By: David Rimarski
When was the last time you felt rested? This was one of the first questions asked to the students and leaders at this year’s CIY MOVE event. If you have never heard of CIY, it is an organization that puts on multiple events for preteen, middle school, and high school students. In June, we attended the high school camp which is known as CIY MOVE. We took ten students to Bowling Green, Ohio to hear about this year’s theme, “The Rest of Your Life.” We really leaned into the meaning of “rest” and how there are two separate parts. First, we focused on “rest” as in recovery, relaxation, peace. Second, we focused on “rest” as in the remainder of something. Only Jesus can give you the rest of your life for the rest of your life. I thought it was a very clever play on words!
The focus text for this year was Psalm 23:
“1 The LORD is my shepherd, I lack nothing. 2 He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, 3 he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake. 4 Even though I walk through the darkest valley, a I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. 5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. 6 Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.”
Each day we would read this entire passage of scripture to focus our mind and heart of finding that rest that only God can offer us. Every day we would have a morning session and an evening session with an amazing worship set for each session. On the first night, there were some technical difficulties that kept the band from playing. As the tech team worked on figuring out the issue, the students began singing “I Thank God” together to keep the worship going! How special is that?! Our morning speaker would break down Psalm 23 verse by verse to teach us that Jesus is our shepherd who cares for us, protects us, and offers rest. After our morning sessions, the students were able to go off somewhere where they could find space and have SELAH time. This was quiet time devoted for them to Stop, Exhale, Listen, Ask, and Hear as they had time to rest in God’s presence.
During the evening sessions we would have different speakers come each night to preach on what we can do to find rest with Jesus. The focus of each of the nights were: pause, posture, presence, purpose and pace. PAUSE and reconnect with Jesus. Have the POSTURE to hear His voice; leading and guiding. Seek His PRESENCE even when you are in a dark place. Know that you have been given a PURPOSE. Prioritize PACE and keeping in step with Jesus. At the end of each evening session there was an hourglass on the screen that lasted one minute. When the hourglass was flipped over, everyone was challenged to be silent and still for the entire minute for reflection. This was a great way to end each day to be able to rest and think about what had happened that day.
While the sessions and the speakers were great, we had plenty of God sightings throughout the day. Our group started out the week not really knowing each other except for a few friends, but by the end of the week they were all laughing together and made new friends! It was so neat to see the students come out of their shells as the week progressed. One of our students crushed it during the talent show and karaoke night! On the last night our students were asked to stand if they had made a decision this week. The choices were: first time decisions to follow Jesus, rededication to following Jesus, and a commitment to Kingdom work. Out of our group of ten students, we had eight say that they wanted to rededicate their life to Jesus and three say that they wanted to pursue Kingdom Work! Kingdom Work is referring to serving in the name of Jesus for His kingdom.
At the end of the week CIY has always provided challenge cards called, Kingdom Worker Cards. These cards serve to get the students excited and committed to serving others and growing closer to God in the process. The catch is, if the student opens the card, they are committing to do it before they even know what the challenge is! We had seven students open their cards to do some sort of kingdom work this year!
CIY is such a blessing to these students, and it gets them excited to do live for Jesus. My prayer would be for you all to pray for these students to not let that momentum slow down and for them to continue to pursue Jesus in their everyday life. Also, for them to continue to make rest a priority and not let the business of this world distract them from what really matters, being in a relationship with Jesus.
