Notre Dame Freshmen Retreat: The world needs the hope of Christ

Last week Joseph Summers(our director at Family Missions Company) asked four of the missionaries in training to help him put on a Freshman Retreat for a local Catholic School, Notre Dame. Of course when he asked I literally jumped up and down for joy because I have missed youth ministry so much! It just really has my heart.

We started the retreat off with some fun games and praise and worship, then Joseph began talking about God's Love for us. On a typical retreat or teaching FMC likes to give the full proclamation of the Gospel, or the Kerygma: God's Love for us, how sin destroys our relationship with God, Jesus came to save us from our sin, through repentance and belief in Christ we are saved from our sin, and lastly by living a Christian life through the Holy Spirit is how we should build the Kingdom of God.

When Joseph finished talking about God's amazing Love for us. How in the beginning as we all know, He made man in "our image, after our likeness... Have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and all the living things that move on the earth. See, I give you every seed bearing plant all over the earth and every tree that has seed-bearing fruit on it to be your food; and to all the animals of the land, all the birds of the air, and all the living creatures that crawl on the ground, I give all the green plants for food.” (Genesis 1: 26a, 28b-30)

"He gave us all this as a sign of His love for us."
As stated in Isaiah 43:4

"For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your savior. I give Egypt as your ransom, Ethiopia and Seba in return for you. Because you are precious in my eyes, and glorious, and because I Love you."

This is positive right?? ...until the breakdown of sin happens and all the hopes and dreams of children are crushed! dramatic..In reality though, it is really crushing! Sin is just something that happens in the world, its normal, nothing we are ever really called to dwell on. After Joseph built up the awesomeness of God's Love he then crush it with how sin DESTROYS that relationship with God.
 He stopped his talk there and we split up into guys and girls groups to share about the talk.


A few of the girls made comments about the talk but one girl who I had been watching for a few minutes finally just bursted with... "But we can go to Confession right?? That's why the Catholic Church has confession! so we can confess our sins and be forgiven and then we can go to Heaven! because Jesus died for us we can be forgiven and go to Heaven?? Right?!

 I almost wanted to laugh because Joseph's point was totally made. She was so worried! But we should be worried! She was so right in that moment to actually reflect on our sinfulness and notice that it is a problem, that it's not just something we should take as normal. It's a serious thing. There was such desperation in her voice, it was inspiring for me to remember that sin is major problem that I should take seriously.

It also made me so aware of how truly desperate we are for Jesus Christ. Sometimes because He seems so attainable to us and is just always been apart of our lives, we tend to just put Him on the back burner. But we DESPERATELY need Jesus. The world especially is desperate for Jesus. It made me so much more confident in the fact that I am a missionary and how blessed I am for this call!

The Lord called ME, Lauren Roberts to go to the ends of the Earth to tell people about Him! How crazy is that?! He has called me and really calls ALL OF US to be a missionary for His Gospel! To bring that hope to His children! And not just Family Missions Company going to the ends of the earth to those who have never heard of the name Jesus but all His children need this hope! Even those who already know about Him! Clearly that girl needed to hear about the hope of Jesus Christ and she has grown up in Catholic school, in a family that practices their Faith, but there was still that desperation of needing to know that God Loves her and she is a sinner! but Jesus came to save her from that sin and if she repents and believes in Him and lives out her faith everyday He will safe her from that sin!

The world desperately needs all kinds of missionaries.

Later we finished the talk on the Kerygma and hope was restored with Jesus Christ so the teens were back in good spirits. It was very cool to see them transform and really take in everything throughout the day. I was blessed to give a talk on the importance of  community to them and the love they should have for each other because of this community Christ calls us to live in.
Two of our other missionaries (Thomas and Genevieve) gave talks on prayer and shared their testimonies. It was a pretty great day.

For something to make you laugh. Breana, one of our missionaries and a dear friend of mine was a bit discouraged before the retreat because she thinks she is not funny. She thought the teens wouldn't relate to her because she just isn't funny. I personally think she is a very fun person but she apparently doesn't think so. Anyways, so we prayed in the car on the way there that the Lord would make her funny to these freshmen.

I can't even count how many times some of the girls came up to me and said "Breana is SO FUNNY!" Hahahaha! It was awesome! Every time she spoke the room erupted with laughter. It was such a beautiful witness that no prayer is dumb in the eyes of God and that He will answer them!