Be Courageous

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6am breakfast...that's right...6 AM breakfast.  We left the church around 7:15am and drove approximately 30 minutes to our sites.  This year all of our sites are close to each other and within a couple minutes walking distance.  All crews got shingles removed from the back of the house, wood replaced, underlay down, and shingles started.  Typically we are not this far on day one - the kids are kicking it this year!  All of our youth worked well today and seemed tired tonight.  Tomorrow we wake up and do it all over again...



Tonight during worship Justin spoke about the story of Miriam (Moses' brother) from Exodus 2:1-10.  At this time the Israelites were slaves to the Egyptians. When having children the midwives were told to let Hebrew girls live, but if they delivered a boy they were told to kill it.  The midwives didn't listen - they told Pharoah that the Hebrew women are vigorous and give birth before they arrive.  Then came the decree to put all newborn boys in the Nile river.  Moses shouldn't have lived.  His sister Miriam watched Moses float down the river, she paid attention to what was happening around her.  In verse 7 she takes the next step and asks a question.  She could have gotten in big trouble and possibly killed, but fear did not overcome her.   In verse 8 she took the final step and acted.  As a result of Miriam's courage Moses was saved.  As a result of Moses being saved God's people were led out of Egypt and set free. We can learn three important steps from Miriam about being courageous:

1 - Pay attention to what is happening around you.
2 - Ask.
3 - Go.

What are you struggling with that you're so scared of taking that next step?

God is bigger, we need to be bold and courageous.  That is our goal this week and our mission to continue as we return home.  In devotion we discussed how hard it can be to share our faith with others, the "popular" kids, people who aren't nice to us, those who ignore us, etc.  But it's how we respond in those times that determine our true character and heart.  Would we rather try and fail (or maybe succed), or not try at all?  There are and always will be people that bring you down - how do you respond?  In what ways are you being called to be bold and courageous?

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