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Wow. What can I say? It was an amazing opportunity! Early in March, I left for Slovakia, part of former Czechoslovakia, with a team of people from our church to help Siet, which is a national network of youth ministries in Slovakia, put on a conference. The conference was attended by over 300 youth leaders from all over the nation of Slovakia.
God really used this experience in so many ways in my life. The main reason I went to was help lead worship. It was my first time leading worship outside the States... it was also my first time leading worship with people who spoke a different language than me. The first night of the conference, I had the opportunity to play with one of the Slovak worship bands. At first I was kind of intimidated. I had never played with any of these people before, plus they spoke a different language than me. We did a mix of English songs (like "The Banner" "Be Glorified" "Open The Eyes of My Heart") that had been translated into Slovak and some songs written in Slovak by nationals. Once I got past myself and got my eyes on Jesus, it was an amazing experience. I worshipped my guts out! It was so neat being on stage with this band. As we sang songs I knew in English, I would sing as loud as I could in English (I had no mic) while everyone else sang in Slovak. It just blew my mind to think that God was completely unconfused by these two languages! It was beautiful to picture songs from all tribes and nations all around the other joining together in praise of God... to see them blend together into one mighty song of praise to our God.
On the last day, I had was given the opportunity to lead worship with Draho, one of the worship leaders in Slovakia. My favorite part was just praying together. Together, we asked God to use us a one worshipper, despite having two guitars, and singing in two different languages, and God really answered our prayer in an amazing way. People responded in a mighty way to God as we sang in English and Slovak. We ended our worship time singing the song "I Will Worship You," which they had translated to Slovak for me. Draho helped me to sing some of it in their language. It was so amazing to express my heart in a new language!
I guess God just opened my eyes to see how incredibly huge He really is. So often, I think we get really comfortable with our thoughts and concepts of who God is. Thankfully, God is so good to shatter our images and concepts of who He is. He mercifully reminds us that even the greatest minds cannot even begin to fathom or understand the basics of God. He is infinite, almighty, inconceivable, unimaginable. If He was anything less, He would cease to be God. He is so much greater than all the languages in the world could ever express. He is not just the God of the Nations, but He is the supreme God of the Universe. He is ageless, timeless, always having been, and always being. What an amazing God! How even more amazing that He would want to have anything to do with us, and go to such great lengths to love us.
Why not take some time this week and ask God to help you think about how amazingly huge He is. Then praise Him for His greatness, for His love and presence in your life. He loves you greatly!
