If April Showers Bring May Flowers...

We're going to have a lot of flowers in May! Well, tonight during our leader meeting Amanda pointed out that the Final Four (for the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament) started tonight at 6:30, and we all thought, "shoot, maybe we should have cancelled it." Well, thank goodness we didn't! We had just over 40 students in the room tonight, and what a great bunch of students they were! Every so often a feeling of holiness seems to fill the room and that's just what happened tonight. We really asked students to go to a deeper level tonight and they really took us up on it. I shared from John 8 and the story of the woman caught in adultery, but I broke it up with a few videos. I read the first part of the story, right before Jesus bends down to write in the sand, and then showed three videos (you can find them all on youtube if you're interested), to find the first one, search for Young Life Post Secret, and it will be the first video to come up. The second video was "Hurt" by Johnny Cash, and the third was "F-ckin' Perfect" by Pink (Trust me, that song is good, and doesn't swear in the video, see for yourself!) and after that I read the second part of the story. I told our students that we hold on to our mistakes from the past and let them direct our lives and instead we need to realize that Jesus has forgiven those mistakes and wants us to, instead of hold on to our mistakes, hold on to Him. It was a great night, a number of students and leaders we moved to tears and reflected on some of the pain in their lives. The questions asked afterward were solid, super deep questions (I am always humbled by the thoughtfulness and depth put into these questions by students) and God was incredibly present.  I know I say this every week but, thank you for the opportunity to care for young people in Salem! It is SUCH a blessing!! Special thanks tonight to the Marshalls for hosting us for dinner, to the Butlers for letting us do Young Life there every week, and to Limeberry for being the perfect place to get frozen yogurt! (Here's a little plug: If you live in Salem, GO TO LIMEBERRY!!! It is so great and the owners are wonderful people and supporters of us! Help us to bless them as they are such a blessing to us!) Thank you, thank you, thank you! Goodnight! -Mat