SLC Trip - Opening day of camp

Today we arrived at Shocco Springs Baptist Conference Center in Talladega, Alabama after visiting the Talladega Super Speedway. I am not a NASCAR fan at all but absolutely loved the tour of the race track and the motor sports hall of fame! It was very cool. Wr arrived at camp today at 12:30 and then we went through the registration process and the always fun time of unloading luggage. We had orientation at 3:00 and got to meet our camp pastor, Adam Robinson, and worship leader, Chuck Hooten. They are awesome! Adam is high strung and Chuck is laid back and funny. He has a hippie feel to his music but we all decided we love it. I managed to squeeze in a few games of football, basketball, and a round of putt putt in with the guys before worship. Now we can get to the good stuff. I just felt like God was going to do something big tonight and I believe He did. We had an incredible time of worship that left me crying on my knees for teo reasons: 1. My heart is broken for our students. I feel like many of them are coasting. God is never ok with that. He is a pedal to the metal God. I want them to want Jesus. I want them to want to know God. I believe there is a certain level of spiritual apathy in our group that I am absolutely done with. These students will guide our student ministry for the upcoming year. I need them to get moving. 2. I just had 4 of the best kids I have known in student ministry graduate. 3 of them were AMAZING leaders. I will never know another group of students like them. They are one of a kind. It scares me to think of doing ministry without them. I leaned on them hard and will always have those friendships. They were at every mission project, youth trip, and spent so much time at our house and ate so much of our food. I care about them deeply. But God told me he has raised up others to lead. As plain as day God told me to tell one young lady that "It's ok. You can be who God wants you to be." She is going to be an amazing leader for Jesus when she decides. God told me to tell another young lady, "Its time. You have been preparing for this through studying, praying and serving. It's your turn to lead." God is going to use her to move mountains. Pray with me that God would raise up young men to take the challenge of leading out in their faith through service, love, and studying God's Word. God has them ready. They just have to get to that place. Philippians 3:7-14 God is good!

SLC Alabama - Day 1

Today has been truly amazing for the simple fact that I woke up in Buna and am laying down to sleep near Birmingham, Alabama. That is almost 9 hours away for the record. After waking up at 4 am (with only 3 hours of sleep) we met at the church at 5:00 am to head to Alabama. It was a pleasant surprise to see a church family member, Terry Yeates, at the church simply to pray with us for God's blessing on our trip. He was coming home from work and decided to stop in. It truly is the little things in life that make the biggest difference. After he prayed for our group we took off. We stopped on Lafayette for breakfast at Chick-Fil-A and then in Hattiesburg for lunch at McAlister's Deli. We made great time the whole trip which i give credit to God for giving us safety and some great kids who made it a joy to travel with. We arrived in Pelham, AL at our hotel for the evening. We are tired but will get a great night's rest and be ready for day 1 of camp tomorrow. We are praying for students to grow in faith, grow in relationships with others in our group, and to lead out as 1 Corinthians 11:1 states so beautifully, "Follow my example as I follow the example of Christ." We are also praying that God would use our leaders to impact the lives of students. I would also like to state that I believe that God has opened the door for two special young men to be on this trip. I don't know why but I believe it is going to be good. I will update on this more as we go. In other news, our ETBE seniors did train on the ropes course today. Please continue to pray for them an their upcoming Africa trip in August. They want it to be more than just a cool trip. It should be a life-changing trip.

