What God’s Been up to in NH!
I have been home all summer in New Hampshire and it has been the BEST! I absolutely love it here. I’m thankful for my family, friends, a job I enjoy, and my cozy bedroom. But the most incredible part of the summer is the countless ways God has been working!! A lot of people from my college are probably like what the heck even is New Hampshire I forgot that was a state. Or if you know anything about NH you know we’re in desperate need of some more Jesus. Christianity is certainly not the norm and unlike the Bible Belt, the majority of people here have never heard the gospel before. I just looked it up yesterday actually and it said NH is the third most atheist state in the country. Yikes. But despite all that, God is MOVING wow wow wow so just to give y’all a little encouragement, I want to testify of his goodness this summer!!!
College Group!!!!!!!!
When I started talking to the Lord about starting up a college group this summer, I had no idea how many amazing ways he was planning to work through it. My best friend Anna and I prayed through God’s desires for the group and started reaching out to a bunch of college kids we knew to invite them. For context, we don’t have a ton of churches around here (unlike Bham where they’re literally every 0.5 miles) and none of the ones here have any college-specific ministry. With all these students being home for the summer, Anna and I knew people must be hungry for community. At the first group, there weren’t a ton of people. But the Lord highlighted to us that those who are faithful with little will be entrusted with much. By the end of the summer, we’d have around 20 people over each week! Guys this is a BIG DEAL for NH (especially college students in NH). Our nights usually looked like community time, worship, a message from a different person each week where they chose a characteristic or name of God they’ve seen in their life, and prayer. It was so cool because Anna and I went in pretty blind, trying to just trust God to provide and not stress over the little details. But He was so faithful and we saw the group continue to grow each week. We even had multiple people come and hear the gospel for the first time ever and engage in conversations that planted seeds of faith. This has led to amazing conversations outside of the group too! One of my best friends accepted Christ (who I prayed for for years btw and God promised this) and her faith has taken off, and so many others are encountering Him and growing more and more curious all the time. AND it was so special seeing so many people step out in bold obedience when they felt the Lord call them to lead a specific week. There is so much power in testimony and all summer long this group testified of the Lord being provider, redeemer, peace, father, personal and so much more! It’s so encouraging that God is reaching his children in a state where it isn’t the norm to follow him.
Group pic from college group!!! Literally so many more who aren’t pictured. Seriously in awe. I always will be.
2. High School students!!!!!
This one makes my heart smile SO BIG! This summer I’ve gone back to be a leader at the student ministry I group up going to called The Barn. The Barn literally shaped who I am today and I know my faith would not be where it is today if it wasn’t for the community I had, and the ways it equipped me to make my faith my own and develop a personal relationship with Jesus. So being back to lead the next generation has been incredibly special. I’ve known a lot of these students for years, but this summer in particular I’ve seen things shift for a ton of them. Our conversations have gone from normal life things to them asking me questions about the Bible, what devotionals they should read, and how to evangelize. The barn had a retreat called Gladiator training (because the Bible is the SWORD of the spirit hehe) where the students learned how to study the Bible. It was amazing to watch as they wrestled with different passages, talked about it with each other, and gained so much wisdom from the experience. They grew so much closer to each other that week too and I got a front-row seat at watching the next generation of faith-based community at my youth group take off. One of the last days that week, we spent the day at Peaks Island in Maine. On top of having so much fun at the beach and on the boat, I saw the Lord working through the hearts of the students in real-time. The guys invited a random guy they were hanging out with on the beach to join their zoom Bible study and he came! Another guy felt led to pray for the cashier at the gas station. Another girl started up a conversation with a person about our church and invited him to come! As the students learned about God’s word, they connected deeper with him and the evidence was so clear as his presence poured out of them to touch the lives of others. I love knowing that even when my “grade” is away from NH, God is absolutely not done moving through the grades below us.
Group pic from Gladiator training!! I adore these students!!!!
3. Personal Callings and Promises
Anna and I have talked a lot this summer about how God is so grand, but yet so personal. He created the entire universe and has the power to resurrect the dead, but he also cares about the little details of your day. I, and others around me, have come to know God deeper in this way. For example, here’s a little story from about a month ago:
I was in Kittery Maine by the water reading my Bible and having quiet time. I was struggling with delighting in the Lord and not being content when he didn’t give me something big and crazy whenever I went to him. I was asking him about this and I heard a woman next to me writing and reading something out loud. I felt the Spirit tell me I needed to go talk to her. I felt awkward at first but eventually, I did. When I asked what she was reading, she told me it was a poem for a wedding. She read it for me and I could tell it was based on scripture. (Again remember this is NH. This is not normal. Yet hehe). We got to talking and she told me about something called centered prayer where you choose one word to focus on and after thinking of just that word for a few minutes, you sit quietly in the stillness and just be in God’s presence. I had never heard of this before so I had no idea if it was something people actually did. I ended up praying over us my way with words, and then she asked if we could do her way and sit in the still. After, she said, “Let me tell you about the miracle.” She told me she comes here all the time and the picnic tables we were sitting at are normally super far apart. But today for whatever reason, they were right next to each other. She said she knew God orchestrated it this way so we could meet. How cool is that?! Fast forward a week later, I was struggling with singleness stuff and waiting. I go to church on Sunday and what’s the sermon on? Waiting. Lol. And at the end, there were examples of practical ways to be intentional in your waiting season. The very first one was centered prayer. WOAH. I had never heard of it before talking with that woman and then here it was again as an answer to what I’m struggling with. So guess I’m gonna be doing that!!!
God also made it SO clear through revealing scripture and having multiple people surrender for the same answer that my best friend is called to be engaged. God spoke promises over her relationship and clarity on the timeline. He also spoke specific promises over healing, both spiritual and physical, for my friend. (will probably have an updated specific post on this one sometime :))
He also HEALED a friend’s sister!! She’s pregnant and had a blood clot which is so dangerous. She’s not a Christian but she knew we were all praying. She goes back to the doctor and it is GONE!
There are a thousand more ways God worked this summer and I am completely in awe. I can’t help but share these with you guys because He is just so good!!! As I head back to Bham (literally rn I’m in a hotel in TN,) I will continually be praying for NH and the work God is doing there (and I hope y’all will join me!!! ;))
Couldn’t help but include this pic from Anna’s engagement party! Beyond excited and proud of her for this step of obedience into this new season!!!
