Surprise!!

I am super nosy and hardly ever am truly surprised...but today held such a surprise for us!!

The Snyder area youth gather for C-40 (Community-40) annually, an event that brings the youth closer to the Lord through speakers and worship leaders who share with them Christ's powerful message for their lives.  It is an event that Chet and I love, and are so grateful to see God working in the local young leaders.

Well, this weekend was C-40.  We were not able to host a home like we did last year, due to me working yesterday and being so pregnant.  Even though we weren't going to be a host home, we wanted to attend the worship sessions.  Last night our friends, the Mebanes, invited us to eat dinner with them.  We were a little confused they wanted to eat dinner during C-40, but we of course agreed to eating with them, since we love time spent with friends.

Our pastor Reid had invited us to speak about HUF at this morning's C-40 session.  All week, that was the plan....
Reid called Chet, Kara and I up to speak, and asked that I give a brief summary of our story before we showed the new presentation.  I was about 30 seconds into sharing Holden's story when Reid interjected and asked that he say a few words.  [Mind you, I was really thinking I messed up and must have said something completely wrong, so I was quite embarrassed at this point...]
Reid then announced that at last night's session (while the Mebanes kept us busy eating dinner), Kara had secretly come to C-40 and talked about HUF without us.
He told us that their goal was $2,500 and that they "hadn't quite reached that goal".
The big surprise:
Snyder's YOUTH gave $3,169.35 to HUF from what they had in their pockets and purses right then and there.  These students are 12-18 years old, and raised THOUSANDS of dollars in a few minutes to give life to people most of them will probably never meet on earth.  What an amazing moment and feeling....

I can't even tell you how cool it was to see all those kids and college leaders who had given so much...what a surprise!

The entire service this morning spoke to my heart, and convicted me to do more for the Lord.  Ryan Dalgliesh gave a powerful message about God being BIGGER than we've ever even imagined in our lives.  This surprise was an example of how MIGHTY our God is.

My goal is to start focusing more on following God's will through His Word in each step I take... thank you Snyder youth for the example.

Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity.  1 Timothy 4:12