourage others that I feel this is the next step as I move forward on this path with God. He is such a great Father!!
Stay tuned for the next blog as I buckle down how much I will need to raise, my budget and the many options for YOU to partner with God and me to bring hope to the nations. Thank you for reading!
*Note: I'd love to have photos up on here, especially of the autumn leaves and trees; however, I am unable to access my pictures on my camera for my Netbook's SD card drive is not working properly. Please pray I can get that straightened out! Thanks!
