Day 12: I can see the finish line.

Things have been absolutely wonderful. Every time we think God can't possibly love on us more, He does.

Here is a passage from Jessica about the result of the Choose to Wait program we've put on the last few days:

"So...we just finished day 2 and 3 of Choose to Wait (CTW)! God is so awesome and I felt his spirit today and yesterday moving through the students here at Bridges Academy. I will summarize both days and wish I could go into specific detail but you will have to wait for your beloved friend or family memeber to get home to hear those. :)

Day 2 consisted of 3 skits demonstrating the realities these kids deal with when deciding wether or not to have sex. We portrayed the spreading of STD's, a son being pressured by his father to have sex with his girlfriend, peer pressure from friends and finally, making the choice to wait whereby avoiding a laundry list of negative consequences. Using the CTW curriculum, we went over the '6 Good Reasons to Wait.' What are the '6 Good Reasons to Wait' you ask? Well, I will tell you; 'Abstinence protects...100% from STD's, from pregnancy, from emotional pain, from the sex trap (porn, masturbation, abuse, etc), distrust in marriage and the family circle. I shared my personal testimony focusing on the point that other people don't define who we are, God does. Lastly, we answered approximatlely 20 questions that had been written by the students and dropped in our 'question box.' A few major points were made using the 'Love, Sex, and Lasting Relationships' workbook including what God teaches us about 'finding the right one' and 'true love.'

The author, Chip Ingram, states that instead of trying to find the right one, we need to be the right one. We need to stop looking for a guy or girl and work on ourselves and our relationship with Christ. When we are ready and when the person God has ordained for us is ready, the two will meet. When that happens we stressed that it's important to walk in love with our partner and with Christ. A good realtionship should make both parites fall in love with God even more because of the Christ they see in each other. Another concept we tackled was, 'true love.' We basically discussed the fact that love is a choice and infatuation is a feeling that eventually fades. Agape, phileo and eros love are all necessary for a good relationship to work. Good stuff, huh? We finished with the 'Believe and Be Satisfied' poem, author unknown. Look it up when you have a chance.

Day 3 consisted of two testimonies shared by Mitch and Cassie (both incredile speakers), gender based small group discussions, and of course, the opportunity to sign a covenant declaring the choice to be sexual pure from this day forward and choosing to abstain. Mitch's main point was that God meets you where your at, especially at your lowest point and works with you to get you where he wants you to be. Cassie's main point was that there is beauty in life's pain and that as children of God we are never abandoned no matter how lonely we may feel. The small group discussions were lead by the RH staff but they provided a safe place for the students to share and ask any more questions they had. We were able to review all of the concepts and information we had covered.

After we came back together in the main room at the retreat center at the academy, I got up and, using the Love, Sex and Lasting Relationships workbook, I discussed why we need to make pre-decisions to stay sexually pure. I shared mine, one of which is that I will only date someone who is committed to being sexually pure as well. I discussed why we need to make a game plan for ourselves; for example, I will not go looking for Mr. Right, I will focus on being who God wants me to be. Lastly, I stressed the importance of accountability and how I had sent my pre-decisions and game plan via email to a few close Christian friends to hold me accountable when I do start dating someone. We passed out paper so that each student could write down their own pre-decisions, game plan and accountability partners. We gave them ample time and had worship music playing in the background.

When time was up, we had them close their eyes and pray. We asked them to listen and hear if the Lord was calling them to make this decision today. During this time, I have to say that Mitch felt called to make a cross the studnets could come to and get prayed for after making their decision to be abstinent. He and a few other guys went outside and came back with fire wood and black nylon in the shape of a beautiful cross. God is so cool. Also during this quiet prayer time, the RH staff passed out a book mark with the Believe and Be Satisfied poem, a laminated card with bible verses on it and a CTW covenant card.

We had them open their eyes and explained the covenant card. If they were ready to make this commitement, they were to sign, date it and come to the cross to get prayed for and recieve a gift from Rock Harbor church. Necklaces were donated by RH for our cause. They are silver dog tags with the word 'awaken' on them. You might remember them RH attendees...So the lights were dimmed, we had our cross and our RH staff ready and waiting. Worship music playing and the Holy Spirit filling the room. It was still for a while. I ashamedly admit I was worried no one would step forward...but then it happened. A 10th grade guy boldly steped forward and was quickly followed by a few of his male peers. The 6th and 7th grade girls took the charge for the female side and I was so proud of them. We went over our time by 15 minutes in order to listen to the tears, to pray for the vulnerable and open hearts and to just be in the moment that God had been planning and orchestrating all along. It was moving and special and holy. We ended the evening with a RH style blessing and then sang Mighty to Save.

I can't tell you in words how special this journey has been. I had serious anxiety the first morning of CTW despite maticlous planning by our academy team. I was prayed over and the stress left me. God has continued to tell me in different ways (i.e., members of the team, nod to Kenny & Kristy) that God is the one in control, if we think we deserve praise, He will surely humble us. This gave me so much comfort this past week; knowing that God already had it planned out and that He would do His work through us was such a relevation to me! I guess it's situations like this that help us truly learn his power.

Please keep these students in your prayers. May they be the change Africa needs and be 'awakened' to the blessing it is to follow the path God has already laid out for us. God is doing mighty things here, may he be with you also.
Much love and God bless." -Jessica


Please continue to pray for:

-God to help us finish strong. Let us not get tired or lazy just yet, and allow us to completely finish off on a good note.
-Please pray for me (Erika) as I have also gotten sick just today.
-Pray for the Bridges students to be bold and courageous in walking out their faith and sticking to God's plan for their lives.