"Lord, Can You Let Me in on the Plan?"

This is my second attempt at posting on the blog this week. I just erased my first page, which I had spent about half an hour on, because I decided I need to be very careful with the information I am posting today. I do not want to run ahead of God, something that I am often guilty of. Yet, I do want to communicate that I had a very good day yesterday and felt like God is showing me some new things. Let me quickly tell you about two meetings I had yesterday.

The first meeting took place with a former student. We spent some time together talking about her future. Then after a while we spent some time talking about the years that I served as her pastor. As we laughed about some of the memories from youth group trips and such, Olivia ended our time with a statement that I didn't give much thought to at the moment but later considered. She told me "I never saw or heard of another youth ministry like yours." Her statement caught me by surprise, and there are still levels of it that I need to consider. But to shorten up the thought process for you, let me just say that I was reminded that any success that I have been fortunate enough to experience in ministry never came while I was following a formula, but rather during the times I was tuned in to the Holy Spirit.

The second encounter I had yesterday, that really spoke to me, was not one that I set up. Kent, who is part of my prayer support from the Elkton church, emailed me early last week and told me he would like to sit down and talk. Kent and I had a brief conversation last fall when I first started in Sebewaing but nothing came out of it then. In his email Kent told me he felt like God was up to something, and he wanted to be obedient to whatever that was.

As Kent and I shared while sitting in the McDonalds in Sebewaing, there really seemed to be a unity that only would make sense if it was from the Holy Spirit. It was not like a plan or a blueprint for success came out of the meeting, but it seemed like God gave us a glimpse of some things and simply said be obedient to the next step.

So that is what we are doing. We are going to compare calendars with some other people and start to see if we can bring some of those groups together and continue this process of seeing what God may have planned. I will keep you informed. In the mean time, pray for the Grbrielsons, the Elenbaums, and the Reinhardts as we meet to discuss the possibility of bringing some things together for the glory of God.