Mason has been the Youth Pastor for five months now and the teens absolutely love him! They say he understands them and teaches them in a way they can understand and of course they say he is so much fun!
The youth group has almost doubled in size and every week we are seeing new faces. This Sunday we are starting a new bus route just to pick up some of the new teens that have been coming to Friday Teen Night!
Last night was such an exciting night. Of course the teens had a blast
playing the crazy games Mr. Mason had for them, but during the preaching time Mason really hit hard on fully surrendering your life to God no matter the situation or sin you are in. Several teens were crying as the truth of God's Word worked in their hearts and at the salvation invitation,
four teen came forward and gave their lives to Christ!
We were thrilled for all four of the teens who got saved last night
but I have to tell you especially about two of them. Nina is the sweetest girl and has been riding the church bus with her younger sisters for years. Last year at VBS, one of her little sisters got saved. Her sister was so happy but Nina was not! Nina knew about salvation and had even talked to several people about getting saved but she just wasn't ready and in fact said she didn't want to get saved. During that same VBS last year, a few days later,
her other sister who is only a year younger than her got saved too!
Again Nina was not happy that all her sisters was getting saved, she knew her sisters were going to heaven and she wasn't and this upset her a great deal. We have been praying for her and praying for her heart to be soft toward the gospel and last night our prayers were answered! Nina talked with Pastor and as Pastor showed her in the Bible and explained the plan of salvation to her, Pastor said her face light up and she looked up at him and said,
"I get it, I understand now!" With great joy she prayed and asked
Jesus to forgive her sins and be the Lord of her life!
Three months ago we had a new boy start attending Friday Teen Nights. When I picked him up, he and another teen sat in the back of the van
talking and through the conversation I picked up that he was gay.
He fell in love with teen night and has not missed a single night since that first night. When I told Pastor and Mason that he said he was gay they both looked at me like I was crazy and said no way, can't you tell he has a crush on so and so. Gay or not we have made sure that no other teens have made fun of him for saying he was gay because we have wanted him to come and hear about God's love and the plan of salvation. I do think it's ironic that the teens have been studying Romans 1 every Friday night and memorizing and answering questions on the passage! Last night he went to talk to Pastor about salvation and was so excited to ask Jesus into his heart and life.
After he got saved he told Pastor that now he didn't feel like
he had to pretend to be gay anymore. When Pastor asked why he had been pretending, he said all the girls were more excepting of him, let him
into their groups and gave him hugs all day long!
I am loving watching the teen group grow and flourish and I'm loving watching Mason grow too as he helps lead and mold these young teens and encourages them in the way of the Lord. As I was taking a van full of teens home last night I asked them how they were liking Mr. Mason as their teen leader and the resounding answer was, "Mr. Mason is the best!"
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