Hot Hearts 2012

I helped take our youth group to Hot Hearts 2012 this past weekend! I haven't been to Hot Hearts since I was in the youth group (like 10 years ago). All I can say is--WOW! It was an amazing weekend, and I was so honored to be able to watch God move in the lives of our students! We had 6 first time decisions to follow Christ and 9 recommit to following Christ with their whole lives! :) :) :) I wanted to share about some of the decisions that were made. I've worked with a lot of these students since they were in 5th and 6th grades, so it was so awesome to see them totally surrender their lives to Christ.

Hot Hearts brought in some amazing, godly individuals to share Christ and His love with our students for the weekend. Here is who was at Hot Hearts 2012:

Matt Papa
Hurt and Manley
Drew Worsham
Skillet
Kevin Phillips

Fell in love with this song at Hot Hearts:

Open Hands by Matt Papa

Now for the stories of some of my students...some of the stories are their stories because I have asked them to share via Facebook, etc.--we have been talking about how to use media outlets for good in Sunday School and on Wednesday nights:

K is an 8th grade boy who was very anti-church. I've known him for about 6 years. He had a lot of anger and hate inside of him. He never wanted to be at church but his dad made him come. He would always sit at the back and never participate in anything. He hung out with the wrong crowd and often did drugs, etc. Friday night he accepted Christ!!! Praise God! I immediately saw the change in his persona and how he carried himself. During Sunday School this past Sunday morning, we let the students share what God did in them at Hot Hearts. He got up and shared! He did it with excitement and joy!!! AMAZING!!!

A is also an 8th grade boy. I met A when he began coming to our Wednesday Bible study this past fall. He made a decision to follow Christ for the first time on Friday night! He posted the following on Facebook:

                             

So excited for A as he embarks on his new life as a Christ follower and as he learns to truly open his hands and surrender everything to Christ!

B is a 7th grade girl who was raised in church. She asked Jesus to come into her heart on Friday night! Here is what she wrote:

M is an 8th grade girl who also asked Jesus to come into her heart on Friday night! Here's her story via her Facebook wall:

  

S is a 7th grade girl who recommitted her life to Christ on Friday night. She is very passionate about how the Lord spoke to her this weekend and wants to go back on her campus and make a difference by living for Christ! She wants to impact her school and be a missionary at her middle school! Pray for S as she wants to take a stand for Christ! Pray that she will stand firm and resist temptation. Pray that she will be encouraged when she needs it most! 

These are just 5 of the stories from our students out of the 40 we took to Hot Hearts. They are all fired up and ready to return to their schools to make a difference by living for Christ!!!! They want to get involved in the Christian group that's on their campus and unite with other believers to build the kingdom of God! If you're reading this, stop and say a prayer for them! If you know one of these students, send them a word of encouragement!

Pray Romans 12:1-2 (The Message) over them:

So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.