Wednesday

To piggyback off of yesterday's blog I would like to update all on the ETBE seniors. I texted them late last night and they are doing well. They said they had orientation which master forever and them got to clean every pot and pan in the kitchen. I told them that the word "cleaning" would be spoken of a lot with Mrs. Frankie in the picture. Today they were hoping to be trained on the high ropes course elements. I sure hope none of them are afraid of heights. Today was an enjoyable day. It is the day before we leave for camp so I am always worried about what I have forgotten to do but still found time to take Amber out for some shopping and fun in te afternoon before church started. That is very rare to do on a Wednesday but we have both been working tirelessly all week and it just felt right to do before heading off to camp. We bought some stuff at Ulta and then checked out Express and Old Navy. Those are some of Amber's favorite places to go although she never buys much. Tonight at church Bro. Jason and Jordy led us in some worship songs which were awesome! We then did something that I have never done before: cardboard testimonies. It was very powerful to say the least! I got to learn a lot about people that I never knew before. It reminded me that we should be constantly sharing stories of God's goodness to us every day. We then loaded luggage for camp tomorrow morning. We head out bright and early at 5:30 am. I cannot wait to see all that God does and the great relationships that are formed. Be praying for lives to be changed by God and relationships to be built by God.

Summer Start - First Blog

What it is:

I decided that I would start a blog this summer and update it as often as possible (shooting for every day) to let our church family and others in on all that is going in Amber's and my life, and the lives of our students.  My hope is that this blog would be informational, spiritually focused, and give an honest look into the life of a student minister.  I pray that God would bring good things out of this that would bless the lives of those who read.

What it isn't:

In this blog I will not negatively discuss "the church" nor will I gripe about what is or isn't happening in my ministry.  I will not point out students' or adults' names when prayers are needed if it would paint them in a negative light but will at times share the names of students or adults when I feel it is appropriate to do so (praise report, prayer request, life change, etc.).  I will not preach or get on a soap box about issues.  I will not "pat myself on the back" nor try to put the spotlight on me in any way. (If there is anything that could be pointed towards me please know that my desire is to pass all glory or praise on to God who is the only one deserving of it.)

First entry:

I don't know how to feel about today just yet.  Amber and I are entering into new territory as ministry leaders.  Today we sent off 7 students who have graduated from our ministry to go serve at East Texas Baptist Encampment in Newton, Texas for the entire summer.  They will be serving for 10 weeks by cooking, cleaning, lifeguarding, repairing, and maintaining the entire camp.  They will end their summer serving by going on a mission trip to Ghana which is located in Western Africa for ten days to build playgrounds, share the gospel, and simply love people in Jesus' name.  On one hand I am incredibly excited about this!  They are living our ministry motto, "Love God and Love People".  They are proof that the message we have been teaching has been effective.  On the other hand I am having to say good-bye to some of the greatest teenagers I have ever known.  Simply put (selfishly put) I am going to miss them!  I would much rather have them leaving on Thursday with us to attend youth camp and then attend our leadership mission trip to Tennessee at the end of the summer.  That way Amber and I can have more time with them; time to teach them, encourage them, share with them, and love on them.  But I know that I have to let them go.  They are not mine.  I have seen Jesus in each of them and God has used them to touch my life for the past two years.  Now its time for them to move on.  Its time for them to be that same blessing to other people along the path that God has set out for them.  God DOES have a plan for them.  I was a small part of it and I am ok with that.  Now my roll changes from teacher to prayer warrior and encourager.  I will accept that role.  I just hope God allows us to continue to be a part of each of their lives.  Amber and I met with them today. Here are their names and some things that they asked us to pray for this summer:

Caleb Hardy - To love the unloveable, to learn how to teach others, to be fair and not pick favorites
Kayla Burns - To have a positive (Christ-like) attitude consistently, that selflessness would become second nature to her
Brettnay Bouse - The group would be open to the Holy Spirit's lead and they would be closer to the person God wants them to be at summer's end, and personally for a consistent prayer life
Nick Goeddertz - patience and for the group to be unified in spirit and purpose
Brandon Gilbert - to be more open with his faith
Brian Askew - not present at time of prayer but will be serving this summer
Dustin Smith - not present at time of prayer but will be serving this summer

We encouraged them to do three things: 1. To memorize scripture. 2. To say yes to new opportunities. 3. Set the bar high for others to follow (be a thermostat instead of a thermometer)

Thanks for reading this first blog entry.  This one was long but others may be shorter.  This journey has began for these students today and has began for Amber and I also as we embark this summer to Love God and Love People more and more.