Galatians 5:6

As New Staff Training winds down and we begin the transition to the All-Staff Conference, I want to take a moment and just say “Wow” and tell you what an incredible God we serve and what an incredible ministry that He is using to further His Kingdom!

An explanation: New Staff Training is a two week (well 8 days this year) conference in which all the new staff nationally and internationally meet and are poured into and trained in the basics of Young Life. We have had some amazing men and women share their stories with us and tonight as we listened to our president Denny speak I realized what a rich, beautiful tradition the ministry of Young Life has. The temptation with this could be to claim this as our identity and ride on the coattails of those that have gone before us…but over and over again this week we got to see men and women who claim their identity, not in Young life but instead only in that they are a beloved of Christ. They “resolved to know nothing but Jesus Christ and Him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2) and it is a beautiful and convicting thing to behold. Jim Rayburn, founder of Young Life, put it so perfectly when he said, “Jesus is not just what we’re about; He is ALL we’re about.”

One of the biggest things that the Lord has laid on my heart over and over again this week is the idea of "trust" and what that looks like in its purest form. I think I am incredibly guilty of trusting God as a means to an end, instead of simply resting in the arms of my Savior and allowing His love and peace to fill and lead me. In one of our seminary classes we talked about how Spiritual Disciplines are not the ways by which we make our faith and ministries work, instead they are the natural responses to a love so overwhelming that the worship and prayer and study just gush out of you without you being able to contain it! What a joy to live this way! Not to count your quiet times, or have a designated amount of time in the Word but instead to be so captivated by Jesus that we cannot help needing our daily dose or more of prayer, study, etc. Galatians 5:6 says “The only thing that counts is trust expressing itself through love”, and I want to claim this Truth in my own life.

As we’re given time to reflect on our call first to Christ and then to ministry I am again humbled by how trustworthy the Lord is and yet how untrusting my human heart is. I have been officially fundraising for three and a half months now and have one hundred percent of my start-up costs and about twenty five percent of my monthly budget raised…this is huge and means that God has showed up in some pretty incredible ways, through the hearts of many of you for this mission!

Before I can deploy (officially move down there) I have to have one hundred percent of my monthly budget pledged, which leaves me with about $3,000/month left. Before these past couple of days it was my tendency to approach this from a purely strategic viewpoint, for example find 30 people who can give $100/month, 15 people to give $200/month, 6 people who can give $500/month or some combination thereof. This sounds reasonable right, a very smart and resourceful way of thinking. Well I am here to tell you that the Lord cares neither for intelligence nor resourcefulness in this journey of fundraising. He is calling me to complete and utter abandonment of my own strength, pride and ideas and to have a complete trust in His perfect timing and way!

So tonight my plea is simple, please join me in setting this ministry before the very throne of God and trusting Him in a way that believes in big things. Prayer is a form of battle and I am asking you all to join me in it as we fight to trust God for this last $3,000/month. I have seen what prayer can do and I am so excited to see what the Lord does as we all battle and take up arms for the chance to have these broken and unloved kids to know the perfect love of Jesus! “That’s not just what we’re about, that’s ALL we’re about”.

Please shoot me an email (sarah.stewart89@gmail.com) and let me know how I can be praying for each of you! And if you are reading this and want to get involved as a part of my financial team, send me an email and we can find a time to talk about it!!

To end with, a verse my mom loves to share with me. “I thank my God every time I remember you!” Philippians 1:3. I do thank Him for each of you and the special part you have in building His kingdom!