I’m so thankful for the gift of being part of CFC-Youth Canada because the community has grown in many beautiful ways. I feel very blessed that this growth has reached the Mountain Region because I’ve seen and been part of the growth for the past 11 years. I would have never thought that God would lead us to this point where we would dream of having a myriad of youth attend from more delegations and that the service team would dream bigger and work more intently in bringing life and creativity to sharing God’s message with other youth. Who would’ve thought that there would be an Awake Fair, workshops, a poetry slam competition, and a bunch of other crazy cool things? Eleven years ago, I personally would have never thought that I would be serving in an RYC, but by the grace of God, here I am! Praise God! 🙂
A lot can change in eleven years, but one thing that I noticed that was very different today than in the past was the posture of everyone’s hearts. When I was younger, we were reminded several times that any competitions we were a part of were to bring glory to God. But still, many of us would be upset when we didn’t win a particular competition. There were even tears of sadness and disappointment. Even while worshiping, many people would be crying painful tears. But today, the youth seem to just know truly in their hearts and minds, that all they did and offered on stage, on court, in worship, or in their service was for the glory of God.
At RYC I witnessed tears, but these tears were joined with bright smiles because I knew some of the youth had breakthroughs after being broken down; I knew some of the youth were expressing joy after working tirelessly; and I knew some of the youth were touched to hear the conversion stories shared by their fellow brothers and sisters; or were excited to encounter and worship Christ again.
I shared at RYC that I joyfully cried at the sight of seeing the growth of an old household member as she played in the RYC band and when I saw some of the Edmonton youth perform a session creative because I was aware of the sacrifices many of them made in order to serve. How beautiful a sight it is to see this great change in the posture of the youth’s hearts — hearts of perseverance, trust, and liveliness! Also, how amazing it is to see the reverence of the youth when they encountered Christ in mass and adoration! Thinking about it again makes my heart very full because in the past we didn’t have adoration, nor did we have mass twice in a single RYC. In fact, this was our first RYC where Mountain Region celebrated mass two times! :’)
This past RYC in Mountain was so blessed! From the preparations to the event itself, I couldn’t help but feel very loved by God. Witnessing all of the work everyone put in, the amount of trust they had in God, and the final execution of ensuring that it was the best they could make it really brings me joy. Even having the entire RYC Package was a huge blessing because it contained all of the outlines for the talks, sharers, and workshops; the graphic package; and just everything else in it haha. CFC-Youth Canada and CFC-Youth Mountain Region has bloomed despite the many struggles. What’s more exciting is that we’re not finished growing! God has much more in store for everyone! But this growth in numbers, creativity, faith, love, hope, and joy in the past and in the future can only be attributed to the Holy Spirit who guides, empowers, and inspires our hearts to serve and love God.
Thank You, Holy Spirit! Please continue to fall down on us and come into us and ignite our hearts to love and serve more! Change the posture of our hearts that we may believe in the Gospel and live as true disciples of Christ. Amen.
