#ThisIsWhy: 5 Lessons God Taught Me

By Allison Middleton. Allison served as the Kids Club Coordinator at Pine Ridge 2 during the 2016 summer.

When I was hired by YouthWorks it was quite obviously an answer to my prayers. I knew that when I accepted a position as a YouthWorks Summer Staff God was providing an opportunity to grow in my relationship with Him, while also allowing me to work with all sorts of His children. I was certain that a summer with YouthWorks would teach me an incredible amount and, fortunately, I was right. God showed up and in doing so He taught me 5 invaluable lessons from my YouthWorks summer:

1. God will redeem. So trust in Him… Over and over again I watched as God changed bad attitudes, kids’ behaviors, gloomy weather, and hard weeks into beautiful situations and opportunities to love Him and His people. He showed me there are slices of Heaven here on Earth and He is at work. No prayer is too big for our God. Whether He turned the weather around or let the skies open up, He showed us He is with us and is ready to redeem situations in the most unexpected ways.

2. I learned how to be still. I learned I was enough and I learned I am loved. Going into the summer I did not feel the slightest bit prepared to lead hundreds of high schoolers to new awakenings in their faith – I did not feel awakened enough in my own relationship with God! But God showed me that none of that mattered. I was willing to be a vessel and that is all He needed. I could rest in that and let Him do the rest.

3. Once again God showed me that through Him our souls are truly well. My heart was broken and rebroken this summer over and over again. But so was God’s heart. He loves us so much he suffers by our side and this is comfort enough to know all is well because we have a good good Father through it all.

4. Through Christ there are no goodbyes, only see you laters. All the friends I made this summer I will someday meet again if not in this life, in Heaven. Hallelujah!

5. God deserves all the glory. All of it. I am nothing and he is everything. Kids club was fantastic – by His grace. Reading club rocked and houses were successfully painted because He used us. Because God loves us we were able to love Wanblee so well. We left with friends because God gave us the gift of relationship. HE IS OUR GOD AND TO HIM BE THE GLORY! AMEN.

These are the moments that make it all worth it. Interested in apply to be 2017 YouthWorks Summer Staff? Click HERE!