Going to Togo, Africa

I leave tomorrow with a team from Seacoast Student Ministries to the Land of Togo, Africa.  To follow along our journey visit http://togostudents.wordpress.com.

Seacoast Lift 2009 Winter Retreat

Seacoast Lift 2009 Winter Retreat
February 14-16

This past weekend we loaded up over 200 students from five different seacoast campuses and headed to the mountains of North Carolina for an incredible weekend with God.  The theme of the retreat centered around Worship being the main focus of our lives.  We stayed at a beautiful retreat center surrounded by mountains that provided amazing views of some of God’s most beautiful creation.  Throughout history people have journeyed to the mountains to be with God.  Moses met with God on Mount Sinai to receive instruction for the people of Israel.  Elijah went up the mountain to hear God’s voice in the silence.  Jesus withdrew to the mountains often for prayer.  Seacoast Students went to the mountain top this weekend to experience God like they never had before.

We learned that we must put away distractions in our life, ask for forgiveness for the sins in our life, and be willing to obey God’s will for our lives if we want to have an incredible worship experience with God.  We learned that we have to take time to sit silently before God if we want to listen to Him.  We also learned that we can use our mountain top experience to share the love of God with others back in the valley.  The weekend was filled with incredible worship led by West Ashley Campus worship leader, Ryan Bailey and band.  God spoke through Brandon Hair, Seacoast Summerville Youth Director, and Josh Ray, Seacoast Long Point High School Minister, each night to students who are desperate for God.  We had an incredible team of youth group leaders sharing their stories and leading the students through small group sessions.  The students had the opportunity to surrender themselves completely to God this weekend.

One of our students came to me after I spoke the first night and broke down because of the sin in his life that he is addicted to and how he felt so ashamed.  It was hard for him to worship God because he could not accept forgiveness for his sins.  We had an incredible time of prayer and seeking God for forgiveness and we both truly felt the presence of God.  One young girl had been struggling with her self image and feeling loved by anyone.  She approached one of our female leaders wanting to feel loved by God.  By the end of their conversation, she knew that God loved her and she had felt loved by many of the other girls on the trip.  Another student was so inspired by God, she wrote a worship song that night expressing her love for Jesus.  We had even more students letting go of past mistakes that were hindering them from pursuing God.  We had students forgiving their parents for getting a divorce and wanting to figure out how to better love and honor them.  For some students, this was the first time they truly met with God and felt His presence in their lives.   

Did I also mention that we had a blast!  The students had an amazing time Skiing, Snowboarding, and Tubing.  We even saw some real snow on Sunday night, something some Charleston students have never seen before.  I know the stories will keep coming in about how God met with us on the mountain top this past weekend.  I want to thank all of the parents for trusting us with your children over the weekend and for our church who wants to see this generation become fully devoted to Christ.

Thank you God for the Opportunity to Reach this Generation!
Joshua Ray

United

October 29th marked a huge moment in the history of Seacoast Student Ministries. It was the day that we decided to no longer be a youth group. Don’t get me wrong, I like youth group. It’s the weekly thing you do when you get a bunch of teenagers together and you play games, have a worship band play the good ole songs and hope that you give a message that students can understand. We decided that Groundswell was going to be much more than that.
We are more than a youth group. We are a movement. The word Groundswell actually denotes movement. We want to sweep across our church, communities, our state, nation and even our world with the Truth of Jesus Christ and see a Groundswell of response from this Generation to see people no longer bound by sin but are living in the Freedom of Christ Jesus! This, my friends, is much more than youth group.
Last Wednesday a few hundred students took that charge. I am so proud that this generation doesn’t want to be known for what they did for themselves, but what they did for God! I am blessed to be apart of it.

