Allison Louise

I am sure that I will encounter more difficult things in my life then University exams, but at the moment exams are incredibly draining. Hence my decision to break up my studying with a little blogging. Blogging. Wow.

Have you ever had those weeks where you look back and you see the instances in which God worked in gigantic ways? This was my past week.

It began with finally being entirely truthful with myself about a ministry that I am currently involved in - primarily mentoring Jr High kids. I was feeling incredibly discouraged because of the very minimal number of girls that were coming out to our weekly hangouts, and the copious number of boys. I spent one of my morning drives to the University praying out loud (I must have looked crazy). I prayed for each girl individually and for the upcoming hangout, said my "amen" and then moved on with my day.

Friday night came around and nine girls came out! I was so excited to see so many girls, but still couldn't ignore my feelings of discouragement. I passed the night of as an anomaly, perhaps an answer to prayer, but definitely a one off.

The night went better then planned with the girls getting super excited for the next time they would see us. We planned skating and sledding and hot chocolate and hoped that it would be enough to convince them. We will have to wait until this Friday to know whether it convinced them for sure.

Now, if Friday hangout and Jr High excitement was not enough of an answer to prayer, a morning conversation with a friend of mine definitely was. My friend and I are both mentoring Jr High kids, he is mentoring an absolutely crazy group of boys who we discuss often, trying to come up with ways to calm them down. As we discussed this crazy group for the millionth time I told him that I found it difficult to know how to not only relate to these kids, but to let them know that they are of supreme importance - that we care about them. Instead of agreeing with me, like I expected he would, my friend enthusiastically turned to me and said, "remember in the new testament, when Jesus says that we are to be fishers of men?"

I nodded and wondered to myself where he could be going with such a statement.

"Well I look at it this way," he said. "Just like fishermen we have this fishing pole with a hook and a line that we throw out to these kids. We offer them a piece of ourselves and the opportunity to be in relationship with us. Now it is their choice whether or not they grab onto the line and allow us to reel them in. We can't make them choose, Allison."

I sat back in shock amazed that God had used my friend to tell me all that he did. All I can do is what God has called me to. All I can do is offer love and relationship.

I have so much to learn.