Christ
In Youth, known as CIY has been described as life-changing. For non-believers,
it may be a first real step into a new life. For committed Christians, however,
CIY can awaken one’s existing faith to where prayer and Bible reading may no
longer be enough to serve God. So at the end of the week of CIY, the youth can
choose to take a Kingdom Worker card.
Kingdom
Worker cards present the person with a spiritual challenge, to live life more
for God and less for oneself. When the cards are drawn, the bearer is committed
to follow through. A card might say to read The Bible in a year, arrange weekly
prayer time with parents, start a Bible club at school or many other tasks,
tasks that allow the youths to exercise this new faith in a productive service
to God.
When
my daughter, Sarah, went to CIY in the summer of 2013, the promotions
throughout the week for kingdom worker cards gave her the desire for a serious
challenge. She already felt close to God, but knew it was time to take a
radical step in service and commitment. At the end of the week, she drew a
card.
Sarah had heard of this card, and
deep down, she wanted it. She wanted a significant challenge, and here is what
she got:
Drink nothing but tap water for a year.
Raise and donate $20 a month to Active Water.
For
a whole year, only tap water. No soda, milk, not even bottled water. Sarah came
back from CIY trembling with excitement when she told me about it. I was
astounded. My first thought was how much I wouldn’t want to do that. No coffee
in the morning? Wait, no coffee for a year?
But
Sarah knew she could do this. She wanted to serve God more than she had done in
the past. She wanted this.
I
asked Sarah what some of the toughest things were. She told me about having
nightmares in which she would accidently drink soda. She remembers staying at a
place famous for its milkshakes, overcoming cravings for smoothies on hot days,
and skipping Grandmother’s Christmas cider that year. I saw her pour water on
her cereal and skip the juice at communion.
Still,
Sarah said one of the hardest parts was when people tried to pity her. “Oh you
poor thing, you can’t get a soda?” People had no reason to feel sorry for her
because of the choice she made. This was not an experience to be pitied.
Sarah
did odd jobs and raised money for Active Water and this made her feel blessed
too.
“Working to raise
20 dollars a month was small compared to what other people have to do to stay
alive,” she told me.
This project
became her passion over that year. Researching Active water, she wrote on her
blog:
Many people don’t realize the importance of
clean, accessible water. They often take for granted the multiple sinks and
faucets in their houses. We don’t think twice about the drinking fountains that
are in most public places in our towns and cities. So many people are unaware
that small children have to walk for miles every day, unaccompanied, to bring
home a bucket of dirty water for their families. The water is often so filthy
that it makes the people who drink it very sick. But they don’t have anything
else.
Being
nonprofit, Active Water has to get money from somewhere. They do this with the help of fundraising: athletic
challenges, benefit concerts, and generous donators. People use their different
talents to support Active Water, from bake sales to debates. Anyone can help.
Sarah had one incident
early on where she accidentally drank ice tea. But she was coached to continue
the challenge. So she added an extra day on for her slip and made it the whole
rest of the year. In July of 2014, she broke her fast with chocolate milk.
Later, she reported that bottled water “tasted thin”.
I asked Sarah how she had changed. What did
drawing that Kingdom Worker card do in her life?
“I can do big stuff,” she replied.
Indeed, the Kingdom Worker cards offer
youths not only a chance to serve God in a radical, sacrificial way, but they
can prove to themselves what they are capable of when they commit to God.
“This has given me peace,” Sarah also said.
I thought that she meant peace in herself or thankfulness in the clean water
she has. But no, that isn’t what she meant.
The peace Sarah meant was a sense of
purpose. She wants to live for God and be a missionary, assisting in bringing
clean water to those who don’t have it.
It’s amazing what can happen when someone
rises up to a significant challenge with the simple attitude of “I want to do
this because I love God.” Sarah’s faith has inspired me, and I see that love
for God being brought to the world.