The Pursuit

Yesterday I went on an adventure with one of my fellow SWEAT Leaders. We had a special invite night in place of the Wednesday night service this week. This faithful leader made personalized posters and goodiebags for every visitor who came to service on Wednesday. Then, we made a plan to deliver them to each visitor's house Thursday morning. First house, no one was home so we left it on the porch. Second house, we heard a piano playing so we knew someone was home. As soon as we rang the doorbell, the piano player stopped playing. No footsteps. They didn't answer the door :-). That's ok...we left it on the porch. I was a little discouraged but little did I know the real pursuit was just getting started...

We were literally in the middle of nowhere in Archer looking for the third house. We had mapquest directions and a GPS that couldn't save us out of brown paper bag. We kept making u-turns on these skinny dirt roads looking for signs we couldn't even read. We stopped and enjoyed the country view...the hay, the cows and the horses. Then finally decided to call the visitor. The conversation went something like this...
"Hi, this is Sara from SWEAT youth and me and another youth leader are trying to deliver a goodie bag to your house to say thank you for visiting. Is there any chance you live in the middle of the woods. We're lost."
Her response: "Actually, yes we do live in the middle of the woods. Where are you?"
Me: "Not sure, we were on this road that turned into another road. Our directions told us to make a left on train tracks...all we know is we're lost."
Her response: "Ok, well I'm not good with directions, let me get you my mom....(pause)....Oh we have goats that have been giving us some trouble so we're selling them and the people who want to buy them are here now, can my mom call you back?"
Me: "GOATS?? Are you serious?? Yes she can call me back"

So me and the other SWEAT leader tried to go back to where we started to see if we can try to find her house again. Since we knew she was home, we wanted to make sure we delivered the treats. We were on a pursuit and we weren't going to give up. Her mom called me back a few minutes later and of course had no clue where we were. We didn't either! We finally talked to her dad that pointed us into the right direction. If anybody has ever driven with me they know I'm horrible at following verbal directions if I'm lost. I just said ok to everything he said hoping it would make sense when we saw the landmarks he mentioned. He told us at one point we would reach a gate that we would have to open and that would tell us we were really close to the house. Ok a gate, no problem. Sike. BIG PROBLEM! We reached the gate and it wasn't a "push these 3 buttons and the gate will slowly open" kind of gate. It was an old, rusty gate with a pad lock on a chain. Me and my faithful youth leader friend tried all the pushing, pulling, and yanking we could and could not get this gate open. We called the family several times, but kept getting their voicemail. So, sadly we decided to leave the posters and gifts by the gate for them to pick up. As soon as we were about to turn around, the dad called us back and directed us how to open the gate. It was crazy! There was a padlock wrapped around a chain that had a combination scroll on the bottom of the lock (like the ones you use to open old briefcases). He gave us the code, we yanked the lock, grabbed the gifts, drove through the gate, got out of the car, and locked the gate and on we went to our destination.

We found the house...and laughed with the family. What an adventure...that was well worth it. The girl who visited came with her brother and said something along the lines of...I really enjoyed the service. It was great! My brother and I are definitely coming to that retreat you guys are having in a couple of weeks. We're really excited! And that's when me and the other youth leader looked at each other and we knew...The pursuit was well worth it!

In this B1M1 campaign, you may have some difficulty in finding that "1"you are supposed to disciple. Maybe schedules conflict, maybe phone calls or texts are never returned, maybe you feel like just giving up, but something inside of you tells you this is the One. I would encourage you if you really believe God has led you to disciple this person, PURSUE them!! You may even get really close to forming a discipleship agreement and then run into an obstacle, something like a gate that you have no idea how to open! Just know, when you finally start discipling this person, you'll look back and remember- The pursuit was definitely worth it. I can't wait for that girl and her brother to come to our spring retreat and get discipled!!