Years of prayers answered.

We spent the week in Rapid City SD for the Wesleyan District Conference. It was Danielle and I's first time attending. I will say I was a little intimidated at first. Some of these guys new me when I first worked at Cedar Canyon Camp when I was 17. I know some of them at the conference are still scratching their heads about how I got there or if I even should have be there at all. It got me thinking about how the Wesleyan church has affected who I have become over the last 10 years. A few of the pastors in the room only remembered me as the punk camp intern that hit on there daughters or youth girls while they were at camp for the week. Then they had to listen to them talk about me all the way home. I can only imagine the foul taste my name may have left in their mouth after they had to talk about me at the next camp board meeting, possibly praying I wouldn't be working at the camp the next summer. Just to have their prayers go unanswered when I would be the one greeting them as they pulled in. 

This may have been the way a few thought of me as I worked at the camp all those years, and I don't hold a grudge if they did. It would have been hard to see it any other way. After the first night of the conference my beautiful wife and I were very encouraged. The speaker Steve DeNeff from College church in Indiana spoke to us as if we were the only one's in the room. The intimidated or maybe even guilty feeling was lifted from me. We both knew leaving that night that God had placed us in Bozeman, and that we are doing the right thing despite what others may be thinking. 

The next few days were filled with words of encouragement from those who knew me when I was younger. They were over joyed to see me and my wife living our lives 100 percent for Christ and on a mission to help others find their way to Jesus. 

I don't exactly know how the prayers of those youth pastors went when they would leave the camp all those summers. They may have been more like this, God work in that young man's life. Help him to look to you for satisfaction and not in meaningless relationships. Use him boldly to spread your name all over the world. Protect him through tough times, keep him bold when others doubt, give him courage to stick to your word and not stray in the direction of the world. This prayer seems more appropriate then the one above. Ten years later this prayer they had prayed got answered. I did start looking to God for answers and not in relationships. I did move to a place to live work and breathe telling others about the great power of Jesus Christ. My wife and I are living as missionaries in a place we never knew. I was living proof this week that God answers prayer. I know this because I wouldn't be where I am today if the youth pastors prayed any way for the direction of my life. 

Pray for something amazing to happen in someone's life that drives you nuts. Persevere through the tough times, God will answer your prayer.

 

Peace out and God Bless,

Andy

Serve the city Sunday update coming soon...