"Go Beyond"

and

"Experiences at World Changers"

Sermon Transcript for Aug 20, 2000

By: Kyle Shatto
Valerie Wakefield
Karreanna Setser
Renee' Shatto
Brenda Wakefield

Scripture Reading: Hebrews 12:1-3 

"GO BEYOND"

by Kyle Shatto

Our World changers theme for 2000 is "Go Beyond". The scripture this morning compares the Christian life to a great race. It takes perseverance and endurance to complete a race, and the same is especially true for the Christian life. Regardless of our level of spiritual maturity, the Christian life is a challenge. Whether you are in the middle of the race or just beginning to train, the challenge is to throw off the things that hinder your personal relationship with the Lord and to "go beyond" in personal growth and commitment to Him. It is a challenge to endure when opposition is strong as you saw in our drama, "The Neighbor". Being on missions for God requires great perseverance and endurance!

Our theme, "Go Beyond", doesn’t leave us with empty suggestions; rather, it points us to the life of Jesus. He is our example in maintaining a personal relationship with the Father and in serving people, regardless of who they are and how they are viewed by others. He faced much opposition and yet endured. Jesus paid the ultimate price and set the ultimate example when He laid down His life and went beyond the cross to save a dying world.

We are now going to take a few minutes to share some of our experiences in Galveston.

 

"EXPERIENCES AT WORLD CHANGERS"

 

Kyle Shatto: When we got to Texas, we were all excited. We looked at the schedule and saw that our week was very busy. After we looked at the schedule, we had our welcoming ceremonies, we met the staff, and had our first service. The next day, we were told who our working crews were. The crews were made up of different churches. There were between 10 and 12 on each crew. Normally you are supposed to get at least one other person from your church on the crew, but I didn’t. I was pretty scared. The youth group tried to sympathize with me, but all of them had some one else from the youth group on their crew, so they did not really understand. I was not sure what I was going to do. I remembered how last year, when our group went to Michigan, the first day of being with our crew was hard enough to get to know people, even when I had two people from our group on my crew.

After we ate breakfast we met our crews. Being on a crew by myself ended up being a wonderful thing. The other members of my crew were very welcoming and friendly, so in almost no time I got to know them all. By being by myself, I was able to be more open and have a break from my youth group for a while each day, which towards the end of the week I was pretty glad to have.

My experiences in Texas really helped me to grow spiritually. Not only did we work on houses but we also had a worship service every night. We danced, sang, and listened to sermons. In listening to those sermons, I learned about the miracles of God, Jesus and His disciples, and sharing my faith with others.

Sharing my faith with others was pretty scary at first, but I soon realized that sharing my faith is not always going up to people and telling about the gospel. Your faith can be shared through something that you wouldn’t always expect to have a huge impact on people. For example, when people walked past us painting a house they would stop to talk to us and find out what we were doing. When they discovered that we had paid and given up our summer to come and help these people who couldn’t afford to, or weren’t able to paint their houses, they would ask in dismay why we would do this. When they asked we would have an opportunity to tell them we were doing God’s work. When they heard this it made them curious about the Lord, and possibly caused them to go to church to see what it was about. Although we did not get out our bibles and read to them in a way we still got to that person and caused them to become curious about the Lord.

I believed in Christ before I left. I had accepted Him as my Lord and Savior, but I did not really understand the full meaning of that. In Texas, I learned what it meant. It means that I devote myself to Jesus and do not doubt that he exists. I love Him with all my heart and worship Him. In my life, He is to be the number one priority, and I should be willing to give all of my earthly possessions up to follow Him. In learning this, I have become a better person. Most people probably would not notice the change, but I am more honest and more enthusiastic about church. This experience has been an important part of my life. I feel as though I have become closer to the Lord. 

 

Valerie Wakefield and Karrianna Setser: Valerie and I were on the same crew with Andrew and Steve. Everybody was divided up into different crews which was assigned to a house. Our house was two stories and the front was on pillars. We had to rebuild the steps and paint the whole house. Since it was our first year, we were nervous, but excited to meet new friends and share God’s word. A church volunteered to bring us food at our work site. They had really good food! Their youth group came too. By the end of the week we were tired, exhausted, but proud of our work. We can’t wait until next year!

Renee’ Shatto: Hi, my name is Renee’. I was one of the roofers in Texas. It was hot, dirty and exhausting work, but I loved it. Over the week, I helped my crew to rip up seven layers of shingles, rotten decking and to totally rebuild a roof that at first we weren’t sure would hold even one of us.

