It was the second day of outreach. It was hot. It was humid. I was exhausted. I was in charge of planning and supervising a youth event where our Vida Missions group could interact with the local Latino teenagers. Leading up to the event I had a vague plan and a couple ideas, but by the time it started I felt severely stressed and unprepared, as if I was scraping the bottom of the barrel. As I was teaching foursquare to the kids, discouragement was invading my mind.
How in the world could I host a successful event and make a lasting impact in the lives of the youth around me? All the pressure was on me, or so I felt.
As the night went on, my attitude didn’t change much. I was fixated on doubt and my incapabilities. Eventually, I took a step back and observed. They were playing and enjoying the game, which most of them had just learned. The two groups found ways to communicate with each other despite the language barriers. While they were competing and laughing with each other, they were enjoying fellowship with one another. It made me think of God’s eternal kingdom, where we all, regardless of nationality, culture, and language will worship God together.
After games we had food and a teaching, and overall the night was a success. I realize now that it was never because of anything I did. In the end, the shortcomings I felt I had didn’t matter much. God’s hand was still evident. The impact I had was actually quite minimal. I gave what little I had to offer and God took it significantly farther than I could have.
It was never about me, or us as a ministry. It has always been about glorifying God. Our only responsibility is to follow him as he calls the shots. That is why we are overjoyed to join God in what He is doing through Vida Missions. We feel very blessed to say that we will have almost 100 youth participating over the course of this summer’s program. Although things feel very different without the guidance of our former VidaNet director, DeLynn, we are extremely thankful for the wisdom he imparted to us. We continue to use his teachings as we put God as the utmost importance. After all, why are we here? To glorify God, of course!
By Sadie Shetler
Vida Missions Staff Member
I have beautiful memories of DeLynn leading our youth group with a REACH team in 2006. God worked. As much as I mourn that our youth group will not be able to work under him in 2011, we praise God for those called to lead them and that DeLynn and Jesus are enjoying each other in a way that we all look forward to. I can still hear him ask us, “Why are we here?”
Hey Sadie,
Loved your story. So proud of you and seeing all that God had for you in the experience. Another thing that I loved about Delynn was his absolute belief in the importance of stress/struggle/difficulty/pressures to give God opportunity to love us, reveal himself to us, change us, and use us in ways we couldn’t have imagined. Love you dear friend and sister!
Well said, Sadie! God delights in using our little when we point the glory back to Him! Keep trusting!