YOUR SUPPORT AT WORK Awestruck by the Beautiful Symphony God Creates Who are we to say our portion is too small? BY KATIE GARDNER Sometimes I am awestruck by the beautiful symphony God creates with each of our lives. Each movement is an instrument that adds to the story He is writing for us. When I moved to Alaska in the fall of 2020 and began my position as the High School Youth Director at Community Covenant in Eagle River, I believed God’s symphony for my life was anything but extraordinary, certainly lacking in beauty. As a fresh college graduate beginning her first year of ministry at the peak of a pandemic, I knew that God, the conductor of my symphony, needed to work miracles in my life and the church. He did all of this and more. I want to share with you a few movements in the symphony of my ministry in Alaska. I pray that these stories will give you hope and bring you joy as you hear of the beauty God is creating amongst youth in Alaska.
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Meet Katlyn. Katlyn began attending our youth group in February of this year. Katlyn had been deeply wounded by her previous church and youth ministry. Already struggling with her sexual identity, Katlyn left that church feeling even more broken, rejected, and unloved (by God, and by those she trusted). A year later, she found the courage to return to church. Through the encouragement and gentle invitation of a friend (one of my incredible high
May 2022
schoolers), she stepped through the open doors of our youth ministry. After hearing her story, I daily knelt before Jesus in prayer over his beloved daughter, Katlyn. I wasn’t the one who could rescue her. I wasn’t the one who could restore her brokenness and give her abundant life. But, through the goodness and grace of God, I was His vessel. I was an instrument in her story, as she was in mine. Katlyn came through those doors week after week after week. Her heart has been transformed by the kindness of God and the love of His people. My youth group, in its smallness, meekness, and quirkiness, was the community Katlyn needed to run back in the arms of her Savior. I am humbled by a God who can use what I see as broken and small, as a vessel for His Kingdom and His children.
being depressed by comparison. There is an alternative to letting it steal our joy-it’s that we would be humbled by it and that we would get serious about serving the Lord with the portion he’s given us.” Comparison blinds me from seeing the abundant portion God has given me. If abundance was more students coming to my youth group on a Sunday evening than the church down the road, I wouldn’t have it. Maybe abundance is cherishing the young freshmen deemed “unworthy” by her peers. Maybe abundance is disciplining the troubled One of the greatest battles for me during soul and seeing God change her heart my first year of ministry in Alaska is for Him. Maybe abundance is knowing the battle of comparison. By standards my students by name, cherishing their of “success” in youth ministry, my stories, sharing their joys, and walking youth group is meek. There have been with them in their sorrows. Thankfully, multiple desperate moments when I God defines abundance for us, and that’s have desired to abandon my ministry, through Jesus. God has given each of us weighed down by the lack of numerical a portion of his world to steward. Who success, chained to the worldly vision of are we to say our portion is too small? a “vibrant” ministry, in which my group fell short. Abigail Dodds reached my heart in her book Atypical Woman with these words: “There is an alternative to
COVENANT YOUTH OF ALASKA A relational outreach, discipleship and leadership ministry for Alaska youth and young adults
CONTINUE YOUR IMPACT TODAY You are a part of the team that God has called together to impact youth and young adults in Alaska. Thank you! For more information how to make a gift, please follow the link below.
www.cyak.org/donate Website www.cyak.org Email info@cyak.org Phone 907-222-1432