God’s plans

“Commit your work to the Lord and your plans will be established.”  Proverbs 16:3

Randy began to build up the youth program at the church in Snellville with the help of an awesome core group of young people.  They were so faithful, and it wasn’t long until it was growing exponentially. We promised them a weekend retreat as soon as we reached the number goal that they had set for themselves as an incentive.

The goal was reached sooner than expected, and we had to scramble to find a place for our reward retreat.  Randy (the great researcher and planner), found a camp somewhere in South Carolina. We all trusted that arrangements had been made in advance, and we were good to go.  On that fateful Friday afternoon, we boarded our bus and headed out with much enthusiasm and excitement.  One of the parents drove the bus for us.

There was no GPS at this point, and we drove for hours through country roads in the growing darkness.  When we finally reached the camp, it was pitch dark.  Randy got out and walked to the gate which was not only closed, but locked securely. As he walked back to the bus with a sullen expression, the mood inside went from excitement to complete silence. He announced our predicament with complete honesty mixed with disappointment and regret saying that there must have been a mix up with dates.  Duh!!??

I’m thinking, what do we do now with a bus of teenagers and no place to go?? At that very moment, I heard Randy say:  “You guys have worked hard for this, and you deserve a retreat, so let’s all go back to the “old” parsonage and spend the weekend there”!!  I sat in horror as the bus erupted in cheers!  My mind is now on fast forward wondering how on earth we could ever pull this off?

However, that’s exactly what we did!  After calling every parent and getting permission, the two of us and all the youth set up a retreat in our parsonage. They all had their sleeping bags, so we set up girls in the back of the house, boys in the front, with Randy and Chief sleeping in between!! They would have to step over them to cross that line, and nobody was brave enough to try that!  It was very early the next morning when all were bedded down.

Saturday, we started Camp Mickler.  We grilled hot dogs, s’mores, hamburgers, made sandwiches, planned our programs, did Bible studies and played every outside and board game known to man!!  We had an absolute ball!!  Parents came and went all weekend with supplies.  I think they all secretly wanted to included.

The youth were ecstatic with the whole weekend and wanted to make it a monthly thing!! When word got out in the community, we doubled our youth attendance!  Everyone wanted to be a part of the group that took such exciting adventures!! God’s plans don’t always go the way we are expecting!!

God established the plans, and as a group, we committed our way to Him.