Ghosts of the past...

Normally the first posts at an event are chronological.

I've been at Purdue for two days now and have Small Group Leader training behind me as well as 'load in' day for the participants...imagine 5000+ youth and hundreds of adults converging in one place at roughly the same time. The first worship service last night was excellent and this morning saw the first small group session, the reason I am here.

This post is about ghosts and its appropriate that its first.

It about our lives before Triennium. In small group, I gave everyone the opportunity to fill our a card releasing themselves from fretting about something back home, or from the trip here or ... well, anything. It is not part of the manual, but I have found that what we bring into a session often keeps us from being fully present--and its hard to respond to God's voice when you aren't present. I told them that it would be my honor to pray for them and these concerns while I am here.

I am and I will.

I told them I wanted to share them with my friends of faith. Friends here at Triennium, but you as well. I am floored by their trust in God. And in me as their leader. These aren't small concerns and I'd like to enlist anyone who wishes to to pray for these young women and men. What you see below is what they wrote-with a couple adjustments for confidentiality.

Thanks in advance, my intercessors.

BTW-the title is literally one of the cards, so we will start with it.

• ghosts of the past
• stressed about college
• first dog died
• missing the first 2 weeks of school
• my friends are stressed about school and family
• stress of dance and school
• people at dance
• college
• thanksgiving for Triennium
• I'm worried about my best friend XXX
• my dog might die
• busyness at work
• unknown future of loved one's job opportunities
• one of my best friend's grandmother is sick with cancer
• I have a friend who is going through a lot of family problems. He just told me he is gay and he is suffering from depression. He's been cutting himself to get through it and I'm scared for him.
• my parents were having trouble, but are slowly patching it up
• family issues
• upcoming grad from HS
• missing my pregnant wife and my two year old daughter
• parents going through divorce; friends parents going through divorce; same friend lost their baby
• big family drama and big drama at my HS
• less alcohol and violence
• praying that everyone has a good time
• A group that is here with us that has experienced great loss as they traveled here to PYT
• This may seem petty compared to all the other problems people are experiencing around the world but my relationship with my boyfriend is not entirely happy. He has much stronger feelings for me than I do for him. I don't know how to go about addressing this. I have this idea and am constantly being told by people what I should to and how I should be feeling. This is draining. Please just pray that God will know its me. I feel this could be enormously. This is something I haven't thought to do. Thank you.
• Please pray for my cousins and their family who are going through their parent's divorce. I pray that they take comfort in me and others who care.
• I have been trying to cope with how I will eventually go blind. Its all just saddening even though I wear a smile. Please pray for my mother diagnosed with MS and hope she makes at least to my graduation. It just kills me inside to know I'll lose the one person I've always had.
• Prayers for my pastor and her family

I will leave you with a thought by musician and poet Leonard Cohen. "Prayer is translation. A man translates himself into a child, asking for all there is in a language he has barely mastered." I love the honestly of this thought. I also am encouraged that God is a master of the original and so adept at hearing past our missed conjugations and jacked up syntax.

Humbly,
Dave