History

Everyone always says that history is one of the most important areas to study in your lifetime. I have always love studying history and in particular Biblical history. Right now I am currently enrolled in a New Testament class at Liberty University that focuses on the Jewish background and culture during the writing of the New Testament. I am a week in so far and my mind is racing. This week I spent most of my time learning about the Intertestamental Period between the Old Testament and the New Testament. Many people do not just how much turmoil the Jewish People went through during this time. Ruler after ruler invaded Israel during this time and infused their ideologies on the Jewish people. No wonder they were anticipating the coming Messiah. They were waiting on God to send them a King who was going to restore the nation to them. I can understand a little bit more why it was so hard for them to consider that their coming messiah was born of a virgin in a stable in Bethlehem. God has an incredible way for executing His will and I think it is funny how we try to predict or tell Him how the story should be written. My prayer is that everyone who believes that God should accomadate them and their desires would place their trust in Him knowing that He already has written the story and everything works out great. History teaches us that God is always faithful!

Seeing the Bigger Picture

Lately I have been thinking a lot about how enormous God is.  I mean seriously, He created the Universe, and that is pretty big!  This generation has been labeled a “me” generation.  We put ourselves first and then once we are okay we start to be concerned about others.  I think this generation wants to break free from that stereotype.  I have talked with way too many teenagers who are concerned with helping the world become a better place.  I believe we are starting to see the bigger picture.  We know that God is at work in Africa just like he is at work here in the U.S.A.  So the challenge to us is seeing past our own little perspective and try to catch a glimpse of God’s perspective on things.  When we operate from that mindset, we live healthier and more purposed lives.

Prayer at School

My time in High School were some of the roughest years in my life.  I had every temptation thrown at me and it was hard to live the life that God called me to lead.  I never expressed my faith publically in school and you wouldn’t have known that I was a Christian unless you went to my church.  I regret those days because I missed out on so many opportunities to Share the Love of Jesus to so many hurting students.

There was one day a year that I would make an effort for God which came in September when students from around the world would gather at the Flagpole to pray for their school, government, and the military.  To be honest with you, most years I forgot about the event and just kind of showed up at the end of it.

Praying in school is one of the most bravest acts of worship that a Christ Follower can do to honor God.  It says that you are not ashamed of the Gospel and you stand for something bigger and better than yourself.  This year, students from Seacoast decided that they were going to make prayer a priority at their school.  Since the beginning of the school year there has been a dedicated group of students praying at the Flagpole every single day.  They don’t care who sees them.  They are making a stand for their faith and praying that God would infiltrate their classrooms.  They have a huge heart for seeing every student come to know Jesus and they are actively pursiung the Great Commission that Jesus has called them to. 

Last week the school printed an article about the group because of the growing curiousity from students.  God is doing great things through these students and I am so proud to be their Youth Pastor!

Click below to read the article!
wando-prayer

A Sheep, A Coin, and a Lost Son

A couple of weeks ago, I spoke a message at Groundswell, the weekly High School Service of Seacoast Church, about the unending grace of God.  This wasn’t just the usual message about grace.  This was coming out of the conviction of my heart.  I guess if you want to be a powerful communicator you have to let your heart (God’s heart) lead the message.  So I spent hours upon hours digesting this message before the time came to present at Groundswell.  The cenral theme of the talk surrounded around Grace and The Parables Jesus told in Luke 15 (You know the one about the lost sheep, coin and son).  I got to tell you that as I was speaking I think I had an “out-of-body” experience.  Suddenly it was as if God took over and I got out of the way.  It was so amazing. 

I kept speaking to the teens but I wasn’t thinking about what I was saying.  It was pretty scary because I had no idea if I was even making sense or forming complete sentences.  But the look on the teens’ faces told me they were engaged and God was working.  As I was wrapping up the message I saw that these teens are going through so much crap in their lives and they need a release and want desperately for God to love them.  That night I had to make sure they knew just how much God loves them.  After the message we responded to God and the teens went to the cross and gave up sin in their lives keeping them from God and then they went to the front of the stage and just knelt before God and enjoyed His company.

If this wasn’t just about the coolest thing ever, it got even cooler when our leaders personally prayed for everything single student that was kneeling before God.  We all experienced God’s Grace that night in a whole new and exciting way.  All of heaven was rejoicing and so was my heart.

Check out the Groundswell Video Podcast to Watch the Message!

I Have Decided to Join the Blogging Nation

I need a good avenue to get all those random thoughts out of my head and into something where maybe those random thoughts might come together to actually make sense.  I guess we will see if blogging actually helps that.