In an age of pressure and change, we (including the youth) can easily become depressive or have doubts about life. Nevertheless, as one sister puts it, through the NPAC theme of this year, “Discern God’s work in your daily life and share the story”, the Lord reminds her that once we see the Lord in our midst, our worrying hearts will become calm, and our anxious hearts will be relaxed.

    However mundane our lives may be, the LORD is indeed among us, though for some reason we may not always be aware (Genesis 28:16), we pay little attention and we seldom discover that. For this reason, the Youth Ministry hopes to help ministry leaders and the youth to trace and notice the footprints of the Heavenly Father in our lives through the following arrangements.

    Thanksgiving Card: To be filled out monthly and to share the contents in the small group.

     Sharing stories of encounters with God during worship services: Each month, we will invite pastoral staff, ministry leaders and the youth to share in about two minutes stories about their encounters with the Lord Jesus.

    Below are some of their thanksgiving items:

    “While preparing the sermon, I spent most of the day without being able to write a single word. Time is running out and I became nervous. But once I prayed to the Lord, my heart calmed down. For a while, I did wonder whether my mind would remain blank. Later, I knew it did not because God gave me strength to complete writing the sermon.”

    “The evangelistic meeting of the Youth Ministry was just a few days away, but I was still thinking whom I could invite to the meeting. Suddenly, my daughter in Primary Four reminded me that perhaps I could invite a primary school classmate of my son. So, I got in touch with the mother of this male classmate and invited her to come together with her son. I thought she would probably reject me. To my great surprise, the boy’s mother not only promised to attend but also thanked me for inviting them. Finally, her son came to Christ at the evangelistic meeting.”

    “This entire week, I have been collecting information for the Extended Essay. Thank God for giving me the courage to select Chemistry as the subject of the essay and arranged a good teacher to guide me. Even though I met tons of obstacles along the way, thank the Lord for giving me peace, zeal and perseverance in the face of it.”

    “Thank the Lord that these two weeks, we learnt about the history of the Sino-Japanese War and the Chinese Civil War in our Chinese History lessons. God opened my eyes and helped me realize His sovereignty. He raises a nation and makes another fall. Everything is orchestrated by the Lord. How I marvel at His greatness! Meanwhile, I was grateful that no one was seriously hurt at the school sports day. I was tanned, but very happy.”

    I greatly hope that one day, whenever our counselors, group leaders and youth get together, they will talk about the work of God. It will just be like what Malachi 3:16 says about our counting of His blessings, “…the LORD listened and heard. A scroll of remembrance was written in his presence concerning those who feared the LORD and honored his name.” When we share, not only brothers and sisters are listening. The Heavenly Father is also listening attentively, and our words are recorded. Heavenly Father, thank You for cherishing our words. How blessed we are!