Guest Blogger - PM

Prayer Request
I'm asking anyone and everyone to help me cover this year's Winter Retreat with prayer. As I do every year around this time, I'm calling for an advance of prayer and petition that this weekend (Feb. 20th-22nd) would be all that it could be in Jesus' name. That it would be used mightily to turn young hearts unto Jesus. And this year is no different. I'm calling for prayer without ceasing between now and the conclusion of our retreat. Yet this year I'm feeling a special burden to pray for a certain group of students.

There is a certain group of students in our community that I desperately want to attend our retreat. They aren't a distinct group that you might see sitting in the doorway of Westmoreland Mall on a Friday night, though they very well might be there. They aren't currently affiliated with our Student Ministry in any way, though I know with all of my heart that God wants them to be. While you may not know the names of these students, you'd recognize them, even from far away. They are the students that no other church is willing to minister to. The goths, the gays, the punks, the pregnant, the drug users, the trouble makers, the forgotten...The students that, when you see coming toward you, you look away as to avoid eye contact. These are the students that hide in the shadows of our community. The students whom the church tends to be afraid of.

Jesus and I want those students to somehow, some way get to our retreat. I want them to come and be loved on by our staff. I want them to come and be introduced to the perfect love of Christ. I want them to come and find that Charter Oak Church believes that they matter to God.

I'm serious. In fact, I've never been more serious about asking for your help in a matter of prayer. Would you join me in asking God to scrape the gutters of this community and send whatever students He finds there to our retreat? They need to know that Charter Oak Church has a home for them; that Jesus has grace for them; and that our Student Ministry is ready to greet them with open arms.