God has been doing a lot in my life the past two years. I graduated from AFLBS (Association Free Lutheran Bible School) this past May and am currently a youth worker in Wheatland, IA. It all started two years ago during spring of my senior year of High School. I was set on going to a Community College near my home
town of Lisbon, IL. I had been accepted and taken my placement tests. I had been to campus days before and fell in love with Bible School, but at first my parents weren’t too keen on the whole idea of me taking two whole years off and going to a school with barely any credits that would transfer. Then one day I was looking at the AFLBS website and saw that there was a Dean’s Luncheon that I could take a tour and eat with some of the staff. I told my dad that I really wanted him to see the school and how much it meant to me. After that trip my dad loved the school and environment! That next fall I began my Bible School adventure.
These past two years have been a time where I have matured and grown very much spiritually. Being out of the house from my parents forced me to grow up and grow in my relationship with the Lord. Some great scripture from Ephesians 4:22-24 says, “to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” Those words of the Lord hit me hard. After four years of public high school I had been corrupted and needed to be renewed. I dug deep into the Word and experienced it in a whole new aspect. I remember Pastor Haugen saying that we would never leave his class the same person. Oh and it was so true, my faith became stronger and I discovered just how great God’s grace truly is.
During the middle of my second year of Bible School I started to worry about what was next, what was after this? Then I became very stressed over my future. I was stressed most because I truly wanted to do God’s will. I had taken Intro to Youth Ministry class with Jason Holt and LOVED it. I learned so much about working with youth and what that ministry was all about. One day Jason told a story about a boy in youth group that had not felt accepted and didn’t enjoy youth group very much. It had a lot more detail, but it ended with the leader saying that he had lost a child today. My heart suddenly went out to kids everywhere and that I didn’t want to see that happen. Jason invited our class to the annual Youth Workers Retreat this past January. I still didn’t know what was up for the summer. If it was summer teams, a mission trip, or stay at home and work. At this retreat on the second night I and some others stayed up all night. During that night we had some deep discussion, about our spiritual lives and how we were doing. I told them about my situation and stress about doing God’s will. One man pointed out that yes I wanted to do God’s will, but I wasn’t trusting Him to show me the way. Proverbs 3:5-6 comes to mind… “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight.” That next Monday at school Nate came to school and announced an opening for an
internship as a youth worker in Wheatland, IA. I felt God pulling me towards that position and I talked to Nate and applied. It’s a small town just like I grew up in and has a group of girls that needed God’s love. I have finished the internship and have been asked to stay for this next school year. God showed me the way and I followed. Stick close to the Lord and He will show you the way.
by Emily Holman
originally posted August 2008
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