Chapel

Hey everyone, I have been so busy with school and my new job, and I have fallen out of the loop. I have missed my blogging buddies...it's going to take me awhile to read and catch up with everyone! I pray that each of you had a good Christmas. To those of you I may have not talked to on Christmas, know that you were in my thoughts and prayers!

My job is going well! I'm so excited to be there, and I know it's where the Lord wants me right now. I can feel it deep down inside. I hired in there as a counselor tech, which is kind of like an assistant to the addictions counselors. But I knew from the first day I trained, that I was there for another purpose. Let me explain...

Before I turned in my two weeks notice at my previous job, I decided to train for a day at my new job to make sure it was what I wanted to do. In the middle of the day, my boss took me to me over to the women's facility to show me around. Not long after we got over there, she said, "Oh, chapel is getting ready to start. Why don't you sit in on it to get a feel for things." So, I sat in on chapel, which is roughly a half an hour, and it was lead by one of the cooks named Linda. She let the girls listen to two Christian songs, read a passage in the Bible, and spent the rest of the time sharing her experience with the girls. Some of the girls had questions and there was somewhat of a discussion.

At that moment, I knew. I said to myself, "God, are you doing something in my heart? This is why you have me here, isn't it?" On the way back to the main facility, I told my boss, "If Linda ever needs help with chapel, I'm extremely interested." I just wanted to throw that out there, but Linda seemed to have things going well. I talked to her later that week and told her how much I appreciated what she was doing. She is a humble lady and thanked me, and she said, "These people really need it. Anything that I can do to share it with them, I want to."

Then in late November, Linda put in her two-week notice and started looking for a new job. When our CEO asked her if she could still keep coming to do chapel with the guys and with the girls, she said that she would love to until she found a new job. But she did, the next week, and was unable to continue. So week after that, my boss asked me if I could lead chapel! I knew that was what God was calling me to do there, but I couldn't believe it was happening so soon! I was so excited that I would have more of an opportunity to share my faith with our clients and be able to plant seeds of truth into their lives! Praise God for His faithfulness! He is so faithful to place us exactly where He wants us. He has plans for us before we even know, and He never ceases to amaze me in revealing His will! When I applied for that job, I had no idea...

So, the next thing for me to do was to put together curriculum for chapel and have it approved by the clinical coordinator. So I was pretty anxious...I know that the enemy wants to sabotage any opportunity we have of sharing the truth with others and that it could come in the form of denying what I had given her to review. I tried to be careful in the things I chose to use for chapel, but still making sure that good seeds could be planted through them. I was almost sure that my boss would find something wrong with it...but for the two weeks work of curriculum I've given here...she said I was doing a really good job and that she had approved me use it all! Praise God!

Last Friday was my first day to do chapel at the women's facility. We had about 6 or 7 women of all different ages and backgrounds. I followed a little of what Linda had done, starting chapel with some music. I believe music can be so powerful, especially when it is about the Lord. I remember the first time I really listened to contemporary Christian music-I didn't even know that kind of music existed! I was good, just the kind of music I liked to listen to, and it really touched my heart and made me think about things. So I chose two different songs by Kutless. If you haven't heard Kutless, you definitely should. J Especially you youth ministers or those of you who like rock. They are so talented and they they are really godly men. I typed up the lyrics to both songs and after we had listened to each one, we discussed the lyrics. Like what they identified with, what they thought about them, what they meant to them, etc. I got such good feedback about the music, especially from the girls who like hard rock and alternative music. They wanted me to leave the CD there so they could listen to it over the weekend!

So many people that are in recovery and in 12-step programs have had bad experiences with church or professing Christians. For a lot of them, talking about God or church is a turnoff and they want nothing to do with it. So at first we talked about what hypocrites are. The actual definition means: pretender, fraud, fake, counterfeit, and deceiver. Many of them related that those words described them in active addiction, and that everyone has been hypocritical at one time or another. We also talked about some of the experiences they had with hypocrites within the church and how it had affected they're relationship with God and their desire to even seek Him. Then I chose a excerpt from Mark Cahill's book "One Thing You Can't Do in Heaven" about hypocrites and his conversation with someone about them. Here it is...

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"I was talking to a yuppie in a mall one day who had no faith in God but said his parents were committed followers of Jesus. He blamed all of the hypocrites for keeping him away from church. I asked him, 'If I walked up to you drinking a beer and smoking a joint, and shared Jesus with you, what would you think?'

'You'd be just another freak in the world,' he said.

'You're exactly right,' I said. 'That makes me 100-percent wrong, but that doesn't make God wrong at all."

I was trying to help him make the distinction between the actions of followers (or supposed followers) and God's character. I continued, 'There are hypocrites in the mall today, and it didn't stop you from coming to the mall. There will be hypocrites at the restaurant tonight when you and your girlfriend go out to eat, and it won't stop you from going there. So why in the world would you let hypocrites stop you from finding out about the one true God who loves you unconditionally and wants to forgive all of your sins?'

He liked the answer so much that when his girlfriend walked up, he had me repeat the entire answer for her!" (p. 166)
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It was perfect. I could see some of their wheels turning. One girl said, "Wow, I've never really looked at it that way before."

I shared with them a conversation I had with a girl at school one day who had told me that she had had some really weird and negative experiences with people her family knew from church. I asked her, “When you die, and you will someday, and you have to stand before God, are going to be able to point to those people and say ‘But look what they did.’” She hesitated, but then said "No." She knew, deep down, that what those other people had done had absolutely nothing to do with her being right with God on the day she died.

One of the girls who was sitting right next to me had that look on her face, the one that is somewhat in awe and shouts, “I’m really going to have to think about that for awhile.” She said "Wow! That is really deep!" And it was-I pray that she thought about it that night when her head hit the pillow.

The second week, I picked some songs by Jeremy Camp, who is also an amazing and talented man of God, which they really seemed to like too, and we read half of chapter 3 in Mark Cahill's latest book "One Heartbeat Away: Your Journey into Eternity." It is geared toward people who are seeking and want to know answers. He does a really good job addressing questions logically, realistically, and with truth and love. He also does really well at presenting both sides and really looking at the evidence. He tells the reader, "Don't believe me until you look at the following evidence. Then decide for yourself, one way or the other." The particular chapter we read dealt with other beliefs and religions, and what evidence there is that the Bible stands alone in it's supernatural origin and in it's historical, scientific, and archeological evidence and accuracy (both books are available at www.markcahill.org). The girls took turns reading, and several of them were extremely interested and couldn't wait to read the next part of the chapter next week. It sparked a few questions and a really good discussion. All people really have it deep in their logic and in their conscience to want to seek out truth. These girls are thirsty for it. Our God is so good!

Please pray for me, that God would help me to be a godly witness to those guys and girls, and that he would continue to lead me in providing material that can be used for His glory to further His kingdom. Isn't that what it's all about? Isn't that what's really most important? And please pray for their hearts, that they would be open to receive the truth. I care so much about where each one of them spends eternity.

God, help me to be bold and proclaim the truth, but let my words and actions be bound with love and compassion!