I did any job that I could to help that week. I ripped up shingles and metal and wood. I carried 90 lb. bags of shingles across the roof. I put down tar and tar paper. I hammered down new decking and shingles; and I helped to clean up everything that we threw down off of the roof. Needless to say, I gained some muscle in Texas.

But that isn’t all that I gained. I gained new friends from Arkansas, New Mexico, Texas and Missouri. I am still in touch with some of them. Besides construction work, we also did God’s work. We passed out bibles and tracts telling about Jesus. We told the neighbors and the people that came over to the house wondering why we were doing this all about the Lord. We prayed with and for the people that we met. We were even able to help Alex, our resident’s grandson, to learn about God and to pray and accept Jesus as his personal Lord and Savior.

We also had spiritual experiences at the school that we stayed at. We had evening services every night in the gym. Singing and listening to the sermons made me feel very, very close to God. One evening, we had a concert of prayer. The pastor would tell us what to pray for and we would. It was wonderful, feeling God all around. Many people cried, guys included.

Texas was a wonderful experience for me. I made new friends, became closer to the Lord and helped to stop the rain from getting the Phillips’ family’s head wet.

Thank you all for your supporting us in going.

Brenda Wakefield: I would like to thank the youth for the opportunity to share my experience at World Changers during their service. Consider me a big youth. I know God considers me His child. How did I get to Galveston? Let me give you some background. My first clue of things to come: Steve came home one day and sheepishly stated that the youth want to go Galveston the second week in June. It’s going to be really hot and humid!

I said to Steve, "Isn’t that the week of our family vacation in Florida? Our friends, Janis and Dave have already paid our deposit for that week." Steve looked at me and said nothing. A month later Steve tells me the mission group is going to Galveston. I said, "Well, I guess I’ll call Janis and Dave and see if:

1. they can change their scheduled time off work

2. if our reservations in Florida can be changed to a later date."

In the meantime, Steve is having trouble locating a female leader for the trip.

About a month later, Steve comes home from work. I am sitting in the living room. Steve drops to his knees and shuffles across the floor. I am really puzzled because he is definitely in the begging position. Steve says, "I’ll do anything. I’ll buy you anything--do you want a new car? Please just consider what I am about to ask. I can’t find a female leader to go to Galveston. Will you please go? Please, please, please."

"Steve, I don’t have any vacation time left, but I’ll see if I can trade some days or at least get some other people to work for me. Also, Alyson had been planning on having me to herself that entire time that week that you, Valerie and Emily were gone. I think you had better break the news to her."

That’s how I ended up going to Galveston. Let me tell you about "going beyond"--that is, going beyond my comfort zone. I was definitely out of my "comfort zone" for the first few days. Anticipating early hours, long work days, hard work, and hot and humid weather didn’t bother me. What did make me uncomfortable was how open people were about sharing their belief in God.

Evening worship services were a very emotional time for me. In fact, I was often in tears. The praise music, the youth standing and raising their hands - it was a different form of worship. I was definitely out of my comfort zone as I am now. Melissa Osborne helped me by explaining that those who raised their hands were trying to touch the hands of God. I then understood. Emily kept nudging me and telling me that it would be OK - that she felt the same way in Michigan last year.

But what beautiful services! I could see the joy in Valerie and Karianna’s faces as they sang the praise songs and listened to the messages. By the end of the week my comfort zone had expanded beyond what I thought was possible. I was no longer as inhibited about praising God.

What really impressed me was seeing how dedicated the middle school, high school, and college kids were with their work ethic and service to others. Renee’, Melissa, and Matt were on a crew that left at 6:00 a.m. and were usually the last group to return every day. When they returned from roofing their house, they looked like chimney sweeps.

One evening we had a concert of prayer. Four young men came in late. My first thought was they had been goofing off and just decided to enter late. Then I saw, even in the darkened room, how dirty they were. They had stayed on the job late to finish covering their resident’s roof. As tired as the youth were every day, the worship services were energized. The youth would rise to their feet and stand for most of the worship service. What a spiritual experience!

I think my experience at World Changers can be summoned up by reading to you the card I wrote to Steve on the last evening I was there. It says, "Thank you very much. Steve, thanks for putting up with me, with my fears and uncertainty about this week. As usual you were right and I have come to really enjoy the work, fellowship, and food--well, maybe not the food! I feel that I was meant to come here and experience this week with you, Valerie, and Emily. Love, Brenda."