Answered Prayers :)

 What better way to express some feelings and vent than to write about it? I feel like I need to share a testimony with everyone about a struggle in my life that has recently been taken away (Well, mostly anyway.)
 It all started about 2 years ago. I attend West Ellisville Baptist Church. We had a youth group that was on fire for God. We were all so close and we loved each other. Until, our youth minister resigned and left the church. After that, our youth group steadily was decreasing in numbers and there was nothing anyone could do that would save it. Some of us tried to save it. We tried really hard, until we just said "forget it!". It wasn't worth it to us anymore when nobody wanted to participate in anything.
 Then, our church pastor also resigned. Our church members over time became discouraged as we waited and waited to find a pastor. Faithful members stopped coming, families started joining other churches, and the people who stayed with us were just so tired of waiting.
 My mother had the opportunity to be on the pastor search committee. They were constantly visiting churches, reading over resumes, talking to preachers, asking around for recommendations-everything. I saw my mom come home many Sundays after visiting churches disappointed. Nobody was understanding why we couldn't find a preacher..
 Here was my struggle- I was getting tired of it too. I started visiting another youth group on Wednesday nights. I needed to be fed by the spirit, and I couldn't get that from WEBC because we didn't even have a youth program anymore. We were lucky to get 4 people in our girl's Sunday school class. I spent many nights broken over the loss of our church and our youth group. I couldn't understand why nobody wanted to be involved in anything. I begged my parents to switch churches. I got to the point where I was always leaving WEBC in a bad mood. That is not how it should be with church. My parents kept telling me that you had to fight for your church to keep it going and to make things work again.
 Then, the search committee decided that they were done looking for a preacher. They said that God would send the right man for our church to us. Soon after that, he surely did. To make a long story shorter, we now have a new pastor at WEBC. His name is Bro. Keith Ulmer, and he is definitely the right man for our church. God sent him to us, we didn't have to go searching for him. The whole time we were griping about not having a preacher, God was preparing Bro. Keith's heart to come and be our new pastor.
 To make things even better, he has a precious wife and 2 children that are in highschool. We not only gained a wonderful pastor, but also 2 youth!
  I look back now, and I am so glad that I didn't transfer churches. I have gained such a great friendship with his daughter, Cassidy. God had a plan, and he always will. I never thought that things would turn out as great as it all has. I have learned an important life lesson through all of this- God has a plan for our lives, all the time. When we give our struggles to God, they're in his hands. God can handle anything and everything. It is just such a humbling experience.. God is so mighty and so wise, and I am not. He is so holy and worthy, and I am not. He is so faithful, and I am not.
 I serve a God that knows what he is doing. Our next plan is to get our youth fired up again. I would love to see us grow in number and in closeness with each other. I would love to see us go back to the times when we went on all these mission trips and youth conferences that were so spiritual and brought us all so much closer to God. It is going to be hard, but if we stop trying to do it all on our own and just give it to God, we can do it!
 In the words of Chris Tomlin: Our God is greater, our God is stronger, God you are higher than any other. Our God is healer, awesome in power.. Our God..Our God..
 I just felt led to share this story with anyone who decided to read this. My prayer from now on is that God will just bring me to my knees everyday to realize how awesome he really is. I pray for the youth in my church that they will realize that you can NEVER be "too cool" for God. I pray our youth will come to have a close relationship and that our church will also. 
 God never lets go of us, even in the hard times when we feel so far away from him. He is always right beside us if we allow him to be.

"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you; plans to give you a hope and a future." -Jeremiah 29:11