Spring Breakaway Day 1: Fatherless and Heartbroken

              (Worshipping together)

Today we kicked off our youth retreat. We have 140 people here (100 students and 40 leaders). We are excited and ready to be a part of what God wants to do in these teenagers' lives. There have been a lot of spiritual battles up to today and so we are expectant that it means God is going to show up big time. We are already seeing Him move in a big way just after our first night.

      Tonight our district youth director (and speaker at our retreat), Pastor Eric Hoffman, spoke about conquering a fatherless generation. He talked about how there are holes left by the physical and emotional fatherlessness people have experienced, but that God can (and WANTS to) fill that void. He said that if we want to move forward, then we have to deal with the issue and not just dig it deeper or ignore it because we won't be able to move forward if we don't. 

       Fatherlessness affects our lives well into adulthood. It affects the way we think of ourselves, how we react and relate to others, and the kinds of relationships we enter into. We see it played out in our students' lives constantly. God wants His people to conquer the effects it has on them. We saw that begin to happen tonight when 36 students and leaders responded to the alter call to allow God to heal the brokenness left behind by fatherlessness. God is already beginning to move, fill voids, and heal scars.

      Second Corinthians 6:18 says, "I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty." Psalm 27:10 says, "Though my father and mother forsake me, the Lord will receive me." Tonight, students and leaders were told they didn't have to keep living with that hole in their hearts. God wants to be a Father to us. A lot of people have a hard time with that because they don't know what a good father looks like. They are so used to being hurt and rejected that they don't want to open their heart to more neglect. But, just as the verse in Psalm said, no matter who might abandon you, God will not. He doesn't operate the way others do. He loves, treasures, forgives, and is faithful. I know that He will continue to work on these students' and leaders' hearts throughout the rest of the retreat (and beyond it). 

Pray that God will keep speaking life into the brokenness these students and leaders have been experiencing. Also, pray that God would bring hope and healing to others who may be reading this and struggling with the pain of fatherlessness.