As I stood alone, center stage, in my high school auditorium, gazing out over a sea of my fellow classmates, ready to introduce Free Teens and the WAIT team, I was baffled by the fact that just two years ago starting an abstinence club was only an idea I was kicking around in my own brain. Now, as a graduate of Northwestern Lehigh High School I can proudly say that over the past two years my closest friends from school have become my fellow club members, and together we have turned an idea into a substantial reality.

We have produced two issues of our very own original newsletter, The Pure Freedom Flyer, and distributed them by the hundreds to our faculty and student body, hosted a coffeehouse as a platform to talk about the issue of abstinence, done presentations in ninth grade health classes, and brought two assemblies to the entire student body; one featuring Linda Haft, a well-known Free Teens presenter from New Jersey, and the other featuring my older sister and my future brother-in-law as Free Teens presenters, and the WAIT team from Washington D.C.

Throughout my sophomore year I earnestly prayed for Heavenly Father to give me a mission. I wanted desperately to know what it was He wanted me to do with my life, and if He told me exactly what that was, I promised Him I would do it. I wanted my place in the Providence outside of the usual Sundays at church and summers at Family Camp.

At the time, I expected that God would perhaps let me know what my future career should be; I wasn’t necessarily looking for something to do right now. I was expecting the revelation to come in the present, the actual work to come later in my life. But at the end of my sophomore year, I learned the first of the many lessons I would be taught over the next two years: If you are looking for something to do, God is more than ready to give it to you immediately.

And as soon as I was blessed with inspiration for the club, I felt the relentless push of the spirit world. With a kind of blind fearlessness I went forward as fast as I could, in part because I was excited to start this new venture, but mostly because I continually felt an anxious presence around me wherever I went, a sort of noiseless voice over my shoulder telling me, "You don’t have much time, and you have a lot to do, so you have to work NOW!"

Spirit world also wanted to show me what I was really going up against in the fallen world, so all of a sudden I felt as though the darkest corners of a public high school were being revealed to me. I found myself inadvertently overhearing numerous conversations of my fellow classmates about the casual teenage debauchery of an average Friday night. Everyday I got chills down my spine as I realized that even though I had been going to public school my entire life, I really didn’t event know the half of what went on there.

But I have undoubtedly been blessed with more than just spiritual experience as I have carried out this mission. In a swamp of schoolwork, SAT’s, ACT’s, college applications, advanced placement classes, and numerous other extracurricular activities, I have been challenged to also be accountable for making this club succeed, and making an impact on the people of my school and community. I have been given thousands of priceless lessons in leadership, things I will undoubtedly use for the rest of my life. I have been forced to live more of a public life, letting every one around me know who I am and what I believe in. I have experienced the frustration and exhaustion of wanting to give up, the searing reality of mocking and persecution, and I have experienced the incredible joy of anonymous students coming up to me and thanking me for what I have done.

I have become closer with my closest friends as we have united for a common purpose, a common passion and belief that we all share, and I have found an even greater love and appreciation for all of the people I have gone to school with, because I see now however difficult I may have thought my life is, theirs is probably just as hard if not harder. I was lucky enough to be born with the truth at my disposal, whereas they are literally all alone, having to figure it all out for themselves.

Our club brought one assembly each year for two years to our school. Both were held in April, and as I shared in the beginning of this article, I introduced them. While I was up there, and throughout those entire days, a very interesting thing happened to me. I stood there with a stomach full of fear, adrenaline, and excitement all churning around inside of me. I was speaking to the defiant faces of American youth, and as I did, I felt like I was in a realm beyond Satan’s accusation. Because I had the truth in my heart and because I was publicly standing up for it and not apologizing, Satan didn’t have any dirt on me. He couldn’t point any fingers at me and for once I felt like I was putting him in his place.

I have never felt more powerful than I did at that moment. I always think of that and many episodes like it that have happened in my life because of this club, because of a year of prayer swearing to Heavenly Father that I would do whatever it is He wanted me to do. For whatever reason He trusted me enough to give this to me, not just to make a difference around me, but to teach me a lot of things that I need to know to be his true daughter. Looking back on it, I can only hope that I have kept my promise to Him as well.

Contact Abby's father, Rob Sayre for more info.

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