An update on "Lost...."

Well tonight was Master Clubs.... and I thought I would take some time to let you know what happened.

As we headed into game time, my three girls from last week were not there.  My heart was feeling a little sad.  I was talking with God about it, and He was reminding me that He does things in His own time.  So I set that little dissapointed part of my heart aside, and just got about the normal game time stuff.

Five minutes later,  I looked to my right, and there she was.  My little tough cookie came back!  I nearly cried; I was so happy to see her.
She was without the other two.  Could it be that she came alone?  Could it be that she initiated getting someone to bring her?

'Cuz I am nosey, I asked, "Are the other two coming?" She answered, " Yeah I think they are,  I came by myself today.  I had someone bring me.  It was a bit squishy in their car last week." 

It is a good thing I was already sitting down.  Otherwise I think I might have fallen over.  I was shocked, and amazed that she had arranged to come on her own.  .... a "PRAISE GOD!" fired off inside my head. 

As I walked upstairs to our class time, I realized I was surprised again.  I was surprised that God had answered our prayers.  I guess I need to get over that....  I asked Him for forgiveness for my oh so little faith.

I don't know if I can describe the difference in her this week, but I will try.  Every ounce of her that was hard, dark and angry was gone.

This week she was more joyful, engaged, and smiling. Eyeliner was only on half of the eye today, she wasn't working so hard at trying to hide behind her hair. Not once did I hear how stupid it was to be here.  Not once did she say she would never be back.  She was excited to get to work in her booklet today.  She had questions.

Her first question was about eternal life.  The booklet asks, "Do you understand that eternal life in heaven is a free gift from God that cannot be earned?  It can only be received by faith."
She told me she didn't understand how it could not be earned. So we went over how faith isn't working for your salvation. I explained that faith is trusting in Jesus Christ alone to save you from the penalty of sin.  I asked her if that helped, if she understood that no amount of studying, no amount of being nice, no amount of doing good things was going to get her into heaven.  She said sort of, she said that faith must be like some sort of miracle..... she said she was going to need a miracle.

The next portion of the booklet asks about making a choice.  It lists three choices.
1. I trusted Christ as my Savior when I was _______ years old.
2. I would like to trust Christ as my Savior, ask Him to forgive my sin, and spend eternity in Heaven with Him.
3. I am not ready to make that decision right now.

She turned to me and said,  " What if I am between 2 and 3?  What if I am not ready to do number 2, but I don't want to say no like number 3."
I told her, " Then write down on the paper that you are in the middle.  I don't want you to pick one and not have it be a truthful answer."

At least we know right where she is.  She isn't ready, but she seem curious.

We moved on to some memory verses.  One that she worked on this week was:  " ....for one is your Master, even Christ." Matthew 23:10.  My prayer for her this week is that this verse will stick to her like glue.  That she will find herself thinking about the words Christ and Master.  That she will be faced with wondering who her master is.

Another praise:  One of the girls, the one that seemed to have been to chruch before and had mentioned to be that she had already been baptized.  She was at church on Sunday.  She came with her mom, sister and grandmother.  One look at mom, and you can see she has life experiences beyond her years.  I would venture to guess that her life has not been an easy one.  She looks like I felt, when I started going back to church. 

Scared.

Afraid of what these church people think about her, and what would we say if we really knew everything. 

Please pray with me that I might be able to reach out to her.  I don't know how, but God does.  Pray that I will be ready when the time comes.

Continue to pray for the two other students ( that we know of ) that have not made a decision for Christ.  Please pray that God will work in us as leaders, preparing us through this week for the work He wants us to complete.