On a recent youth mission trip to Peru, youth pastor Namrata Sun (Scarborough Chinese Bible Church) and the youth went to a Christian high school to lead an evangelistic event.
They were there last year and had a huge response – so many teenagers came forward for prayer and to commit their lives to Christ. So they were excited to be back – Namrata was one of the guest speakers and the youth worship team would lead a song of praise.
This year was different.
The night before the evangelistic event, their drummer got food poisoning.
The worship leaders had sore throats.
Namrata – who was preaching – could hardly speak.
On the day of the event, three youths and Namrata evangelized to different age groups – from kindergarten to high school.
A lot of children and students responded to the calling and wanted to follow Jesus, except the high schoolers.
One week later, the mission team went back to the same school to lead their high school camp.
The students were not interested.
No one seemed to respond.
The youth felt awkward and some even felt desolated and far from God.
Namrata said it felt like she was preaching in a supermarket – so much noise as the students chatted with one another.
It seemed like no one was listening.
The youth asked themselves – why are we even here?
God was still working.
The youth prayed again – focussing on God and not the darkness around them.
As Namrata prayed, she felt the profound love of God that God has for these students.
Despite their lack of interest and even rebellious attitudes, she knew that God really loved them.
At the end of the sermon, a few students responded to the message and wanted to follow Jesus while a few others wanted to restore their relationship with God.
For the youth – they learned how to pray, focussing on God and not the darkness around them.
It was significant experience about the perseverance of prayer – because of the love of God.
Photo creds: Elyas Pasban (Unsplash)