Mon, July 30
... Finally--all about my week at SEMP!
Here it is---my SEMP experience!! Basically, this is the letter I sent to all my prayer supporters. I think I explained everything well enough except what SEMP is. It's a week-long conference, that's held in Calgary (as well as about 10 other cities across North and South America) to teach Christian teens how to minister to their friends (it stands for Students Equipped to Minister to Peers). Basically, we spend the morning in training sessions, learning how to talk about God to people, learning how to live a balanced, Godly life, and learning more about what we as Christians believe. In the afternoons, we go out to various areas around the city and talk to people, basically listening to them, finding out where they're at, finding out what people think about God and Christianity, and serving them in any way we can. In the evenings, we have intense worship sessions, called Celebrations, where we get to praise God for everything he's done in and through us, and we get to seek him even more closely than we did before. It's a crazy ministry week, and we get to touch a lot of people's lives, but the best thing is seeing God change our own lives, and realizing that my life hasn't been the same since I fell so in love with Jesus. Anyways, here's the letter. I hope it makes sense now!
*****
Okay, it�s SEMP letter time again. What to say? It was an amazing week, God did a lot of work in and through each of us who went, and I can�t wait till next year. Is that good enough? :o) I never know where to start with these�I know what I want to say, and I know what God did, but there�s no possible way to tell that to anyone, let alone to write it all down. But I�ll do my best.
This year, God taught me a lot about change. It was my fourth SEMP, for anyone who didn�t know, and it was the most different of any of them. Each year, obviously, has its own unique memories, different people there, and different lessons that God taught me, and none of them are the same as the ones before. This year, though, was definitely the most different. There were many, many differences, and the biggest ones were probably the fact that Norm wasn�t there, I was there as a leader, and the people who had been at SEMP every year that I�d been there (Daryl, Kirsty, Matt, and Lara) weren�t there this year. I went into the week sort of subconsciously expecting it to be somehow inferior to the other weeks, but God blew that out of the water. Yes, there were memories that I had that no one shared, there were things that I liked better the way they were done in previous years, and there were people I missed, but God still did incredible things, and some of the changes were *gasp* improvements! :o) The changes weren�t necessarily �bad� or �good� in and of themselves. God taught me so clearly that he�s not more or less present in either the new or the old ways of doing things. He works in each situation, and each new situation offers him unique opportunities to work that the old ones didn�t, and there were ways that he could work in the old circumstances that don�t happen the same way in the new ones.
I had an amazing week with the kids I got to go with. Being there as a leader rather than a student was a hilariously fun experience, and I�ve been realizing that that�s where my place within the group is now. It was great experience for getting closer to Craig, Tammy, and Barry as leaders, and having the opportunity to share the vision with them and look forward to how God�s going to work as we �get home� from SEMP and have the difficulties of dealing with day to day life after being in a place where God is so central in everything that�s done. As a leader, I felt so much more spiritual responsibility for the kids than I did when I was going with my peers, and that was a strange feeling, albeit a good one. It was cool to see, too, how my years as a student at SEMP prepared me to be a more effective leader in many ways. I really appreciated having that background throughout the week. Being in more of a leadership position this year as a whole, but especially this week, has give me a completely different relationship with Craig than I ever had with Norm, simply because my role is changing, and that�s yet another one of those �change lessons.�
There were some amazing individual experiences throughout the week, as well as the overall �life lessons� that God taught me, and each of those experiences will continue to affect me in ways that I can�t see now, but I know that as I work through them and try to process them in my own mind, God will teach me things through them and take them to a richer and deeper level. Even in the few days since SEMP ended, I�ve seen that start to happen already!
On Thursday, our group got to witness at Millennium Park, which I was somewhat apprehensive about. For those who aren�t from Calgary, it�s a skate park, and that�s a subculture that I don�t understand or fit into all that well, and I know that a number of us from Foothills were worried that we wouldn�t really be able to talk to people there, because we wouldn�t understand each other. That was probably the best attitude we could have gone in with, because I don�t think very many of us went in there thinking we could do it on our own, and in some ways, that made us more dependent on God. He honored that dependence�that was one of our most �fruitful� experiences, as a group, and it was completely God-ordained that our group be there that day, since both Tammi and I talked to people who were familiar with and lived near our church, and if another group from out of town had been at the park that day, there wouldn�t have been the same chance to direct them someplace so clearly. I got to talk to one of the park employees, a man named Frank, for nearly an hour, about so much. It was a completely God-ordained and �lead conversation. We got to talk about the church and the Christian community, about God�s plan for people�s lives, about growing up in a Christian family, about having passions and life-goals� all sorts of incredible things like that. He was very open to hearing about God, and I pray that there were some seeds planted (or watered) there that will stick with him for a very long time. Please pray and claim the promise that God will be faithful to finish what he�s started in Frank�s life, because God has definitely already been working in him.
Celebrations were, as always, amazing. The worship is phenomenal, and it�s the most incredible experience to worship God after having to be so reliant on him during the day. Evening celebrations are probably my favorite part of SEMP, because that�s where we get the chance to thank him, praise him, seek him, and respond to what he�s been teaching us and guiding us through during the day. This year, we had the incredible opportunity to be on the phone with SEMP Denver during our Thursday night Celebration and singing �Open the Eyes of My Heart� with them. It was a hugely moving experience for me, because it reemphasized the unity in the Christian church. That in itself is one of my favorite parts of SEMP�it�s so non-denominational, and it�s taking huge, much-needed steps in breaking down denominational walls and getting rid of the things that have caused so many problems within Christianity over the years. Obviously, it doesn�t make it perfect, but it�s a huge chance to be in a church (and to realize that this is how God intended his church to be) that doesn�t care about what your label is, only about who you�re worshipping.
Please keep praying for all of us who attended SEMP�there were twelve students (Edwin, Justin, Mike Wiebe, Mike Polischuk, Daryl, Noah, Hayley, Nadine, Esther, Katelyn, Shelby, and Meghan), two prayer intercessors (Laura and Tammi), and three other leaders (Craig, Barry, and I). It�s always hard to return with such a passion and vision that isn�t always matched or returned by our families, the rest of the youth group, our friends at school, or the rest of the church. Pray that God would set these people on fire through whatever means it takes, but that he would use our stories and experiences to tear them from their comfort zones and into more of what he has in store for us. Also, pray that each of us would keep having an impact on our worlds, and on the people we�re in relationships with, but also the ones we come across only once.
God has been teaching me about the dreams that he gives us--the ones that are so deeply engrained in our being that we can no sooner give up on seeing them fulfilled than we can stop breathing. A number of circumstances have come into place over the past few weeks to bring so much of what God's teaching me to light, and so much that I've been learning over the past year has been falling into place so it all fits together here, in God's perfect timing. Don't let the dreams he's given you die. Don't let them become buried by life and by what seem to be insurmountable obstacles. If you try to fulfill them alone, they will be impossible, but God gave them to you for a reason, and he'll fulfill them, in his time and in his way, not ours. We just get the immense privilege of being part of the big picture!
infinite || abyss
posted at 4:52 p.m.
