Easter Hope and Spring...

The weather is slowly getting warmer and nicer here in Ljubljana.The night after I took this photo on my balcony we had a massive storm and many of the blossoms and flowers were sadly damaged and destroyed. I guess it's a good reminder of the frailty of our lives in this world.

The last couple of weeks have been quite quiet, although it was incredibly encouraging to see church full on Easter Sunday. Our lives may be fragile, but we have a great hope, we know that this life is not all there is and that one day we will be raised with Jesus into an incredible inheritance that will never perish, spoil, fade, or be destroyed by thunderstorms!

In this quieter time I've had the opportunity to spend time listening to sermons and talks from previous years of Word Alive. I know that many of you in the UK are disapponted that it was unable to happen this year and I completely sympathise. I have been so encouraged and enthused by listening to these talks again. One in particular really stood out for me. It was a talk on Psalm 96 by Lindsay Brown from 2010. If you don't know, Lindsay Brown has been involved with the work of IFES for many years, working with students from all over the world. In 2010 I was a student and I heard this talk live. Listening to it again 14 years later, I now recognise what an impact it had on me. At the time I was interested in short term mission but was not really considering long term service. This talk was such an encouragement for me to go and serve, in whatever capacity I could. It helped to shape my theology of mission and what it means to serve. One thing he said really stood out to me as I listened to it again this week. He said that the church is strengthened by sending people out into the world to serve. The church won't grow unless we are willing to send our best people out to serve. God works when we are willing to sacrificially send people.

I didn't realise until this week just how much of an impact this had had on me. I'm not trying to claim that I'm one of the "best people" but I am willing to serve in the situation in which God has placed me. As I'm now in the position of youth worker in a small church in a small nation, it's very easy to think that we need to keep all these young people just at our church, and not to encourage them to serve in other places.

Slovenia may be small, the church may be small, but I have been challenged to think once again how I can encourage these young people to serve, not just in Slovenia but across the world, in the places that God will send them. Please keep praying that these young people would be willing to go, if that's what God calls them to do, and pray that we would be encouraging them and supporting them to go where God calls.