Almost two years ago, God led us to our amazing church family, Grace Life Baptist Church. I've been finding my way into getting involved in the ladies' ministry and the youth ministry. Ever since we had such wonderful youth workers in my youth group (including my wonderful brother-in-law and sister-in-law), I've wanted to give back in the same way.
Bryant, the youth minister, and his wonderful wife Ann, asked me to speak at the girls' retreat this past weekend. The theme was missions, which is so near and dear to my heart. I went Friday night and listened to Leslie Williams speak to the girls. She dicussed learning to be a missionary where you are by 1) loving God, 2) putting on the character of Christ and 3) loving people. It was a great lesson!
On Saturday morning, my friend Julie, who's adopting from China, did a fun little craft during her class and made some super cute headbands! I thought I would talk about our time in China, and I did a little bit, but I more wanted the girls to see how they could be a missionary here and now (since they can't really move to China (or anywhere) to become a missionary right now (but, prayerfully someday!).
I immediately thought of Riley Dreyfus and the amazing organization she has started, Hope for Hearts. Her parents (another of the wonderful youth workers I mentioned earlier), adopted a baby from Ethiopia and she went with them to pick him up. She was so moved by what she saw, she started this organization to support orphan care. She has become a missionary where she is! This was Riley's third time to speak to a group of girls and she did wonderful! She even got a little sermon in at the end, it was great!
She told the girls how she held a Croc drive at her church and sent 52 pairs of shoes to the orphanage her brother came from! She told them how God came through and provided more than her goal of 50 pairs. She told them how she continued to feel like God wanted her to do more, and that's when she started Hope for Hearts by selling handmade Valentine's Day cards. She raised over $1500 for Embracing Hope Ethiopia. She finished by saying she's not doing these things for credit for herself, but to give all glory to God and follow the example of Christ. She encouraged these girls with 1 Timothy 4:12 "Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in love, in life, in faith, and in purity." Amen, Riley! Thank you Jesus for her heart and drawing her so close to you!
Once Riley had finished, I told the girls about a project that has been on my heart for a while. Instead of just encouraging them to find a way to be a missionary, I wanted to give them an opportunity. I also encouraged any girls that were inspired by Riley's organization to work with her and raise money, or to start their own. Several of them exchanged email addresses and phone numbers with Riley. So exciting!
The project that I offered up to the girls is a Backpack Buddies program, which provides food for children that are at risk for not eating over the weekend. I first heard about this through the Junior League of Birmingham. It's one of the projects for which we provide volunteers and funding. I've been wanting to start one in our area for a while, but I just don't have time to do it myself. I've been waiting, asking God to show me how and when, and felt the time was now. I brought it up to the youth group girls to see if they could take it and run with it (with help from the adults). 15 girls signed up to help with this program! Praise God! As I was talking to some of them, I mentioned that coupons could help us subsidize the cost, but I didn't know how to use them well enough to make it worth while. About 5 of them said, "My mom coupons! We don't buy anything without a coupon!" Thank you, Lord, for providing women and girls with all different skill sets to get this program accomplished.
We will spend the next 4 months fundraising and having food drives to prayerfully be able to provide 50+ bags of food per week for 10 months! One girl asked, "What about over the summer?" I told her that was a great question and I didn't know yet. I hadn't thought that far ahead. We'll have some more praying and thinking to do for that one.
This was a great weekend and our students continue to draw closer to God and desire his will for their lives.
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