Proud!

Well although I have no real children of my own, I have ton's of students that call Thrive their youth church and as their leader I have a little protective mom that rises inside me. Not only does that protective spirit rise in me, so does pride, love, hurt, joy and excitement. I love being a part of such a large group that I can experience their stuff along side them. This month as you know we have been working through issues of social justice and it has made me very proud to see our students respond. 

They have opened up their hearts to the hurting and the broken.

They have allowed God to stir up passion in their prayers for the things that break his heart.

They have planned fundraisers and got right to work practically!

I am so proud of all of them, but I want to just give honor to a young lady who's heart brought me to tears the other day as I read through our very own community newspaper.

Samantha has allowed God to break her heart for his people. She has allowed him to change her life not just her thoughts. Over the last year it has been my pleasure to watch Samantha grow, ponder and seek out the things of God and allow them to  impact her. Her heart for social justice can not hide, it bubbles right out of her. She has been on missions trips, she has prayed, she has sought out area's to help in. Anything and everything she can do to help, she will. Back in the fall she came up with an idea to make and sell bracelets, a few weeks back she held a movie night with a $5 donation to help raise money that went to her third practical fundraiser, her valentines baskets! These are practical ideas that ARE raising money for the International Justice Mission, who is truly doing something about these real issues in our world.

Samantha I am so proud of you and I'm so excited to continue to see the things that God is going to do through you! Thank you for encouraging me to seek more, You are an influencer and I want to honor you for using that influence for the Kingdom.

If you still want to support IJM in this way there is still Valentines Baskets available in the church office Tues.- Fri 9-5, saturday at our 6pm service and sunday at our 10am service.

If you want to read the whole article and missed it you can check it out here online:

http://www.canada.com/comoxvalleyecho/news/story.html?id=e780ec8d-6df2-4878-9b91-0a01e165e3f3