Calling On The Name Of The Lord

This past week I went to a summer camp with my youth group. This is our second year attending and hopefully not our last. It is a truly amazing Christ-centered camp with many Godly people running it. 

This year, like always, the other leaders and I were all praying that God would move in the hearts of all our students and that He would take distractions away. And what do you know, God pulled through. On Monday evening, after only being there for about 6 hours, a storm came out of nowhere and took the power out. God literally took away the distractions by not letting anyone have complete access to their phones and stripping us all from the things we take for granted. We endured 24 hours of incredible heat and humidity with no air conditioning.

It’s an unpopular opinion in our group, but I honestly loved the power outage. The heat may have been awful, but by taking everything away, we were able to feel God’s presence so clearly. Now, we could have canceled our sessions because we had no electricity for our band or speaker to use, but they decided to continue. Our amazing band brought all 700 of us into the hot and sticky sanctuary to sing praises to God. And let me tell you, the sound of 700 voices worshiping our King is absolutely beautiful. We were truly in the presence of God that week.

When the power came back and the AC turned on, everyone was running to tell their friends and charge their phones, and I’ll admit I was pretty happy that I didn’t have to be so sticky all the time, but I was still praying that God would continue to move in the hearts of our students. And God delivered once again.

Our speaker, Lonnie Lehrman, gave amazing messages. Every time he spoke, his passion and faith was so evident. God has clearly given him a gift, and it was clear that God was speaking through him this week. Us girls were able to have great conversations in our small group after each session, and I loved seeing the way that God was changing their hearts. Everyday you could see that God was moving.

If any of you have ever been to a Christian camp like this, then you know that the last night is always the most impactful. This past Thursday was no different. The whole week Lonnie had been teaching about our commitment to Jesus and God’s calling in our lives. We have two sessions each day, and each evening he had an overarching statement: I’m here, I’m listening, I’m in, and I’ll go. All week I had been relating his messages to the World Race, and Thursday night when he talked about saying “I’ll go”, I should have known what was coming. Lonnie began talking about missions and how some people in the room were going to be called to the mission field. That hit me hard and tears began to stream down my face and continued to do so until small groups. Not only did I feel called, but I was already called. I am literally in the process of getting ready to go on a 9 month mission trip.

If you think about it, each of Lonnie’s themes perfectly describe my journey so far with the World Race. Last year when I couldn’t get this trip off my mind, I would constantly pray to God “I’m here”. Then as the summer began and the after-graduation decisions were needing to be made, I told God “I’m listening” and waited to hear what he wanted me to do. As summer continued, I told God “I’m in,” I was ready to do whatever he called me to. Then the end of the summer was approaching, and I was getting ready to go on a week-long mission trip to Nashville with my youth group. It was here I finally heard from God. He said “Go” and I said “I’ll go,” and now I am going. It’s amazing to see the extraordinary way that God orchestrates everything. 

Every night I was encouraged more and more and got more and more excited for what’s to come this fall. I know that God is going to use me and my squad to do amazing things for His Kingdom. I am absolutely ecstatic to be able to do this, and I love that I am able to share this journey with all of you.

Romans 10:13-15 says “For ‘everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’ How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!’” God has given me and roughly 30 other people the opportunity to go to Guatemala, South Africa, Cambodia, and Thailand to preach the Good News, and I couldn’t be more excited. Thank you all for your support, and please join me in helping the world to call on the name of the Lord.

Lots of love,

Ali Goolsby