Wow, what a JOY it is to only be about 6 MONTHS away from launch date!!! I’ve sent out a ton of letters in the past month; PLEASE, please, please let me know if I accidently missed sending you one, or you would like one (so sorry, times are so hectic right now). The Lord has provided me around $5,000 so far and I’m feeling tremendously blessed. Thank you, to those who have sent a $$ donation, bought something from me, or most importantly: have been lifting my team and I up in prayer. Something so special happened this past weekend and I want to share with you guys. He is deserving of all glory and all of our praise!
There’s a lot of talk about the club, J.O.Y, that me and three other girls started at Holly Springs High School. Currently, we have anywhere from 50-60 girls coming to each meeting during our school lunch to: eat food, be involved in community, talk, pray, and hear lessons from the Word. I remember about five months ago when our youth pastor, Jace urged us to start this ministry. Thoughts poured into my brain: “It’s going to be so much work, I don’t have enough wisdom, no girls will show up for this.” But, man was I wrong. Ciara, Bailey, Brenna and I pushed each other to come up with a name, food ideas, make cards to hand out, invite girls, create lessons, and fall at His feet begging for this to work out. Today, we have a range of about 130 different hearts to plant seeds in and 130 different girls attending JOY club on Tuesday afternoons. Two other high schools have reached out to us as well, wanting to start a “J.O.Y” in their school. PRAISE HIM!
Our churches early spring youth retreat (META) was this past weekend and we challenged ourselves to bring, or at least ask all the girls from JOY to come. A massive blessing was sent our way when our youth pastor was able to set up a special code that we could give to any JOY girl, enabling them to come COMPLETELY free. For about three weeks prior to META, with shame I’ll admit, we pestered girls to come to this retreat. It was all out of love, because we knew how life-changing this same event was for us last year.
The time came around for META and we had around 35-40 girls sign up from Holly Springs High School!!! My God is such a BIG God! But, not only did so many girls sign up, by the end of the weekend I gained 54 brothers and sisters in Christ and 12 of them were girls from J.O.Y. He is good. He is sufficient. He’s so much more than faithful. Colossians 1:10 says, “Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord, and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit. All the while, you will grow as you learn to know God better and better.”
Such a beautiful scene is created when we make the very place that we are; our mission field. I’m eternally grateful that The Lord is always with us in the midst of everything that we do; giving us strength when we don’t even know we need it. Everyday, I fall deeper and deeper in love with my Jesus and the life He has given me that is not only fulfilling, but more adventurous and freeing than any other life I’ve known. I am PUMPED to spread His name across the nations starting this September.
THANK YOU, thank you for the read. Let me know how I can be praying for you!
With so much love and JOY: Annie Bolick
