OYP 7th Anniversary Thanksgiving Series: God’s Healing Love

As we celebrate OYP’s 7th Anniversary, we look back on the wonderful things that the Lord has done in the lives of our beloved young people and express gratitude for how the Lord is indeed raising up a generation for Christ. We share one of their stories here with you.



by Rebekkah Broughton (SOW 2018)

God calls each one of us in personal and unique ways, and my coming to know Him and love Him has been in a large part because of my experiences in OYP. My most significant encounter of Jesus was at the 8-week discipleship programme called School of Witness (SOW) organized by OYP which I attended in 2018.

 Jesus prepared me to be able to say yes to attending SOW when He planted a seed in my heart to make a change in my life at the OYP Treasure retreat in early 2017. I had attended Treasure seeking respite from work. Jesus revealed to me that He desired not just to give me rest for that weekend, but that He desired to give me “more”. However, at that point, I didn’t know how or what this “more” meant.

 It was only at the end of 2017 when I received an invitation to attend SOW, that my heart began to stir and to desire to discover what this “more” meant. It took a great deal of courage to step into the unknown with Jesus and to leave my job, but I could not ignore the prompting in my heart that SOW was the next step He was calling me to.

 At SOW, I encountered the healing love of God in a very intimate way. He revealed to me specific hurts I thought did not affect me any longer or which I had chosen to bury. God called me into His light and invited me to surrender these hurts to Him, and He began to set me free from the pain I was carrying with me. I came away from SOW with a deep sense of peace and trust in the power of the Lord, and a sense of freedom to live a new life in Him! My life was changed and I have come to realise that my life belongs not to myself, but that I belong to Him and that I desire to live for Him!

 I spent the rest of 2018 volunteering at OYP by serving at different retreats and programmes. I’m so grateful to have been able to take this time to deepen my walk with the Lord. In this time, I was also privileged to have met and journeyed with so many different young people and adults who were also seeking the Lord. My faith was strengthened in witnessing hearts being converted and turning to the Lord despite the circumstances and challenges in their lives. I realised the importance of community in sharing our experiences and struggles, and supporting each other on the difficult walk of discipleship.

 Even now, as a member of a working adult community, I am amazed at the faith of both the members of the younger OYP communities who are still in school and the members of the older OYP communities who have their own families – the depth of knowledge of the faith, the willingness to give of themselves to labour for the Kingdom of God, and the joy in being loved by the Lord. I believe firmly that OYP is truly raising up a generation for Christ, and I’m thankful that I get to be part of this generation who desires to love and serve the Lord together. I praise God for what He has done in my life and in the lives of my brothers and sisters, and I pray that we may be courageous and respond to His call to desire “more” for ourselves in our walk with Jesus!

 

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