Tough Saturday

Today started out just wonderful but ended up being a hard day. Amber and I got up around 9 am and dd a little garage sale shopping. Although we weren't looking for anything in particular we both enjoy doing it. It is something we get to do together and it makes us laugh a lot. We didn't find anything but didn't really care. We then had the chance to have lunch with my family and Austin at Casa Ole after helping then for a few minutes with their VBS backdrop (it looks great by the way). Afterwards we went to Amber's parents home and spent some time with her family and Josh. We hung out, laughed, and I had a great cup of coffee. That is when I got a phone call from my pastor informing me that a longtime faithful church member had suddenly and unexpectedly passed away this afternoon. He came from Beaumont immediately and we went to their home to be there for them. Wow. I am 26, have no experience in these situations, and have absolutely NO words to say to help this man who just lost his wife. I have never lost anyone even remotely close to me except my granny who died of Alzheimer's and by the time she died we were all at peace after seeing her suffer for so long. But I care about him and hate to see him suffer. So, I go and follow my pastor's lead. I hug his neck and shed tears. I hear him share how he found her and have her CPR trying to bring her back to life in the minutes that must have seemed like hours until the bulance arrived. After staying for a couple of hours and praying with the family I walk away with the same question everyone has... Why? She was a good person... Why her? She really loved God... Why her? I don't pretend to have answers or act like I know. I am probably supposed to but I don't. I can only hurt with the family and encourage them with scriptures of God's love and plans for our lives that are better than what the world has to offer. From there I traveled with Amber and Georgia to support Emily Jacobs in a weekend spiritual retreat called Chrysalis in Port Arthur. We sang songs of praise to God and prayed for her. We then had a chance to see her and those moments will stay with her for a long time. They did for me when I went on that retreat. Tomorrow is the first opportunity Amber and I have to see our ETBE seniors. I am really pumped! Someone gave a $3,000 gift to their Ghana Mission trip last week from our Church! WOW! We thank God for that gift. We still have to reach $10,500 which is a lofty goal but I believe anything is possible with God. Thanks for sharing this summer journey with me.

Counting my blessings

Yesterday was an incredible day. I have so many things and so many people to be thankful for. My day started a little late (still recovering from camp exhaustion :). But around noon I met up with two young men for lunch at Faustos. After visiting with them for about an hour they went over to Ms. Waldene Scott's home, an elderly lady in our church family, to cut her grass and spend time visiting and praying with her. They did a magnificent job! It was really cool to me because at lunch they were telling me that they love to help others when no one knows because it makes them feel like they are doing it for God. THEY GOT IT! I could not be more proud of them. Later on Thursday I had the privilege of having Bible study with two young men and my wife. We watched the first part of four DVDs over the life of King David. Talking with Amber and two young men about Jesus and figuring out this life of faith God has called us to was just awesome. This morning I had the opportunity to help my bib sister make a video for a mission opportunity she had in New York City. If you woul like to help her by praying or giving I know she would be appreciative. It is so cool to see a member of my family choosing Christ over what this world has to offer. Then I got to visit with my mom about VBS next week at her church. I have the awesome privilege of sharing the plan of salvation on Wednesday for them. Mom wants those kids to love Jesus more than anything. I have a wonderful heritage of faith. After that I was heading to Houston to pick up my cousin from Seattle, Austin Hill (whom you will hear much about this summer), when my father-in-law called and said he was going to take care of Austin so I could get some other stuff done. What a blessing! Austin is going to be out summer intern at the church. His story of coming to Jesus is just incredible. Two years ago he had never read a verse in the Bible. Today he is saved, baptized, and interning for our student ministry. WOW! With that time I now had I was able to accomplish some things for upcoming camps and visit with a long time friend and member of the Micah Tyler Band, Daniel Begnaud. Catching up with him an what God is doing in their ministry is awesome. I came home to find that our next door neighbor, Craig, had mowed our grass just because he knew we had been busy. Blessing! Now I am heading to Beaumont for an award ceremony for Amber. A few of her editorial pieces were entered into a competition and she was invited to this dinner hopefully to accept an award. She is so incredibly talented. 9 months ago she had NO journalism experience and now she is going to be an award winning journalist. (What is she doing with a guy like me?) Today I count my blessings. The family and friends I am surrounded by encourage me in so many ways. Thank you God.

