Struggles

Snow is falling randomly outside, and thankfully it is slowing down, so we may still have the Barn tonight after all. I'm stoked for what has been happening recently at the Barn and so I would hate to see the weather interfere with it. Recently we've been trying to find out where students are in their lives. We sat down and basically came to the conclusion, "Its really hard to peg where these students are at because they are all in so many different places." So, we decided to probe them.

Two weeks ago we handed them each a piece of paper with a list of words on it - such as anger, loneliness, boredom, fear... etc. We, then, broke up into small groups, asked them to circle which word they struggled with the most, and then began to discuss those struggles. It was amazing to hear the hearts of students and to see what they are really wrestling with. From this point we've decided to take a look at each of the words on the paper throughout the Spring.

One thing this will do is help us as leaders see where students are at in their lives, that we might best reach out to and equip them. Also, this just gives them a chance to break up into smaller groups - guys with guys and girls with girls - to share with and relate to each other. Last week we dove into fear and it was amazing to hear what the students had to say. "I'm afraid of disappointing my parents,"; "I'm afraid of my future."; "I'm afraid of not learning from my mistakes," were some of the answers and it has been great to just live life on life with them through this.

Please pray as we continue on through fear tonight, and then begin looking at other topics that we often struggle with.