Fall Riot..."in their own words"

For the past few months, our staff has been praying and preparing for an event called "Fall Riot". Last night over 1800 High School and Junior High students from around Katy showed up for that event. And while the turn out was amazing, it's what God did in the hearts of those students that was even more amazing. Today I sat down to a list of about 30 names...only a small portion of the 250 students total who said God was working in their heart last night. While I normally am not a fan of calling through lists, this one was different...it was a joy to hear the sweet stories of these students who wanted more of God in their lives.

As I read through the notes students had written in their own words about the event last night and about God's work in their heart, I was moved. One student wrote: "This was my first time at church." Another student wrote: "Tonight was really fun." Another confessed: "I need help with my life...I've never really understood until now." On the phone later, I heard several students say "I've never gone to church" or "My parents don't go to church". Many of them said, "I want to start coming to church, but I don't have a ride." How heartbreaking to think that many of them want to be here, but they don't have the support of their parents.

One thing I always try to do when I'm counseling a student is to give them an opportunity to tell me what God did in their heart, rather than asking them if it was "this" or "that". Most of them struggle to put it in to words. Some of them don't even know why, they just know that God was telling them something. They'll say things like "I just don't feel like I used to with God." or "I just want to get closer to Him." When I asked one student why he walked back during the invitation time he said, "Well they said if you wanted to follow Jesus Christ as your Savior to come back there, so I did." Plain and simple. Another said, "I've just never known God like I did last night."

I love hearing these stories because it's a way that we see God working in the lives of the students we have the opportunity to minister to. It's not just about feelings, but it's also not all about knowing the exact right words to say. It's about God drawing their hearts to Him. And we get to share in those stories, when we hear them put it "in their own words".