Vici United Methodist Church: Youth Sunday

    


     A few weeks ago, I received a call from an old friend from the Vici United Methodist Church in the small but dear town of Vici, Oklahoma. While I didn't recognize the number, I immediately recognized the voice that graciously invited me to visit their church on October 11th and present the message during their annual Youth Sunday. I quickly agreed to do so and was thrilled to be returning to this church that is so dear to my heart.


     I cannot remember a time when the Vici Church (as we often refer to it) wasn't a part of my life. This small town church has been a dual parish (meaning we share pastors and financial obligations) with my little home church of Lenora for well....at least 35 years or so.  I began to become familiar with the people of the Vici Church as a little girl during church meetings and when my mom would fill the pulpit at their church and bring me along to sing a special. From the beginning, they always made me feel so welcomed and loved. Little did I know at the time, that my own true love was being raised right there in that church with those same beautiful, loving people as a little boy sitting in the pews right there between his mom and grandma.  Years later (well not that many years actually, since we were only 20 years old), we walked down the aisle of their newly completed sanctuary to say our vows before God and our joint church family and friends.  Then this very same church continued to bless us as they provided me with both college scholarships and my very first ministry opportunity as an extremely young and foolish youth pastor with a desire to serve. This church has been such a huge part of our lives, so of course when they asked us to return, I said yes (even though we'd actually been saving Vici church until Christmas.)

     As time grew closer, we received another call requesting that our daughters provide some special music for the service as well, and I also discovered that the youth and their leader were hoping that I could provide a message having something to do with bullying, which honestly made my job just a little harder as I attempted to tackle a very difficult subject and ask God what He would have me say about it.  I thought and prayed and read and thought and prayed and read and by Oh, approximately 7:30 that morning, I had put together what I thought was an acceptable message to present.

     We spent the night before with my husband's family there in Vici after celebrating his grandfather's 90th birthday, so we only had a few blocks to travel to get to church on time.  The Vici service begins at 11:00 which gives the current pastor, Rev. Don Whitman time to drive from his 9:30 service at Lenora to Vici each Sunday morning. We were greeted warmly as always from all our congregational friends and even met a few new faces as well.  The youth members were busy with last minute preparations, and it was fun to hear their nervous laughter as they got ready to lead each and every part of the service that morning (minus the message and special music, of course.)

      I have to admit that my heart saddened a bit as I took note of the absence of long-time members and leaders in the church Chub and Joy Shaw who have both passed away in the past few years, and I truly missed seeing Joy in her usual position as song leader and Chub grinning at me from the sound booth. Oh how fabulous it will be to someday reunite with them in glory! 



Preparing for the service to begin. The youth are early and at the front!

     The beautiful sanctuary began to fill up, and the service started with a hymn and a prayer. I loved he prayer of the brave young man who prayed, "Dear God, I just hope this goes okay." I fully understood his sentiments! Other young ladies and gentlemen led announcements and prayer requests, announced hymns and took up the tithes and offerings. My daughters sang their version of I'll Fly Away, and before I knew it, it was my turn at the pulpit. 

Children's Message led by the youth.

 

     The message God laid on my heart went something like this: Steeple Chasing is an amazing learning experience, the churches have been very welcoming, the world is NOT welcoming, there Will be Bullies, there have always been bullies, Satan is a bully, Satan has dominion over Earth. I love the church, Paul loved the church, Paul was a bully, Paul got saved, Paul was bullied! We can learn from Paul. Don't be a victim, grow in spiritual maturity, realize that not everything is worth being offended by. Be anti- Bullying,  don't be anti- Bully. God loves the bully and we need to also. We have to work as a church to find ways to love the bully through their bullying ways. And the church must stop being a bully itself. We must love everyone and find a way to keep our youth in church past graduation. It will take openness and honesty and a willingness to work at relationships and accept change.  It won't always be easy but it will be worth it and it is what we've been called to be! (Read Colossians Chapters 2 and 3, The Message version if you want to know the rest.) It took me quite a bit longer to get all that out, but that's the basic message in a nutshell.

    Afterwards, my girls sang again. This time it was a song that our 9 year old wrote herself and we all worked together to make adjustments to and fit it into a vocal trio.  I was very proud of her work for the Lord and all of them for sharing it with the Vici Church that morning.  Her song is entitled Runnin', and she explained to me that it was about running away from God but never being able to get away because He never let's us go and is always running beside us. Sometimes the spiritual insight of our middle daughter is a very humbling thing. Praise be to Jesus!

Selfie taken by Middle Daughter in the new fellowship hall.

 

    The service ended with some final words from Pastor Don, a time to give our tithes and offerings, and a final hymn and prayer. The entire service was a blessing to me, and I am so very happy that we were able to take part in this inspiring Youth Sunday with a church family we love and feel so much at home with.  There was nothing intimidating or scary or out of our element in our Steeple Chase this week. Instead it was very much like coming home. Thank you all so much for having us! Be blessed!


(P.S. Please forgive my lack of good pictures of this beautiful church. I sent my phone with my younger two girls to take pictures and got home with 500 selfies of them against unrecognizable backgrounds. Insert eye-roll here!)

Cross wall in the gorgeous new fellowship hall.