A Youth Led Conspiracy: Give More

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This year we decided to introduce our students to Advent Conspiracy. We had no idea how or what it would look like, since the whole church would not be participating. We knew we wanted to challenge the students to re-think the way we celebrate the birth of our Savior. As we brainstormed ideas and the four themes: Worship Fully, Spend Less, Give More, Love All; the concept of "Give More" stuck with us. 

What does it mean for us to "give more" and what would it look like to "give more" of ourselves to each other and our community. We wanted the students to see gift giving in another light. A light other than the materialistic, consumeristic view of gifts now.  There should be more to a gift than how much it cost, and some of the most meaningful gifts do not come in fancy packages. One of the greatest gifts we can give to others is ourselves, our time and our love.

We came up with several ideas. One idea was to hold a silent auction but with one catch, everything would be free. We would however be passing out fliers on a few non-profit organizations who are sharing God's love with the world and improving people's lives: Living Water International, Compassion International, Kiva, International Justice Mission, and Heifer International.  Our intent was to raise awareness for these organizations, and if someone felt the desire to give money for the service rendered to them through the auction, we hoped they would give the money to one of the organizations. 

The students loved the auction idea.  They split into groups of 2-4 and came up with some great ideas, including; babysitting, yard work, christmas gift wrapping, music concerts, cooking dinners, dog washing.  At the students excitement to work for free, we had our first realization that God was at work. Besides the auction, other ideas for the students to give to their community included a free bake sale, passing out free water bottles with labels they would 

create raising awareness for Living Water and Advent Conspiracy, and opportunities to perform random acts of kindness throughout the community. For example taking fajitas to the firemen who work the overnight shift at the firehouse. 

As the ideas were presented to our Senior Pastor, he was very supportive and allowed us to set up an area for our silent auction at one of our church's biggest Christmas events, Bethlehem Marketplace. The event attracts people from all over the community, Christians and non-Christians. Families bring their children to see the live animals at the live nativity and to participate in the various crafts. We were thrilled with the opportunity to share what God had been teaching us and the students about giving of ourselves and loving our neighbor and to provide an opportunity for the community to respond.  Since we had a date now for the silent auction, we decided to dedicate the entire weekend of Bethlehem Marketplace to give back to our community and raise awareness for Advent Conspiracy.  We also knew we would need to involve a couple of adult groups to help us with some of our ideas for the weekend.

One group of ladies offered to help us with our "free" bake sale. They joined with the high school girls and baked and iced over 600 christmas cookies to hand out at Bethlehem Marketplace next to the silent auction.  Another group of ladies wanted to hand out free

wassail in cups that raised awareness for Living Water Int'l.  As word slowly got out about what the students were doing, people began to ask questions. They wanted to know what Advent Conspiracy was. When we would explain the idea, people would respond with excitement and hope and some were even moved to tears.  God was totally moving in the people in this community and he was using high school students to lead the way. 

About 2 weeks before the Advent Conspiracy weekend was to take place, we felt that Chad, the head of the student ministry, should speak that morning before Bethlehem Marketplace to explain to the whole congregation what the youth were doing .  We also were hoping we could have our friend, Richmond, from Uganda share his story that same morning.  Little did we know that God was already at work in making this happen. A little while later, Chad met with the Senior Pastor, who before ever hearing our request asked Chad if he would give the sermon that Sunday morning of Bethlehem Marketplace.  Of course Chad's reply was yes and he went on to tell the pastor about how he had been planning on asking him that very question.  Also, Richmond was available and more than willing to fly to Houston and get out of the very cold Chicago winter to share his story with our church. Everything was coming together and we felt God's hand in it all.  We felt his blessing and were so thankful to be a part of what he was doing.

A Youth Led Conspiracy: Love All

In November we, the student ministry staff, attended the National Youth Workers Convention in Nashville. At one of the general sessions we were introduced to Richmond, a young man from Uganda.  He was asked to speak briefly to the crowd about his life and what he is doing now. What he said changed our view of child sponsorship, and eventually changed the lives of over 60 children through Compassion International. 

Richmond comes from a family of 8. His father was shot and killed in front of his mother one day while he and his siblings were away at school. His family was soon afterwards forced to move into one of the biggest slums in Uganda.

His mother was unable on her own to afford school for him and his siblings and food grew more and more scarce. Soon he began to wander the streets with his sister in search of any food they could find, often stealing bananas off trucks passing by on the roads. Thankfully his mother learned about Compassion International and was able to put Richmond and his sister on the waiting list for sponsorship. After four months Richmond had a sponsor and soon afterwards his sister also became sponsored. Both were able to return to school and food no longer became a worry. He talked about how grateful he was for his sponsor's financial help, but more precious to him were the letters he received from his sponsor. Because his sponsor took the time to write to him and ask him questions about his life and even tell him about their life, he began to feel like he mattered in this world. He said one of the worst things about poverty is how it robs you of your humanity. You feel like you are not important, nobody cares about you. Richmond told us that through the letters his sponsor told him that he was loved, that he did matter. After several letters telling him this, he was finally able to accept that someone did love him and did care about him. With this revelation he had gained confidence and believed he had a purpose, where before he had been unsure of himself and feeling inadequate.  He also states that because of the love offered to him through his sponsor, he was able to experience God’s love. This led him to accept Jesus as his Saviour which led to his entire family becoming believers.

