Church Under The Bridge

Church Under the Bridge

This past weekend, I and 4 other people from our church drove an hour and a half to Austin, Texas where we were able to take part in a ministry outreach program known as “Church Under the Bridge (C.U.B.).” Out of those of us who went, there were two of us that had never experienced C.U.B. before. For me, this trip was way out of my comfort zone.

When we arrived at the park and ride area underneath the Interstate 35 bridge between 6^th and 7^th streets, I was amazed to see the amount of people that were gathering. Some were very helpful in telling us where to go for the service and others kept to themselves. One of the ladies noticed our big white van with the words “Fredericksburg United Methodist Church” on the side and assumed we were there for the service. So she, very kindly, pointed us in the direction of where we were supposed to go. I didn’t know much about this lady, but she looked older and very acquainted with the area.

We finally parked the van and proceeded to put our stuff away in the van, and at this point, I am feeling a little nervous. I had to jump back in the van to get something out, and did so quickly. However, when I jumped out of the van, the key (which was in my pocket) fell out into the seat. Not knowing that it fell out, I locked the doors and walked away. As we began to move further away from the van, I check my pockets one more time, and realized I did not have the key to the van in my possession. Normally this would freak me out, but for some reason, I stayed calm and we continued on our way. We had to call “Pop-A-Lock” to come down and open the van, which took all of 30 seconds.

After the van was taken care of, we were able to continue working. When we met up with the worship leaders, they prayed over our group and sent us to our stations. Eli and I went to the prayer tent, and Michelle, Misael and Cody went to the serving line to hand out drinks. While I was in the prayer tent, I had some amazing experiences. It’s not every day that I am able to pray over people. To see people being blessed and being comforted by the words that God had placed in my mouth to say was pretty spectacular. This experience, even though mostly good, is something that I don’t think I could do on a regular basis. I know that God has it placed on my heart to feed his sheep.

A lot of these people that we minister to are hurting. In fact, the majority are. However, when they are prayed for, or someone takes the time to talk with them and be with them, even for a short while, the love of Christ transforms them and gives them hope for a future.

Matthew 25: 40

⁴⁰"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'

God is amazing! Christ has Risen! Let’s share what that means and how exciting that is with the rest of the world!!!!

Writing

Well, it has been a total of 5 weeks since I have started on this journey known as full time youth ministry. My mother would argue with me and say that I have been doing youth ministry for years now, and to some extent she may be right. However, until the 14th of June, 2009, I have never been paid for it...at least in monetary value.

I have been sitting here for the last 15 minutes listening to some music (Idina Menzel - Just a calming and soothing voice) trying to figure out what I want to write about. I hate times like this. My heart for some reason wants to write something, but my mind just can't push the words out. I feel as though my heart is full of amazing ideas and thoughts (interesting concept; the heart having thoughts...) but I am conflicted. So I figured I would just start writing things down, and figured something would come out.

It is hard to believe that it has been 5 weeks. God has blessed me with some great students. Not to mention, there are some amazing people that work here with me at the church. They are very encouraging and thoughtful.

Last week was the best week so far. I got to go to U.M.A.R.M.Y. It was an interesting experience. Having never been to a U.M.A.R.M.Y. I wasn't sure what to expect. God was definitely present there during the week. I will be honest, I was somewhat frustrated with some of the logistics, as well as I wasn't on a work team, but I know that I was right where I was supposed to be for the week. I worked on program staff and we got to go to all the job sites and see the kids in action. As far as I'm concerned that is one of the best jobs in camp.

We get to plan how worship will look as well as just hang out with the kids. That was the major focus for me this week. It was so awesome to be able to spend some time with my guys and girls. I learned so much about ministry this last week. (I know mom..."I told you so.")

Ministry is so much more about relationships than anything else. If you think about it, that is what God wants with us; a relationship. He doesn't care about how much we do or don't know. I think the most amazing thing about God is He is so mysterious and wonderful. He has everything under control and just wants us to Love Him and Love each other. It's so simple and yet God is so complicated. So much so, it hurts to think about it sometimes. Other times it's just plain funny.

God amazes me with His ability to take a situation and make it something that we can learn from. Not to mention if we just let go of our pride and our selfishness things just so happen to work themselves out. Now, that doesn't mean it's all up to chance. What I mean by that is God just wants to know that we are fully invested in our relationship with Him.

So the point I am trying to convey is that God is FANTASTIC! Better yet....GOD IS!

Just remember that I love you because God loves me. With out God, there is no love, and without Love there is no life.

IN CHRIST!

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