"What did you just say?"

One week ago, I wrote about a comment that my roommate had made.  After my saying that teaching at Finneytown was the last time I felt called, she remarked "and look how you have remained faithful to the call".  This was eye opening to me because at times I have felt that I have selfishly held on to ministry at Finneytown.  Last Monday, God rocked my socks off; as if to prove it has nothing to do with me, he just wants me to watch him work.

Let me catch you up to speed.  We are going to camp, for the most part, as an area.  We received about 98 spots for said camp trip to Lake Champion to split amongst the schools.  As of last week, there weren't a whole lot of spots left for the area; although Cat said she could probably pick up 20 more spots.  Going into the night, as well as throughout the night, we made sure kids realized that spots weren't just sitting around waiting to be filled.  

As the night started, about three deposits (from regulars) came in.  By the time club was over we had eight deposits.  We kept talking to kids and God kept showing up.  I had a girl approach me after club.  This girl is absolutely wonderful and sadly hasn't been able to come to camp last year or this year.  Her first comment was, "My mom asked me today if I wanted to go to camp."  What?  Turns out, she will be going to camp this year because Courtney went and picked up her deposit later that night.  Sean then left to head out to her boyfriend's house to pick up his deposit.  

In the midst of our team meeting, when Cat was finally free to chat, I got to be the one to talk to her about our numbers.  Timidly, I told her about our deposits.  "What did you just say?"  That was her response.  Because I had just told her that we collected 16 deposits that night.  Going into the night, we had 24 deposits.  We sat around the table at Courtney's parents' house laughing; because in moments like these you know that it's God doing all the work.  

I often delude myself into thinking that something I do or something I don't do could actually help/hurt ministry.  Now, don't get me wrong.  We definitely need to make ourselves available and the Lord will do crazy things through us.  In the same sense, our fallenness can truly damage ministry.  I've seen both sides of that coin.  But when amazing, jaw dropping, tear inducing things happen, I tend to lean towards blaming Jesus.  

16 kids don't turn in deposits in one night because the thought of spending a week with me makes them run home and grab a check.  Kids don't stand up at a say-so because I had a really good one on one time with them.  Lives don't change forever because I am great at leading biblestudies.  No, in moments like these we get to just sit back and marvel.  Our God is greater than anything we could imagine.  And so this week, I'm going to work on just sitting back in awe of him.  Because dangit if he's not awe inspiring.