I just got back from spending three days in the woods with 85 high school students. It was awesome. Every year at GGIS we take the students on a retreat so that they can all get to know each other and the teachers better. This year our theme was “Bearing Fruit”. We do a lot of fun things, play sports, have games, do a barn dance, but most importantly we have our sessions. Last night, sitting around a campfire, we passed the microphone around and a few students spoke about their time in the school and what it has meant to them. As a staff member, there is no better way to see the fruit of what God is doing here than those moments. We are bearing fruit. We may not realize it, but it’s happening. Isaiah 37:31 says that you bear fruit upward as your roots grow downward. To bear fruit is an awesome thing but the more important thing is to have roots. I hope that some students this weekend were able to grow some more roots.
Last weekend, I was able to be with the Korean youth group that I help out with for their retreat. We didn’t travel anywhere, but we did have a few services and then took the teens to play laser tag.
I love being with teenagers. They are the most real people you will ever find. They are honest, they are passionate, and they are growing up. I don’t think there is any better profession than to work in the ministry. No one knows what God will produce as fruit in the lives of the people we minister to but we do know that it will be at the perfect time and in the perfect place for His use.
I have one student who came to my classroom when I had a break this week and asked me a question about the Bible. She was a bit unsure about something she had heard from another church because it sounded funny compared to what she had grown up hearing in her church. We looked at a few verses together and in the end she decided that she was correct doctrinally and the other people were misrepresenting the truth of scripture. I was so surprised by how mature this girl had become just over the summer break. She had her daily reading Bible that she goes through and writes down her thoughts on that day’s portion. I was so impressed.
I was talking with my friend, Tim, this week about the evidence of doctrine in people’s lives. It’s incredible to see the results of a life that is allowing God to work in it.
Please pray for us here in Budapest. God is doing amazing things in a lot of lives. Next week we will kick off our after school Bible study. Pray that these times will really help establish the students and help their roots grow deep.
Thank you all for your continued prayer!
