It's the junk.

This past weekend we headed back to Mississippi to participate in DNow weekend. DNow is a weekend geared toward 7-12 graders. They do some activities at the church then we spend 2 nights in a host home digging in to the word.

Todd hung out with the 7/8 grade boys and I had the 11/12 grade girls.

Now let me stop and be REAL...I was petrified. I teach first grade Sunday School. I lay the biblical foundation that the next years of teachers add too. I teach real stuff but it is not that hard because first graders are sponges (seriously) 11/12 graders have had time to question God-to experience real pain-and to wonder if they are even worth anything. I know. I remember how painful 11/12 grade was. So when I found out that was my group I prayed harder than I ever have over a task. I wanted God to use me. I wanted Him to speak whatever these girls needed to hear through me. Even if that meant being really REALLY open and honest-with a bunch of girls that I don't know.

So the weekend started on Friday-we pulled in to the church from Georgia 2 minutes before dinner started. Then we moved into worship with a praise band and the speaker was Bryant Bush-or more famously known as BB. Y'all-it was amazing. He started with 

And you could feel the light bulbs going off. Kids were opening their hearts and feeling And hearing God.

Around 9 we headed to the host homes where we sat and discussed life. These girls-these precious, precious girls are hurting. And my heart broke because 12 years later they are still dealing with the same issues I did but with Social media-it is a whole new level. We discussed insecurity, suicide, alcohol, sex, bullying, lack of parental support, anger....y'all on the outside-these girls look perfect. But on the inside it is pure pain. 

We (the girls,me and two other leaders) dug deep in the word. We talked about our experiences and what God does with people "like us". When you are a teen you feel so alone-I think it helped them to realize that so many people deal wih the same thing.

Saturday we woke up with small group time. Here our discussion lead to a conversation about the devil and how he takes our weaknesses and whispers them back to us feeding us the lies. We got to the church for lunch-then BB talked and what did he discuss-THE SAME thing. 

The theme of this weekend wa "called to greatness". It's okay to be Good-but God wants you to be Great. 

We did a missions scavenger hunt where we helped clean up our ministry campus, we had $100 to do whatever at Walmart with. Some groups paid for people's groceries-we met miss Evelyn -an 80(something) year old who just had knee surgery. We all felt the calling that she was our person. So we gave it to her to do whatever she wanted with. She was so precious.

Saturday night was a huge-God night. The kids begin to open up with each other about their struggles. Guys telling girls that they need their support to stay focused on GOD and not on the girls. (This opened a huge discussion on modesty which was great) BB asked the kids to join groups and pray-my girls came to me and we prayed-My girls felt God-some of them for the first time. And it was awesome to be a part of.

When we got back-they were all talking about how they don't want this feeling to end. And I knew it was time for God to speak through me. I simply told them-"all you feel in God-He is with you all the time. You are just surrounded by Him now. You have only listened to Christian music for 48 hours, you have opened your bible and read more than 3x each day, you are feeding your soul with him. Once you remove the junk from your life-you feel this all. The. Time" 

Crazy-because I had never thought about that myself. How often have I said to myself "I am so busy". And in my busyness I have not surrounded myself with God?? More than I want to admit. But that was a lesson-He needed me to hear. 

Sunday we had breakfast at the church-then BB spoke again. 

Then we headed to my parents to get ready to leave to go back to Georgia.

About an hour before we left-madyson had a freak bike accident.

Which left her in lots of pain. We iced and elevated the foot-but an hour later ended up in the ER-

She had X-rays and 4 doctors-and finally it was determined she had a crush injury to her heel and a broke fibula. She is in a half leg cast and we are so thankful it wasn't her head! 

She is feeling great-no pain! (Praise God!)

She is on crutches for atleast 4-6 weeks!

All in all this weekend was one for the books!