Surprise!

At CFC, we have an afternoon program called Young Life Program or something like that. Well, I had offered to give a report about last week's Southwest Youth Conference to share the blessings I had received and the things that I had learned. It turns out that my report ended up being the inspirational talk! I found out when I was playing with baby Jade and they started passing out programs and Arlene and Irene were sitting behind me and they look at the program and Irene goes, "Oh! Elyssa's speaking today." and I was like, "What?!"

So I had about thirty minutes to prepare for my short talk. I think it lasted maybe five minutes? Ate Myla asked me to end before 2:30 and when Jenny finished her song for special music, it was already 2:20. I was pretty okay with that because I wasn't sure what I wanted to say! But from what I can recall this is what basically happened:

I introduced SWYC and mentioned the different speakers
I introduced the theme: In This Generation and tied it in to the AY Aim: The Advent message to all the world in this generation.
I read 1 Thess. 4:13-18 and emphasized verse 15 "we which are alive and remain...shall not prevent them which are asleep"
I urged the congregation (or fellow...uh...church members as I put it) to think on what they can do to hasten the second coming for we want to see Jesus in this generation.
I think this was my favorite part: I recalled a famous phrase from Kennedy's inaugural speech "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country" and tied that into it by saying, "We shouldn't ask 'When is Jesus coming?' We should ask, 'What can we do to hasten His coming'"

Sounds all great and splendid but I don't think my delivery was that great. I don't think I spoke great English. I was so flustered and nervous up there (ahh! I've forgotten all that I learned in Interpersonal Communications) that I even forgot where 1 Thessalonians is in the Bible. Hah, I'm great. I really don't think I made sense. Even though a few people told me they enjoyed my message (Praise God!), I think I could have presented it better.

Oh well. I thank the Lord that I was able to share that message, even if it didn't make sense...