Lisa Backman, Group Services Coordinator
Relay for Life
I just returned from a 6 day extended river trip with eight girls from our YD community branch in Moses Lake. These girls stories of pain from broken homes, abuse, parents in jail and death of loved ones broke my heart. However, it was amazing to watch God begin to heal hearts and draw these girls closer to Him on this trip.
It was awesome to be a part of a staff that was so unified in heart and mind to see these girls come to know Christ. The image of a relay team came to mind. Each of our staff had the opportunity to talk one on one with a student named Alley and each of us had a part in her making the decision to follow Christ. One staff just listened to her share her story of being sexually abused by her step dad from the time she was 3-9 years old. For the first time she felt safe to cry.
Another staff during our gospel presentation to the group used the analogy of the boat representing Christ. She asked each girl where she was at: on the shore, in the water, in the boat? Angel said she was close to getting in the boat and choosing to follow Christ.
After the talk she asked me if I would sleep out under the stars with her and a few of the other girls. I was not really excited about the idea since we had seen a rattle snake in our camp site a few hours earlier and my allergies from the grass were bothering me but despite my fears I knew that the baton was being passed to me.
Alley and I continued to talk after the others fell asleep. She said something about seeing God in heaven and I asked her, "Why do you think that you are going to heaven?" She said that she didn't think God would let her go to hell. I then got to share with her the truth that we all deserve hell but it is only through Christ dying on the cross for our sins that we can be saved from hell. She said that she had written her boyfriend that night saying that she knew that she needed God. I asked her what was holding her back and we talked through the fears that she had about her friends leaving her. It was encouraging to hear that she was not taking this decision lightly but thinking through what it would mean for her to follow Him. Before we fell asleep she said that she knew by the end of the trip that she would "be in the boat." At that moment a shooting star shot across the whole sky. "I think that one was for me," she said. "I think you're right," I replied.
The next morning she woke up and was excited to tell us that she had a dream that her real father pulled her in the boat. She was ready to climb in the boat and follow Christ. Later that day I had a chance to go over the lessons of assurance handout with verses from the Bible. I was excited to know that she has a church and some great YD leaders in Moses Lake to help her in her journey with Christ when she returns home. She has some hard decisions to make the road will not be easy but she doesn't have to walk alone anymore. I encouraged her to share her decision with the other girls. Before she left she sang a song for us that she wrote about the trip. It was cool to hear in the song many of the lessons our staff had shared in devotions and about her decision to follow God. It was an honor for me to be a part of the relay team that brought Alley everlasting life.
*Names were changed in the story for confidentiality.