Wow, God is good...

I know, I know...so much for updating this approximately weekly. But something happened tonight that I had to write about -- I guess it was a kick in the pants in that way too, besides just being humbling...

I had the awesome privilege of welcoming a new Believer into the fold tonight. Knowing that I did absolutely nothing to deserve the honor of being the reaper of so many other peoples' hard work just makes it even more humbling.

Quick background: this has been VBS week at Southway. We partnered with a local church plant (called Southpoint interestingly enough) to put it on this year. Tonight was the night that the Gospel was shared with the kids. I have 8 boys and girls in my Crew, ranging from going into 1st grade, to going into 5th. We go everywhere with a co-Crew, which also has about the same number of kids of the same age range. One of the boys in the co-Crew, Joshua, actually started in mine the first night and got transferred to the other one on the 2nd night. He's really quiet, kind of a thinker, and honestly I haven't really been able to interact with him much this week -- especially since he's been in the other Crew for most of it. If I had to guess, I would say he's about 7 or 8 years old. Oh, and he's from Southpoint, so I had never met him before Monday night.

Well, tonight during the final assembly, when the Gospel was shared for the third time of the night, in the clearest way yet (classic 4 points -- 2 of bad news, 2 of good news), I felt a little person scooting over close beside me. I looked down, and it was Joshua. As everything was wrapping up, I noticed that he was crying. Before I could even really ask what was wrong, he told me that he knew he wasn't going to heaven. I asked how he knew, and he said because of what the man had just said. I pulled him over to the side to have a little more of a private setting to be able to talk with him, and confirmed that he understood everything he needed to (multiple times -- call me Doubting Thomas) -- that he was a sinner, that because of that he could never be good enough or do enough on his own to "qualify" for heaven, but that Jesus lived a perfect life, took on all of our sin and died for it and us, and then rose again so that we could have life too, and that if he believed all of that and asked God to save him, God would. Then, I asked him what he wanted to do about it. He said that he wanted to believe. So, I explained to him how to ask Jesus into his heart. We prayed together silently, I welcomed him with some encouraging words and a hug, and then I got to tell his mom.

Then, I pretty much burst into tears because of the overwhelming emotions of the evening. It was a hard night. I didn't feel like anyone in either Crew was really listening during any of the three times the Gospel was shared with them. They were fidgety, loud, horseplaying, irreverent, etc., much more so than any other night of the week so far. But, as usual God was at work even when I couldn't see it. The one from our Crews that He had appointed for salvation tonight apparently was listening.

Wow. I'm drained. And humbled. Thank you God for using me in that little boy's life tonight. I don't know why You chose me, especially since I pretty much barely know him, but thank You for doing so...just wow.