What's harder than trying to lead a retreat for a bunch of Fourth Thru Sixth graders? Leading them but having your hard drive crash 20 minutes before you're supposed to give them the message! Well, that's what happened to me during Gracepoint’s Annual FTS (Fourth through Sixth) Retreat. I gave my first message on Friday night and then prepared and edited my next message after getting feedback from the teachers and stayed up until the wee hours of the night. I woke up the next morning got a hot meal and came back to my room to get my laptop - only to find it had crashed. Trying to reboot it, I realized it was DEAD with only 20 minutes away from the 2nd message. I had no local copy of my presentation which included 2 video clips of the universe and the cell. I was dust. I luckily had a copy of the video clips but it was on my machine at work. I had lost all of my notes and slides. So while the students went to Pinecrest Lake, I worked on my four other messages.
But one thing I knew, I wasn't alone. I called upon my friends and fellow staff back in Alameda. I called Josh to help me with my message examples, I used some of Daniel Kim's old notes and examples, I got tech support help from Michael Kang and David Wu, I got a replacement license key from Kevan Ho who was visiting Austin to help me with my slideshow and I got additional and invaluable feedback from the FTS teachers, and I got a lot of prayer from countless other people. I felt the church in action as I knew that although I was giving these messages there many people helping me and I really experienced the church. In the end, three of the kids made decisions to become Christ followers. I was floored and stunned. Hearing their clear prayers and decisions, I saw it was God who was working in the hearts of these children, long before I was even in the picture. I felt so privileged that he would use me in even this small way to bring the message. After our nightly meeting where we shared these decisions and prayed for these kids and as I walked back to my room I prayed a prayer of thanksgiving and cried as I praised the Lord and thanked him for using a sinner like me. I thought how could He use me and I was filled with gratitude. Although this was the hardest thing I've had to do, it was one of the most rewarding and I can honestly say I would do this again; all the "hard" stress was worth it!