Alysen Merrill shares: How God is using ICY Students

Categories: Disciplemaking Ministries, Featured Students, ICY-UK, Reign Ministries, Stories, Uncategorized

The following is an exciting reflection written by Olivia Hollowell, who is working towards a bachelor’s in Theology while ministering in a local church:

It’s was 8 o’clock on a Monday morning, hardly a time that anyone would want to be awake and facing the world of ministry, especially me, a person who LOATHES mornings…and Mondays. However, on my Monday mornings, I get up (probably five minutes before I’m supposed to be there) and head to my local coffee shop and meet with three of the most uniquely different teenagers that you could imagine for half an hour before they venture off to school. They ask me if I’m awake yet, (to which I respond with “does it look like it?”) and greet me with expectant faces to the morning’s plans. Every Monday morning of every week of the year, I sit in a Costa and wait for teenagers from my placement ministry to show up and pray, fellowship, and read scripture. We discuss what I taught them on Sunday morning at church, and they ask questions and tell me what they didn’t understand and wanted to know more about.

“Wake up with Liv” was an idea pressed upon my heart last year when I noticed how difficult a situation it was for my teenagers to attend their school and be a Christian. They were some of about 20 Christian teens in their school of hundreds and they felt the weight of the lies Satan told them through their surroundings on a regular basis. I hoped that by getting up for 8am every Monday, they would recognise how much I loved them and wanted them to be strong, no matter what they had to face less than 10 minutes after leaving their time with God and me.  In the beginning, I had one teenager. Soon we had two. And now, I have three regular teenage girls coming every Monday morning, rain or shine (and even snow!).

These three girls have become a pillar of faith for their school, and even started up a mid-week lunch group for their friends who need prayer or just want to talk, whereas before they never would’ve even spoken to each other if they saw one another in the hallway. I’ve watched them fall, cry, walk away, come back, sit, and finally stand as they faced the pressures of being 16 in a post-modern society and spiritually empty school.  I give every bit of the glory to the Saviour who grants me the very life I wake up to each Monday morning at 7am (okay, 7:55). I’ve been so stretched since it started with only one person and have learned just as much if not more than these girls, and have realised that Monday mornings are as much for my time with my Father as it it for them.

When I moved to this small town a year and three months ago (almost) and brought with me a lot of baggage, heartache, and anger. I never thought ministry- let alone waking up for early morning Bible study with teenagers was for me.   I never wanted to live in another small town again.  Little did I know, God had bigger plans for me when I felt Him lay ICY on my heart when I was 16. Now, I couldn’t imagine doing anything else than what I’m doing, and I don’t regret walking away from what was comfortable to chase after what he has for me.   I follow His lead, and through the amazing support of the ICY and Reign family, He’s loved me past my pain and allowed me to offer this kind of acceptance to teenagers everyday of my life, even the hard days when I just want to quit and go back to all that I knew (and NOT wake up at crazy o’clock am on a Monday). And even though my heart was set on something else for my life, God’s heart was something bigger than mine could have ever fathomed.

Tags: discipleship, ICY-UK, students, youth ministry