It is amazing to me how God works. Sarah had taken the risk of praying out loud and some of her classmates from her Christian school laughed at her. I was part of the prayer time and I couldn’t figure out what was so funny. It was clear in speaking with her afterwards she was really hurt. So hurt she didn’t want to come to the evening session or even stay at the retreat. As I spoke with her she shared that was the first time she had ever taken the risk of “doing that”. Eventually with the help of some of her teachers we were able to convince her to attend the evening session.
I wanted to acknowledge the pain in must have caused to take the risk of praying out loud for the first time and be laughed at. When I mentioned that to her she said “No! You don’t understand, that is the first time I ever prayed, period!
” Just a second, I thought, you are in grade 12 in a Christian school and you have never prayed?
It soon became clear to me she had never received Jesus. This was a bit of a surprise but what came next was a total shock. She didn’t even understand the basics of the Christmas story! I found myself asking and answering lots of questions. I found out she had begun at the school the previous year. She had questions about Jesus but after asking one early in grade 11, and getting laughed at, she decided to keep her questions to herself. So I went all the way back to Genesis and walked through the bible to Jesus birth, death and resurrection.
As we were coming to the end of our discussion I said “The last thing I want to do is make someone do something they don’t want to do, but would like to become a Jesus follower–by asking Jesus to forgive sin and let him be the boss of your life?” She got a broad grin on her face and said “Yes, right now! That is exactly what I want to do!”
I was in the right place at the right time and as a result, I got to be a part of seeing the trajectory of her life change!