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Vision Weekend 2017 part 1

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I Declare the Right to do Anything for the Lord 

 Vision Weekend is designed to help students reflect, worship, grow, and serve. This year’s speaker talked about “renovating our space,” building on last year’s theme of Creating Space for God. What will students do with the space they have? How will they avoid letting the world decorate and design the space for them? 

Rachel shares part of her story and how she declared the right to do anything for the Lord: 

The very last sermon of the weekend hit my heart hard. The pastor challenged us with a question, and that night, along with every other student in the room, I made a declaration: “I declare the right to do anything for the Kingdom of God.” I have the right to do anything for the kingdom of God. This phrase had an incredible amount of meaning for me because of a conviction that God put on my heart that previous summer at Silvercliff (the UBC youth summer camp in Colorado). I won’t go into all the details, but I strongly felt that God was calling me to be a missionary. 

The thought of this terrified me because I had never thought of something like that. I thought I had my life together and finally figured out, but God had an entirely different plan and turned my world upside down. 

I know without a doubt that this is what God is calling me to do because of the overwhelming peace I have about it, but nonetheless, doubt had started to creep in because of all the details and worries, etc. Standing in the UBC Chapel, declaring the right to do anything for the kingdom of God, gave me a sense of empowerment beyond words. I know the road will be hard, and I will have to face many difficulties, but God will be with me every step of the way and if God is for me, who can be against me? 

Rachel goes on to share the impact Vision has been in her life and why this year was special: 

This year, Vision weekend was special because it was my last time to experience it as a student. I am so thankful to have been a part of Vision throughout my middle and high schools years and each year is a time to break away from the stress of school and drama and dedicate a weekend to fully listening to God, refocusing my attention on Him and being rejuvenated and encouraged by the Holy Spirit. Before entering the weekend each year, I pray that God will prepare my heart for what He has to say to me and ask Him to help me put to rest anything that could be distracting me from hearing Him. God never fails to speak to me in unfathomable ways, and I always leave Vision with new perspectives on the situations that I left. At Vision this year, I knew this was my last time experiencing this event as a student, and while it was a sad realization, I again asked God to speak to me in incredible ways. Before the weekend God had been teaching me how to create space for Him and throughout the weekend God explained what I should be filling that space with. Ultimately God showed me that I should be filling my space with things that glorify him. I should be building relationships with people that are desperately seeking Him whether they know it or not. I should be building relationships with fellow brothers and sisters in Christ to continue encouraging me in my faith and walking with God and the intention to love people as Christ did. Theses were just a few of the things I heard God telling me, but a very impactful thing was the peace God placed in my heart. Transitioning into something new (college) didn't have to be scary, it is full of new opportunities, and I can use it to glorify Him in ways I haven't before.

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