HYC Glasgow: God Can Use Anybody

My name is Melissa George and currently, I am a sophomore in college studying to be a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner. I am currently in the process of transferring to Nursing School and a different ministry. The past two years, I was part of a larger campus ministry and this fall I’m moving into a ministry where I will be the only woman in my college. Being part of the Glasgow Hope Youth Corps has been a mountain top experience that prepared me for what God has in store for me this fall. The experience helped me to see how God can use anybody regardless of size of the ministry (big or small) to glorify his Kingdom.

Philippians 2:1-4 came alive for me. The two weeks I spent in Glasgow allowed me to see the power of just doing what the Scripture teaches. HOPE Youth Corp Glasgow gave me a glimpse of what unity feels like as people from different nations came together in one spirit and purpose. You might ask, what does that look like? Well every day we ate together and met in disciples’ homes (Acts 2:42-47). We encouraged one another daily (Hebrews 3:12-14), shared our faith together (Matthew 28:18), confessed our sins to each other, (James 5:16) and prayed constantly (Colossians 4:2). We continued to learn from the Scriptures (2 Timothy 3: 14-17).

Applying the Word to our lives had a monumental impact on me. Not only were we striving to grow individually in our relationship with God but we did it together. The consistency transformed & trained my mind and my thoughts to think like Christ and the fruit of it was gratitude and pure joy. It made me realize the truth in what God says, my words are not burdensome. and I couldn’t help but notice how God was using us to be his ambassadors.

For example, we lived in a hostel, where we met two Swedish girls who worked there. Fortunately, we had two Swedish sisters who were part of our group they connected with. We were able share the Word with them. I also met another guy who was visiting all the way from Michigan, really close to where I am from, who was really impacted by our fellowship. I saw Acts 17 come alive, where God arranged places so people would have an opportunity to find him, and we were his instruments by just practicing the Word!

When we were in Edinburgh, another city in Scotland, we were sitting waiting at the bus stop when a girl comes up to us and starts talking to us. She was so impacted by the diversity and the love in our group that she was curious to know what we were about.

We had the chance to serve in Love Milton, which is a low income neighborhood in Glasgow, all the workers were shocked to find out that our HOPE Youth Corps group had only known each other for a couple of days. They were convinced that there was something different about us and they could see it by our fellowship with each other. We were also able to encourage the church in Glasgow which consists of 20 members. The first church service we had we had about 60 people at church. It was incredible to see God use us in any way we could to help the church and city of Glasgow.

Although I wish I could stay there forever, I want to take the things I learn back to my home church in the States. It’s amazing to see & experience the power of just obeying the scriptures produces fruit. I hope to encourage the church the gift of having the word and each other. Also, in the span of two weeks, a group of twenty-six people from all over the world who hardly knew each other, were able to worship and serve God together. This helped me see a vision for the school I will be transferring to and impact this small ministry can have we have all have the same mind-set. With the same purpose in mind God was able to use all of us to be the light of the world. It helped to see the glory of the kingdom of God and the joy of having this same love and spirit in heaven. It was a great reminder of how amazing heaven will be and just being able to taste it in Scotland helped me focus my heart on reaching that goal.

Philippians 3:14 “I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”