It
was a pleasant surprise to see the size of the youth group half-again
larger than the previous youth meeting led by Dean Thomas, the youth
pastor. Not only that, but Bennett came in of his own accord, not
having to be drug in by Drake.
In
large red letters Dean wrote on the large marker board, “THE ENEMY
IS COMING!” The room got real quiet with everyone looking around,
expecting some gang to burst through the door at any minute. Mark
smiled to himself, ‘… not to fear, Granny Simms is guarding the
door as she so often does, while God is dealing with young hearts.’
Pastor
spoke, “God dearly loves to see people working hard building things
that glorify Him. He notices every nail driven, block laid, email
sent, and letter written. He really does; every single one. The
problem is that so does Satan. What do you think? Do you s’pose
Satan is going to let all this continue without some kind of
opposition? Let me tell you about some boys and girls just like
yourself that had a mighty important building project. They were
building a wall. More than that, it was a wall around the most
beloved city on God’s planet Earth, Jerusalem.”
“It
was a sweet project too. They had plenty of supplies, each person was
assigned a particular part of the wall and everything should have
been hunky-dory. But then along comes Satan or at least his
troublemakers. They were led by the gang leader named Sanballet. Now
I need a show of hands people. How many of you boys and girls think
this was a surprise to God? Raise your hands if God didn’t know
anything about Sanballet and his bunch.”
No
one raised their hand. Pastor Dean continued, “Good! Everyone here
believes neither Satan nor Sanballet can sneak up on God. That’s
great. Well does that mean that God likes to cause us trouble; to
make things super hard for people that are working for His cause?”
Most shook their heads no or said, “NO WAY MAN!”
The
youth pastor made good eye contact with each of the teens and then
said, “We all know that fire can burn up old newspapers, weeds, and
wood. That would make us think badly about fire. But each of us also
knows that fire purifies metal to make it stronger and last longer.
God in His infinite wisdom allows enemies into our projects to see if
we’ll run to Him for safety and leadership. The fire of adversity
should make us stronger, cleaner, and stay close to Him.”
“I’m
telling you all this as a warning, as a prediction. As you work on
Junior Jericho there’ll be enemy-minded people that will discourage
and distract you from what God has called you boys and girls to do.
Just for reference, I’ll turn to the old testament book called,
Nehemiah and show you some of the enemy’s tricks.” Dean listed on
the marker board the tricks the enemy uses, as follows:
- They made fun of the builders of the wall – Neh. 4:1-6
- The enemy collected others to help hinder the project – Neh. 4:7-8
- Disruption in money and food supplies – Neh. 5:1-10
- The enemy will try to get you to compromise your goals – Neh. 6:1-4
- Trick you by deceit and lies – Neh. 6:10-14
Pastor
Dean said, “Now… I want to list for you three things that
Nehemiah did that allowed the wall project to be finished to the
glory of God.”
- Nehemiah began and continued the project with prayer and confidence that God was leading and protecting.
- He set up men and women to watch and protect God’s workers.
- An alarm system was clearly established so that everyone acted and reacted together.
“Young
people, I want you to think very seriously how God means for you to
stay very close to Him in seeking His will as you launch out in any
endeavor, large or small,” said the youth pastor.
He
continued, “Before we have a closing prayer, I want all you young
ladies to take one of the flyers on the back table home with you.
That Girls Only get-together will be next Sunday afternoon is going
to be led by a woman that trained long and hard to become an
astronaut. She’ll be teaching you about lady lifesavers that’s
just out of this world!”
Pastor
told the girls, “To add to the excitement… you ladies will be
having that bang-up get-together in the front room of Junior Jericho!
To honor our guest speaker it would really be great for you girls to
paint the inside of the showroom glass windows, you know, rocket
ships, moons, aliens and neat stuff like that. The church will
provide the paint and brushes at least by Friday afternoon. Granny
Simms said she’d like to try out her apple ‘pop-ins’ on you so
it should be a blast.”
Most
all day Saturday the girls worked hard on the decorations and things.
There were no chairs or benches but Gramps brought in about 10 bales
of straw to sit on. If you asked him about it he’d tell you for
sure that straw bales and paint brushes are great for planting seeds
so long as you bathe them all in fervent prayer.
Sunday
afternoon was a real surprise to most everyone this side of heaven.
Besides the regular group of girls of 6 or 7, were about 5 more girls
no one had seen before. One of the newcomers wore army combat boots
about 2 sizes to big for her, and a foam neck brace made for neck
injuries, though she had no injuries. A thin small chain went from
her right ear lobe to the right side of her pierced nose. I have, and
maybe you too, said to ourselves, ‘God died on Calvary for the
likes of that?’ The thought of John 3:16 came back with the word
‘whosoever’ spoken to my heart.
The
Lady Lifesavers meeting was opened with prayers of thanksgiving to
God for Junior Jericho and the visiting girls that had come. All the
girls introduced themselves and everyone took their bale of straw
seat. Out from one of the dingy Junior Jericho back rooms came Jenny
Laughton in her astronaut training utility suit. It had colorful NASA
patches on the shoulders and her name embroidered above a chest
pocket. Her black shoes were polished to a high gloss. In a word –
she was sharp. Everyone had great respect for her even before her
first word was spoken.
