S.M.I.T.E.

Well the first day was Sunday and it was just regular cuz I met the people that I would be in the same room with for the rest of the week and we had a night service... we studied in the auditorium for the next days lessons.... Then Monday we went to all different types of classes... All the girls and guys are seperated at level 1 for all the classes except for the Wordless Book class which was taught by Brother Aarron Baker. He was AMAZING at that and he did an AWESOME job! So then after we get done with our classes we went to lunch... Then after lunch we all go back to our dorms and get ready for the Bible Clubs. After that everybody goes to the auditorium and we study until its time for Uncle Jerry to get up and talk about how we can prepare ourselves for that day then we all have prayer. Its really neat because everybody turns around and is just kneeling and praying about the day and everything! Its sooo special! Then after prayer we leave for Bible Clubs. Some people go to trailer parks, some go to apartments, some go to day cares, and some go to just neighborhoods. The first day at Bible Clubs we only had about 7 kids. We were off to a little bit of a rocky start because of the first time we had ever worked together. That night after supper we went to the service. There was sooo much singing and special music! In many ways its sooo different from our church! The singing is sooo powerful because there are sooo many people and everybody is just singing with their whole hearts its amazing! That night a group of teen-agers from a church that were there sang a song called I Have Been Blessed. The verses just talked about how much we have been blessed with everything we have. It made me realize that we live in a country that we can worship God freely in and that we are sooo much better off than lots of other people in the world and even in the United States. After the group got done singing Uncle Jerry had them stay up there while he talked to us about how we have no right to sing that song because we don't really truly believe how blessed we have been. He had a young man get up and talk about how hard his life had been. Stephen told everybody there how as he was growing up him and his family lived in a house that had no windows or doors. He said that the warmest it ever got in the winter in that house was 17 degrees! Stephens first dad was abusive to their mother and his brothers and sisters. They would go days without eating very much. Stephen said that one night they were so cold that him and his brothers and sisters slept in the closet together for warmth. His mom and dad got divorced and she remarried another abusive man. Later on the children were taken away from their parents and they were adopted by some really AMAZING people. They are now loved and they dont have to worry about whether or not they are going to be hurt the next day or anything. After Stephen gave his testimony Uncle Jerry preached at us and he was saying "how can you stand up and sing that song and you don't even realize how truly blessed you are?! He said you cant stand up there and sing about how your blessed for having a mother and father that care about you if you are not right with them right now!!" After a little while he stopped speaking and there was an early invitation. I was feeling really convicted because I really did not love my parents like I should and I took it for granted how truly blessed I am! So I went up to the front and I knelt at the alter with my leader and friend Tyler and I just sat there and cried and prayed that God would give me the Grace to realize how blessed I really was. So that night I called my mom and I told her all that had happened that night with me. We were only allowed to talk on the phone for 5 minutes with our parents every day sooo it was short... Then that night since the service ended so late everybody had to be in bed at 12 so we didnt get that much time to study. The schedule was the same the next day. At Bible Clubs we had 2 boys come to Christ! It was GREAT!! Then that night we had the service and then we all studied..... lights out at 1. The next day the same routine in the morning... Then in the afternoon we had Bible Clubs.... we had 14 that day im pretty sure! That night at the service there was tons of more singing than normal since it was Wednesday night! So that night one of the sermons was on the bad things in our lives and how if we dont repent of it it may be too late to go back eventually ... me and lots of my friends went to the altar once again... After everybody was back in their seats Uncle Jerry got up and said that he had been video-taping everybody from the back during the service and he saw some people that were not paying attention to the message and that lots of the young people there were visibly thinking about their music and were rocking back and forth and doing things that teen-agers do when they listen to rock music. Then he challenged anybody that still had bad things in their lives to go up and stand in the front of the auditorium so that everyone could see that they were taking a stand againgst the sinful things in their life. Many teen-agers went to the front while I was just sitting in my seat just burning up because I knew that God was telling me to go to the front.. But I didnt.. Then Uncle Jerry had leaders and counselors go up and pray with the young people that were at the front.... After they had been prayed with he gave all of them note cards and had them put their names on them and what they were giving up that night..... Then after everyone was in their seats he had every person that was right with their parents to raise their hands... I raised my hand because I had just gotten right with my parents on Monday. Then he told everybody to put their hands down and if they were not right with their parents to raise their hands....... So many young people raised their hands and he told them to go and get a cell phone from someone they knew and to call their parents right then and get right with them! Then that night they opened up the concession stand and everybody studied in the dining room.... The next day we did Bible Clubs and 4 children came to the Lord! It was sooo AMAZING!! That night Brother Davis preached on how it is so important to replace the evil things in your life with good things! So he preached a whole sermon that night on that and at the end of it I was majorly convicted so I went to the front. My friends Jazmien and Karen came and knelt with me and prayed for me. That night I gave up all my country music and all the other music that was in my life that I knew the Lord did not want me to have in my life. Uncle Jerry then got up and spoke. He said for everybody to look around and see how many lives had been made new and he was just saying that many many people had just given up bad things in their life and replaced them with good things........ Later on that night I learned that one of my friends (a girl) had given up pornography the year before. That just shocked me because she didnt seem like the kind of person that would have that in their life...... That night all my friends, old and new, came up to me and told me that they would be praying for me... The next day was the big test that everybody had been studying for...... We all knew that we had to get a 70 to pass..... We were sooo worried.... Everybody was supposed to be studying for an hour and a half for the test. It was bad enough that all of us 30 girls or so were in the same room studying together but then there were 20 guys too... So all the girls were talking to the guys and everything..... I just tried to ignore them and study my own stuff! Their were three girls in front of me that didnt understand something that we were studying so it was really encouraging to me that they asked me to help them. So I answered there questions about the things they didnt understand... So finally it came time to take the test..... 70% of your grade was on the wordless book... we had to go to an evaluator and say the wordless book to them..... Then came the written part........ it was the most quiet time that we had ever had in any of our classes..... After the test was over we went to lunch and we were all so nervous because we didn't get to see what our score was until we got back from Bible Clubs..... that day it rained the whole entire day.......... so it was raining at Bible Clubs we only had 4 guys that day..... well when we got back everybody rushed to see the scores..... i got a 76.... I couldn't believe it! I had made a horrible grade!! But I had passed.... then we all went to get ready for the night session...... we all got dressed up nicer than usual because it was the last night and it was also graduation fro the 4th level students!! My leader graduated!! that night we said goodbye to everyone that was not staying that night..... We were all sooo sad to see everybody go. But we had e-mails and phone numbers..... Uncle Jerry got up and talked to everybody that was staying and after that we all went to our dorms and got changed into stuff to clean in....... We mopped, swept, cleaned the bathrooms, and vaccumed. Then Uncle Jerry took us girls to Wendys!!! They opened up the inside area just for us!! We sang a few songs for them too!! :) Well then we got back at like 12:30 or somethin and we went to our rooms........ Over all my week at SMITE was life changing! I do not regret going whatsoever and I have used everything I learned there many times! I encourage anybody that is wanting to go to just go! Your life will be changed! There is a link to their website on my blog page!
~God Bless