Nic woke up the teens this morning with a very interactive reading of 1 Corinthians 12. He had them respond with a specific action for key words in the scripture. They would stand, clap, stomp and yell out as they heard the scripture and responded to their cues. After the lively reading of the scripture, Nic reminded the kids that they all have a part to play as members of the Body of Christ.  And then he asked, “Are you willing to finish what you started this weekend?”

“I know what God started, He is going to finish. But some of us are great starters but we aren’t great finishers,” Nic admitted. We can have a great momentum coming out of a weekend like this, with a lot of good intentions, and then we gradually lose our excitement. When things get rough, we tend to abandon our plan.

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Deacon David Schaefer and his wife Patty are members of Assumption Parish in South St. Louis County, where Deacon David serves as a Pastoral Associate. Patty is a nurse at Washington University in The Department of Neurology.  At our conferences, Deacon David is a videographer and Patti is a nurse who volunteers in First Aid.

They have been attending SteubySTL conferences for twelve years. The first two years they volunteered as chaperones with their parish youth group, and then became involved with the Office of Youth Ministry volunteer crew.

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Saturday night Adoration – easily considered by many to be the “culminating” event of each Steubenville conference. The time when Christ speaks directly into our hearts; all of our wounds, our fears, our struggles, along with our joys, celebrations and hopes. God is good. He moves in big ways and does big things. But what if you don’t feel Him moving? What if you don’t feel Him doing big things? Is He still there? Do I still belong to Him?

Fr. Martin processed in with Jesus and knelt before Him on the altar. He led us in praying the Litany of Trust and one line stood out to me, “From the lie that I don’t belong, deliver me Jesus.” As I sat and adored our Lord, I found myself repeating this line over and over and offering up all of you as I did. “From the lie that I don’t belong…from the lie that I don’t belong… Lord, help your children know they are loved. Help them to know they belong!”

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As Adoration began tonight, Fr. Chris Martin led us in a beautiful prayer and the Lord wants us to share it with you.

The Litany of Trust

From the belief that I have to earn Your love

Deliver me, Jesus.

From the fear that I am unlovable

Deliver me, Jesus.

From the false security that I have what it takes

Deliver me, Jesus.

From the fear that trusting You will leave me more destitute

Deliver me, Jesus.

From all suspicion of Your words and promises

Deliver me, Jesus.

From the rebellion against childlike dependency on You

Deliver me, Jesus.

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Brian asked all of our attendees tonight to get out of their comfort zone.  That being said, it’s hard to ‘jump’ to God when you’ve been dropped a lot. It can be hard to believe that God cares about you. When you’ve been broken enough, the enemy likes to try to convince you of three things:

1. You’re alone
2. You are unloved
3. You are unlovable

If you live within these lies the enemy can control your actions.

For a lot of us, it’s much easier to remember the things people have said negatively about us or the times we’ve feel like we’ve been dropped. In those moments, we don’t want to jump or be open. We can sit here tonight and pretend our lives are perfect, but let’s be real with ourselves.

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