Last August, I was assigned to work a new music festival in the area. The festival was promising great turnouts, and big name artists for the event and it was only about an hour and a half north of our offices, so i grabbed our equipment, my husband, and two amazing volunteers and headed up to the festival.
Honestly, I was pretty excited... until we arrived on site and I saw the setup and realized that the promised numbers weren't going to be there. It's hard to get excited when there are only 20 people in the audience when a very good band, when at other festivals would have hundreds watching, is performing. But we made the best of it. We had to.
On the second (last) day of the festival, I was very ready for it to be over so we could pack up and head back to Indy. I felt like I had just wasted my husband and two volunteers the last two days, and I felt horrible.
Before the last band went on stage, the festival organizers had arranged for an alter call. The man who was in charge of the festival approached me and asked if I would be willing to help with the alter call, and I said sure. (This wasn't an uncommon request at the smaller events I'd been to with work.)
During the alter call, I was standing under the tent where those who needed prayer were to go. There were about six of us under the tent, and everyone else had someone with them, except me. This is when the enemy tried to play games with my mind. Nobody wants to pray with you. Pack up your stuff and get out of here. Nobody listens to your radio stations. You just wasted two days of your life for nothing.
Then she walked up to the tent. A blonde college age girl walked up in tears, and immediately those thoughts left my mind. I grabbed her hand and asked her if I could pray with her and she said yes.
Over the next few minutes, she and I talked. I found out what was going on in her life, and why she felt led to participate in the alter call. She desperatly wanted prayer. She NEEDED prayer. After we prayed, I gave her a hug and my contact info and told her that if she ever need to talk, to call me or email me. I thought about her for awhile after that night. But you know the saying "Out of sight, out of mind." Life went on, and I never heard from her.
Fast forward to yesterday afternoon. We worked an event in downtown Indy with the Indiana Conference of United Methodist Churches. I had been made aware of the event a month or so ago through email. Because of my background, and that I am a United Methodist, I really wanted to participate in the event. So, once again, my co-worker and I packed up the station vehicle, had two of our amazing volunteers, and went downtown. I was excited to be there. We were promised good numbers in attendance, not to mention just the exposure alone of having both of our stations set up on the circle in downtown Indy with our music blaring during rush hour. The possibility of the people that we could reach and introduce the stations to was pretty awesome.
After we set up our area (and then moved it to a new location and set it up again) two college age girls that were at the event approached us an asked if we needed help with anything because they were bored. We told them that we were good to go at that point, but if they wanted to come back at the end of the event and help us tear down, we wouldn't turn them away.
Before the event officially began, we had quite a few people walking up and talking to us. It was great! Then the 5:00 rush hour traffic picked up and it was a solid wall of cars the entire circumference of the circle and they were all hearing our radio stations. THANK YOU GOD! We had a steady stream of people until 6:00. The funny thing is at 6:00, the city police shut down traffic to the circle, so attendees of the event could walk in the streets and not have to worry about the traffic around them. So, with no traffic, and a much smaller crowd on the circle, it appeared that nobody was at the event.
The enemy, once again, tried to use that situation. You just wasted your time... again. There weren't as near as many people here as your were told. You failed. So I started watching the clock. My coworker and I, along with our two volunteers, were trying to pass the last hour as quick as we could. (This may or may not have included us dancing on the circle. Believe me when I say we got some odd looks and stares!) Once 7:00 hit, we started to tear down the tents and our equipment. It was hot, and it was a Friday night. We wanted to go home, and put the event behind us. We had everything loaded in the cars, and my coworker had already jumped in the car so we could head back to the office.
Then she walked up to the car. A blonde college age girl - the same girl that had asked if we needed help earlier that day because she was bored. I told her "Hey, we already got everything packed up, but thank you so much for coming back. I really appreciate it." And her response? "Were you at ________ Festival last summer?" Then it hit me. She was the girl that I had prayed with during the alter call last August. With tears in her eyes, she said "You prayed with me at that festival." And I immediately gave her a hug.
We talked for a few minutes. I asked her how she was doing, based on what I was told last August. She said things were going great - that she got plugged in to a local church in her area, and this summer, she was working on staff as a camp counselor at one of the Indiana United Methodist Church summer camps - the same camp that a lot of the youth from my church will be going to this summer. GODBUMPS!!!!!! (You know, not goosebumps, but Godbumps, because that was totally a moment orchestrated by God.) The exact same girl, who came to me in tears of desperation last August, came to me in tears of joy last night. I gave her my contact info again and she promised me that we would stay in touch this time.
I would by lying if I were to tell you I haven't been checking my email every hour since then waiting to see if she emails me.
So why share all of this? When working in ministry, the enemy will try to attack us. We'll all have these moments when we feel like we're wasting our time, or even someone else's. But God has it all planned out. We may not know that moment, that month, or even that year, why God has us where we are, but He has us there for a reason.
Last night was a reminder from God that he had me at the festival last August for a reason, and he had me at the event last night for a reason. She was the reason.
GOD IS GOOD, ALL THE TIME!
ALL THE TIME, GOD IS GOOD!
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