SL Staff Travel/Team building days

What a wonderful two days we have had traveling to Tennessee and enjoying the fellowship of other Followers of Jesus! Thursday a group of 14 people from Central Baptist Church headed out at 3 am to Cleveland, Tennessee for 9 days of a leadership mission trip. We traveled through Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and even a small part of Georgia to arrive at our destination. It took us 15 hours plus the loss of an hour due to a change in time zones before we arrived at our destination at 7:00 p.m. After getting some dinner we sat down and talked about expectations for the trip. One thing I told the kids that I expected from them was to grow in their faith and skills by stepping out of their comfort zone. I would boldly say that God has done his greatest work in my life when I get away from comfort and step into a world of discomfort. It requires me to depend on God and others which in turn shapes me to be more like Jesus. Please pray this for me. Today we woke up and the guys had the privilege of cooking breakfast for the girls to start our day (another thing we talked about in our expectations talk was outdoing one another in showing honor (Romans 12:10 on you)). After a great meal we enjoyed a morning devotion and then started our day. We went whitewater rafting first. This was AMAZING! It began our team building day on the right foot which was all about building relationships that fostered love and kindness with one another. I believe that is best done through accomplishing difficult things together. Whitewater rafting fit the bill perfectly. After dividing up into two teams we were able to enjoy rafting. I was in the boat with Jaeci and Casey, who both sat up front, Chris, Sara, Katelyn, and Aaren. We had a blast and will laugh for a long time about what we got to do. We then got cleaned up and headed to our next activity which was the "Zipline Aerial Adventure". This was great! We got to go to new heights together as a group (cheesy, I know). We really did enjoy it though. We then drove to the top of Lookout Mountain and enjoyed a Starbucks drink and a beautiful view of God's creation before heading back for the night to our cabins. I am enjoying building relationships with many leaders in our student ministry. My hope and prayer is that God uses these moments to positively effect the lives of our church and community. I pray they learn how to live for Jesus more and to lead others to do the same. God is good.

Terrific Tuesday!

I admit that blogging is something I thoroughly enjoy doing because I gain do much encouragement from the messages sent, conversations had, etc that seem to always be exactly what I need. But I am still a guy and we don't always enjoy reflecting on our feelings and the ups an downs of our day. This is why there is some inconsistency in my blogging. Nevertheless I shall continue forward. Yesterday may be one of my favorite days of the entire summer (although that's totally impossible to really judge but it does make the point that yesterday was awesome). I had the privilege of going to Newton to ETBE with another guy named Scott and Austin, our youth intern. We planned to help with a special needs camp coming in and to love on our 7 students working there. We did get to spend some time with our students but it wa absolutely nothing like we had planned. I hoped to work side by side all day with them and encourage them. God had other plans. I don't know if you have ever felt like God specifically put you in a place to meet a specific need in someone's life but that is exactly what happened. The camp for special needs kids officially starts Wednesday and they were in great need of having a handicapped ramp built. I fully believe that God sent us to the camp to build a ramp. I know God uses us each day but it just was so clear to me yesterday. Awesome! We built a 16 foot ramp four feet wide so now our handicapped students can access the gift shop! I will say that I have very few building skills but God provided Scott and Austin and between the three of us (mainly with Scott's skills) we were able to lay out a plan, set posts, build a frame, cut deck boards, nail deck boards, and build the handrails. I really felt proud of the way things went. We were also able to encourage our students there. We gave them all big hugs upon arrival and enjoyed time with them an then were privileged to have lunch with each of them. When we were ready to leave we visited and laughed with several also. As always, they bring me so much joy, encouragement, laughter, and remind me that ministry makes a difference. Each of them have been shaped by spiritual influences in their lives (family, close friends, Sunday school teachers, etc.) which have brought them to a point where they love Jesus so much that they would choose to sacrifice a whole summer growing in faith and service to share Jesus with people on another continent. If you didn't know, this is one proud (good pride) youth minister! That evening we had a small group play ultimate frisbee. All of the students except Katie were junior high age. This was a great blessing because I don't know them as well and it gave me opportunity to build relationships that will last for years to come. To end our time Tabi shared the story of how she came to know Jesus with the entire group. She shared that God uses the Micah Tyler Band leading worship to lead her to Jesus. Wow! I had no idea that was her story. I believe that God uses our stories to impact the lives of others. To top off the entire day I got to sit down with my beautiful wife and her little brother, Kolby, only to hear one of the coolest stories of faith and trust in God I have ever heard. God is really working in Kolby's life. I won't ruin his story... It's not mine to tell. Catch him one day and ask him what God has done in his life this summer. Just be ready for God to change you when you listen. Terrific Tuesday!