Hey all.
I just got an incredible email from my good friend Rianne Rops who is on the road right now with Encounter team 2. She shared with me her experience while doing an all Male retreat for 70 grade 10's! Exciting...
Anyways, so we had that 70gr.10 male retreat on Monday. I was super intimidated about it, and I realized that morning in prayer that I secretly wanted something to happen at the retreat.. have some guy give me a hard time or have them all whistle at me so that the brothers on my team would have to protect me or something. It was weird realizing that.. but so good that I did, because it gave God the chance to put me in my place. i was being all prideful and wanting the retreat to somehow be about me, instead of desiring leading these men to Christ. God told me that I needed to seek to be invisible. Do not seek to be noticed, singled out, or anything.. but be invisible so I can lead these men to Christ. Before the retreat, I was really nervous about small group. Some of the girls were seeking advice about video games/zombie apocalypse stuff.. but I'm wayyy too ballet to pull those things off, so instead, I was just genuinely me, and I think the guys recognized that and respected that.. so we got along really really well.
So second small group comes along, and there were these two guys, lets call them "Matthew" and "Thomas", who I got along with pretty well. They were the ones who asked the most questions. The first one: "Why can't we just love God and have fun at the same time?" Then they translated it to: "why can't I get drunk on weekends and have sex with my girlfriend, even if I love her?" Ooookk. Well, that started the conversation, and then we talked about sex for 15mins. whoa man. And the weird thing was, it wasn't even weird! It was great. At one point, I got them to realize that the person they're dating now is probably someone else's future wife. that slightly freaked them out (in a great way!). Anyway, they weren't quite satisfied. At lunch, I gave Thomas my second piece of pizza and he was really honoured haha. Oh my goodness, he's like my litttle brother!
Then came prayer time! Wooooo! I loved doing silent blessing with the men. Emma! I felt like Mary! I felt like this gentle, beautiful woman, coming through God to bring gentleness and love and wonderful things to these men who just needed the tenderness of a woman.. oh my goodness I don't even understand it. I felt so honoured being a woman in this place. I felt special and protected surrournded by so many men. Masculinity is soo good. Femininity is so good. I felt like Mary!!! whoa. So, I got to Thomas (my favourite.. he must've reminded me of someone I know, because I was extremely drawn to minister to him). I prayed with him, and then I left him the Youcat (Catechism of the Catholic Church for youth). but little did he know that I slipped in a note saying "If you can't say no, what is your 'yes' even worth?" to mark the perfect page explaining purity, sex, etc. I didn't hand it to him, but i left it beside him. Anyways, at the end of the prayer time, he handed me the book, and gave me an extremely appreciative/genuine "thank you"
I DONT KNOW WHY IT WAS SUCH A BIG DEAL BUT IT WAS!!!! Emmmmmmaaaa! I loved this retreat so much. I was watching this church full of men pray. I felt honoured by them praying. I felt honoured by another boy in my small group, lets call him "Joshua" (who wanted me to pray with him, but chose to not have my hand on his shoulder as a sign of prayer because he wanted to protect his purity that much!) I felt affirmed in my femininity just by being surrounded by masculinity. They were so polite and respectful and real, and I desperately want Matthew and Thomas to find God. They're my little brothers in Christ!
Isn't this just beeaauuttiiffuulll!
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you to all who give to this ministry! With your prayers, money and services, God is very much alive and working through our missionaries on the road this year,
God Bless,
Emma Fradd
Recruiter
No comments:
Post a Comment