Humbled Prophet

“Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain.” Psalms 127:1, NIV.

Managing schedules is always a challenge in Christian leadership. For the past several years I have coordinated a youth camp for the national Baptist convention in the Southeast Asian country were I serve in student ministry. For this event I coordinate a volunteer team from the U.S. every year. This year, due to some scheduling conflicts, only fifty youths came to camp. I was deeply disappointed by the turnout.

The leader of the volunteer team that came for this camp was on his fourth trip to my country of service. When I thought about all the sacrifices that these volunteers had made to come, I felt even worse about the poor turnout.

With a lower number of campers, many of the American volunteers got to spend more one-on-one time with the youth. The week went well, and I had been asked to give the closing night message with an invitation to follow Christ. I was happy to do this, but again I found myself complaining to God that I had so few with whom to share His Gospel.

I shared a message that was simple and straight forward. There was nothing extraordinary about the message, but God decided to teach me an important lesson. When the invitation was extended twenty two youth responded that they wanted to follow Christ as their LORD and Savior! Several others made commitments of one kind or another for the LORD. I was surprised and humbled.

That night as we gathered around the bonfire, it was such a joy to hear all the testimonies of how the LORD had worked in the lives of both the youth and the counselors. After the evening’s activities, I returned to my room and asked God to forgive me for my lack of faith and dependence on Him. God taught me that it is not the size of the group, but the power of God at work in people’s lives that makes the difference.

Pray that:

God will grow the faith of these twenty-two youth who committed to him at camp.

Pacific Rim personnel will have faith and dependence on God to work in the lives of their people.

Volunteers will come to the Pacific Rim and form deep attachments with the people they serve so that they will want to come back.

Pacific Rim is a region of the International Mission Board, SBC.