S.E.W.

It’s Spiritual Emphasis Week at RVA! Actually, it’s the last day of S.E.W. but true to form, it’s taken me this long to write anything about it. That does not diminish the fact that God has been working on this campus. Our speaker, Bay Forrest, is an interesting character – 6’10 former Phoenix Suns player, former RVA dorm dad, and now works with his wife at Focus Ministries. He’s connected very well with the students and God has used him to touch hearts.

On the third day of sessions, Bay spoke frankly about living a Christian life without actually being a Christian. He challenged the students to search their hearts and after praying, invited those who had accepted Christ for the first time to stand up. As I sat and listened, I thought about how I would feel, going to a Christian school with a whole bunch of Christian students and teachers and missionary parents and Christian everywhere. Who was going to stand up? I thought maybe one or two brave souls. And in the next instant, students around me stood up all at the same time, popped out of their chairs to stand before their peers and the school. It was an incredible moment.

I’m not sure how many kids stood up, but it seemed like a lot, around 50. And the more I thought about it, the less surprising it was and the more thankful I became that God reached these kids now, at this time. Bay quoted the passage from Mark 7:21-23.

21"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' 23Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'

The kids here face the same challenges as any other high school, and even more . . . consider those ripped from their comfortable lives in the States or wherever else to become a dorm kid where ‘home’ is now a village in Uganda. If they didn’t know Christ as Savior before, the temptation is to blame Him as the one who upturned their lives and took their parents away. Or even the kid who grew up here at RVA . . . it’s possible to not be a Christian at a Christian school with Christian parents and a Christian ministry. Accepting Christ is a personal decision, and for a good many students here, that decision wasn't made until this past weekend.

Today is the last day of S.E.W. and Bay will be boarding a plane soon. We know he is not credited for the changes here, God is. Please pray for students as they continue to search out truth and for staff as they attempt to guide and mentor these kids.