As of today Richmond has graduated from college with the highest honors and a degree in financing and accounting. Besides being a professor of finance the last couple of years, he has also been the youth pastor at his church in Uganda.  In September he came to the U.S. to attend Moody Bible Institute. With the help of Compassion he is getting a degree in Discipleship. Richmond says one of the biggest problems with the church in Uganda is the lack of discipleship and training in scripture. Two problems I think the Western Church can relate to as well. He says many of the church leaders don’t know how to interpret scripture. and they pull scripture verses out of context. After he finishes school, he plans to return to Uganda and pass on what he has learned to the church leaders.

Moved by Richmond’s story, we invited him to come one weekend and speak to our students. Eventually he was invited to tell his story to the church congregation in all 3 of the Sunday Services during a Sunday that has become known as “Advent Conspiracy Sunday” (stay tuned for more stories about Advent Conspiracy Sunday). The church’s response after hearing Richmond's story was overwhelming as over 60 Compassion Children became sponsored on that one Sunday.

I have recently become a sponsor of a little girl named Uli from Indonesia. She is precious and I am excited to be a part of her life even if it is solely in the form of letter writing and financial aid.  One thing I am excited about with Compassion is they offer trips where you can visit your child which I am hoping to do one day. If you can spare $32 a month, I strongly suggest you look into Compassion International and begin sponsoring a child. Remembering the importance of not only providing monetarily, but also giving of yourself through communicating with the child through letters and letting the child know they are loved and important not only in your eyes, but also in the eyes of their Creator. If you already are a child sponsor, I hope this encourages you to write to them if you do not already, and if you do write to them I hope you are encouraged to know that it makes a difference. Also, don't forget about stickers. I've been told they make any letter more exciting no matter the age or gender.

Winter Wonderland

The weather in Houston has been crazy. In less than 12 hours it has gone from 80 degrees to 40 degrees! Last night I came home and it was 76 outside I woke up this morning and it has not risen above 45 degrees. I can’t remember a Fall in Houston that has been this extreme in temperature from week to week. All this to tell you that a couple of weeks ago it snowed in Houston. The earliest snow fall ever recorded. It does not snow but about every 5 years in Houston and usually it doesn’t stick or snow for very long, but a couple of Wednesdays ago it snowed heavily for Texas, about 2 inches. It was a momentous occasion, so much so, we ended our usual Wednesday night youth group program early to enjoy the falling snow. We had snowball fights, built a snowman, made snow angels, and only had one angry passerby call the cops on us as one student thought it would be funny to hit a car with a snowball. sigh. Thankfully, we caught the student and put an end to that before anything too serious happened.

It was incredible to watch the students enjoy the snow. They were hilarious and acting as though they had never seen snow before, but i guess it is only about once every 5 years that it snows in Houston and once in a decade that the snow actually sticks on the ground. So I guess I can understand the excitement. Sadly, I found myself having a difficult time being excited about the snow at first. I think last January while in China I was given my fill of snow, especially, the day I spent at the Great Wall. It was so cold. I just remember my toes and hands going numb and not being able to get warm. I decided then that I really didn’t like snow, and I wouldn’t care if I never saw it again. I agree that snow is beautiful, yet it is so cruel. It is deceiving. You want to jump in it and play with it, but it is so cold. The high school was so excited though and joyful, it was contagious. I couldn’t help but give into the excitement. Also, I realized Houston snow is not as cold as China snow, and it is a lot more bearable; especially, when you know that if you get too cold there is a warm building close by to escape inside.

The more I think about that Wednesday I realize what a blessing the snow really was.  As much as I fought the joy that comes with snow, in the end I allowed it to overtake me. Lately, I have had a lack of joy. I have allowed stress and fear to take over my life. I have allowed the worries of this world and of the future to steal my joy. The night before the snow fall I had come to a realization of this and had asked God to give me joy to open my eyes to it. Life is so much more difficult without joy. Thankfully, joy is all around us in sometimes the most unexpected places. Sometimes it lies in the things we think we dislike the most; like snow. Our choices often dictate whether we experience joy or not, so does our community or the lack there of.

There’s a great quote by Donald Miller from his book Blue Like Jazz. He says, “Sometimes you have to watch somebody love something before you can love it yourself. It’s like they are showing you the way.” That is how it was for me that day. Maybe it sounds silly, but I had forgotten why I used to love snow. I had forgotten how much fun I have had in snow. Watching those students love the snow made me want to love the snow. Made me remember how amazing and fun snow is. This is the beauty of community. The beauty of humanity. The need for each other, not just for company, but to teach each other. To remind each other of God, of Love, and of Joy. I used to be afraid of needing people, but now I see the beauty in it. I see God in people. I love watching God work through people and I love how alone each of us is only a miniscule piece of a very large body and I love how God continues to remind me of that.