Ain't God Good?

Isn't God good?

On Friday night we had youth service. This time, it was upstairs in the youth auditorium at the church, rather than in the chapel at the school (which is where we usually have service). The chapel was under construction, the gym floors were being stripped, scrubbed, resurfaced, and buffed, and a lot of cleaning was taking place. The youth auditorium was also under construction. We had to figure out where to have some church. (We don't like having youth service in the main auditorium if it is just youth because it is too spread out.) We decided to have church in the youth auditorium, in the midst of the chaos. We shoved the mess to the back of the now 1 room auditorium, vacuumed,set up chairs, a piano, a pitiful set of drums (I mean pitiful. I don't know where we found them, but we must've been really searching to find some with such...unique characteristics...). Along side our meager two piece band, we had two speakers, 3 mics (total), and a pulpit. To make the situation even better, for some reason, the air conditioner was not working.-Not a good thing here in Oklahoma right now! Especially when its upstairs with no air flow other than a small fan.
I got there a few minutes early to make sure everything had been cleaned up and was ready to go for service and when I saw the arrangements, I said "Well, the Lord is gonna have to do a work for us in here tonight!"
We ended up having to add four rows of chairs. We had at least 10 visitors and it was wonderful!
We got down to pray for pre-service prayer. BOOM. God moved. Without any prompting, without any music, one-by-one, we all stood to our feet and began to give God the worship that He is so worthy of. Then service began. God moved all throughout the worship service. There was such a spirit of worship that filled that messy, suffocatingly hot room. Bro. Rodgers got up to preach. He preached about getting under a burden. Somethings that he said really stood out to me.
1) In the story of the prodigal son, where was the older brother? Why did he run after his brother, pleading for him to not make the terrible mistake of leaving? What happened?
2) It is more than just having a burden for the lost. We need a burden for one another. We need to care enough about each other that we carry a burden and intercede for our brothers and sisters.

When altar service began, the Lord completed the work that he began at the beginning of the service. A backslider prayed through, another visitor was seeking God in the altars, and young people were getting burdens. It was amazing.
(It was also very hot.)
After service ended, we put everything away so the carpets could be shampooed, and we went on a journey...to Freddy's. YUM!-And definitely an improvement from Whataburger! Praise-allujah. ;)

Then on Sunday, God moved again. It wasn't a fast paced, super upbeat service. It was one of those times when everything is slow and sweet and worship just flows from the depth of your heart directly to the throne of God. The choir sang, the preacher preached, and another backslider prayed through. Several more visitors were in the altars seeking God, and a couple  of them came very close to receiving the Holy Ghost.
I am so delighted to see how God is moving and working among His people! It is such a privilege and an excitement to be involved! I can't wait to see what else He is going to do!-Especially with ADMIT coming up.
Speaking of ADMIT...
Yesterday after church, some of the young people were going to go ride bike after church. Its becoming a tradition and I must say that I thoroughly enjoy it.
Anyway, we went out to eat at El Tequila. I got pollo flautas with rice, guacamole, and pico and some horchata. Yum. (It was quite the funny experience, using what little espanol I know with the waiter. Even though it was mostly 'gracias' and 'de nada' that was being passed between us. haha)
And, funny story:
I was doing my hair for church and I did my customary 'ask Trent what he thinks about it' move. So the conversation goes something like
"Hey Trent...does my hair look okay like this?"
"Yeah, it looks okay."
"Are you sure? I just generally don't do these curls like this..."
"Yeah, it looks okay."
Then THIS happened.
While we were waiting on our food, Brittany turned to me and asked if I knew that Trent didn't like my hair. I said no and told her our conversation from that morning.
Apparently Trent doesn't like it when we do our hair with curls 'everywhere' (I pulled a few curls from the front of my head back to my mass of curls in the back. Think Sis. Jones without that many curls going back.) and proceeded to tell Brittany, who also had her hair in similar fashion. Anyway, for the rest of the night Trent got to hear us say that things were 'okay' and then we would turn to the person next to us and state how much we disliked it. He is never going to live that down. haha
I digress.
While we were out, we were made aware of a need. The grout at the church and school needed to be scrubbed for ADMIT. We decided to go and help out, and then if we got done in time, we would still go ride bikes. (I have scrubbed the grout many a time and let me tell you, it is a j-o-b! Like a multiple person, multiple day kind of j-o-b. So from about 6:30 to 9:00 we scrubbed tile and grout. It is a seriously disgusting job.-the grout looks black...it is actually extremely dirty white grout. True story.
I only have one picture on my phone from it and unfortunately, I can't show it to you. Kristen disapproved.
Anyway, we managed to get most of the ladies bathroom done. And it'll have to be gone over again. But we are making progress so I guess that is good news.
After we left, we went to Sonic to get ice cream. Or what started out as ice cream but ended in chili cheese coneys, hot dogs, cheeseburgers, and tater tots. What can I say? We are apostolic...
I must say that I am so glad that I am surrounded with young people that are interested in the work of God and will work for Him, even when it isn't convenient or 'fun'.-though we generally end up having a blast, Seriously. If you don't enjoy working for the Lord, come visit the TLC young people for a while. We always have fun. :)
On another, somewhat (very) similar note, I am so excited for ADMIT!! God always does wonderful things for His people and it is such a blessing to be a part of. I can honestly say that I get so much out of it every year, even though I don't get to attend all of the sessions.

This was post was full of ramblings and my sincerest apologies to you if you actually read all of this. Maybe I'll actually get some interesting content out soon. Maybe. ;)

Peace be with you and your mashed potatoes...or whatever.
Ciao!
Lauren Bundy