17 and Life

Last night, Zsofi and I gave a short presentation about missions with a small group of 6th-9th graders. Most of them were either from church or lived near the home of the host-family, so some were Christians, some weren't, and the others were somewhere in between.

We decided to share about (James) Hudson Taylor, who became a Christian when he was 17 years old, and after several years of preparation, spent the remaining 51 years of his life ministering in China! A deeply inspiring man who God used to accomplish incredible things in China, but the part of his life that we focused on was how he got from deciding to follow Christ in high-school, to when he got off the boat in Shanghai four years later.

It is pretty incredible that this small group exists; a place where 10-15 year-olds meet each week to worship together, talk about God, get to know each other more, and even pray for each other. And yet, it didn't seem to be a threatening place for the ones who weren't Christians! Having a small group like this would have been unimaginable to me when I was 15. In fact, even though Zsofi and I were the ones giving the "talk" and desired to encourage and inspire these young people, we were definitely touched ourselves by their love and some of their prayers for us.