Final Youth Camp Update

Monday, Day 4 of camp, was just awesome. It was raining when we woke up but quickly cleared up to be an absolutely beautiful day. Adam Robinson, our camp speaker for the week, continued to teach God's Word effectively during morning celebration. We had indoor rec due to the rain and enjoyed a good lunch. Our free time was great because we got to play something called Bazooka Ball as a church family. It is basically nerf paintball. We had so much fun shooting and chasing one another! Shae Lynn and Madison shot me multiple times knocking me out of the games. I did get Madison back one time as I made her surrender after sneaking up on her only to shoot her in the end. (: It was so much fun! We also had a 4 person scooter race around a small race track in which Jacob, Coach Martin, Mr. David, and myself participated. After Mr. David wiped out twice, coach Martin once, and Jacob being disqualified I cruised through the finish line (see Facebook for photo). On a spiritual note, that night during our evening service many students and adults were convicted of "staying in the boat" as the disciples did unlike Peter. I always viewed Peter as a failure in that story when in all actuality he was the only disciple that really got it. Jesus wants us to do what Jesus does. Jesus was walking on water therefore Peter wanted to. Because Peter sank doesn't make him a failure. Often times I see myself as one of the other disciples. Yes I follow Jesus. Yes God uses me. But am I afraid to fail? And do I have the right view of success and failure? Success is following Jesus even if I don't win in the eyes of the world. It was a tough night for sure for me. Any time the Holy Spirit works it is tough. It is always good but tough. Another interesting spiritual moment was when three of our soon to be seniors came and asked for prayer. They are going to be great leaders this year but were afraid. They were afraid they would not measure up to some of our young ladies who graduated last year. It was a great teaching moment. God doesn't want them to be like last year's leaders. God wants them to be them. During church group time it was so great to hear how many of our students were able to share what God had taught them this week. Some spoke of developing leadership skills, another shared her calling to preach, still another to forgive her parents, others to be disciplined in the faith. God truly worked in the lives of our students! Tuesday we left camp at 10:30 am and drove for nearly 14 hours arriving in Buna at 1:00 am on Wednesday morning. Our students and adults travel so well together! They were truly a blessing to be with all week. Our students are definitely growing in faith in Jesus! Wednesday, I slept until 1:00 pm and then napped another hour. Bro. Gene Hardy preached Wednesday and Jordy Cagle led worship. Gene compared Judas and Peter in their response to sin in their lives and challenged us to follow Peter's example in showing immediate repentance in times when we recognize our sin. We remembered to pray for our upcoming VBS, our seniors at ETBE, our staffing trip to Tennessee, and our junior high youth campers, and Emily Jacobs as she attends Chrysalis tomorrow.

SLC Day 2/3

I would like to aplogize for missing a couple of days in my blog. I left off with an update after night one of camp. This is my attempt at explaining days 2 and 3 of camp. The second day of camp was tough for me personally. I felt like I missed two big opportunities to reach out and minister to two of our people. I hate it when I don't recognize or respond fast enough when God tells me to do something. I want to be right in step with what God is doing. We did get to play basketball during our free time with several of our students and leaders Jeff Martin and Kolby Baxter. My team (KBax, Trav, muself and two others) lost 16-14 in the first game to Coach Martin, Jaeci Dans, Justin Smith, and a couple others but then came back to win the next one 15-12. Due to time we were not able to play a third game so we had to go to aggregate scoring which put us ahead by one point. We also had a great night of worship. God is just so big and so good to us. Sunday, day 3 of camp, had been my favorite day by far. The others have been awesome but day 3 has been the best. That is because people were responding to Jesus the best! The day went great, played farkle and hung out during free time, did the aqua jump, and got dressed up for worship. God told me right before thr worship service that the night would be about healing and that is exactly what happened. God spoke to my heart and healed my heart of something Amber and I have struggled with this year and then I got to hear from the kids. One student was struggling with an improper dating relationship and God healed their heart from that. Another was struggling with holding grudges against their dad and God healed them of that. Another was dealing with the fact that she felt unworthy to be used by God because of sin in their life and God healed their heart. Still three others were dealin with the fact that they didn't feel they could measure up as seniors to those who have come before them. They felt they couldn't fill their shoes and God healed them of that. Those are only the ones I was privileged to see! God is amazing! Then I come in to our dorm around 1:00 am to find three guys I am rooming with talking about what God is doing in their lives and asking some really tough questions about real faith. Just amazing. Another thing that God showed me on day 3 is that everything in life that we do or say sends a message to those around us. I had an opportunity to encourage two of our most awesome students by reminding them that we are to be examples of Christ no matter where we are or who they are. 1 Corinthians 11:1 rang true in my ears at that moment. Day 4 is goin great and will report more on the happenings and heartaches and joys of a youth minister.