Day 2

We are having fun and getting stoked. God is totally gonna challenge all of us this week. Pray for team unity and courage to speak to those who don't know the Lord. Happy Youthing!!

We made it!

I will post some pictures later on tonight but I wanted to let you all know we made it safe and sound. Thank you for your prayers they got us here just in the knick of time. The guys have 4 people to a room and the girls have 3 in one room and 2 in the other. Things are great, energy is high, and God is good.

We have our welcoming ceremony/worship/entertainment at 7 tonight. After that we have a bible study time and then lights out at 11:30.

Pray that God transforms the hearts of our students as well as the hearts of those we will be interacting with. Fuge trips can get really "campy" real quick and I want to make sure the focus stays on serving others rather than just ourselves. I feel God is going to do an amazing work in these students lives this week as no one is here on accident. God has a plan for us and will move in a big way.

Thanks for your prayers and support. Pictures later on tonight. Happy Youthing.

Day 1

Hey all we got to Flagstaff about 7:45 and ate at Crackerbarrel on the recommendation of Toby Sheehan. Things are going great, the kids are happy and excited to get to Glorieta as are the leaders. Pray for safe travel and effective ministry. Goodnight.





















Happy Youthing

New Mexico

Sermon Jam

I saw this video and it ignited a fire in my soul... I hope it does the same for you.

Mona Greasa

I had to...

Jr High Promo, Yo!

Hey all you 7th and 8th graders, tonight is your night, we are back and rollin' with our Wednesday Night program. Come on out and hang out play some games, eat some pizza and learn about Jesus. Sounds like a perfect night to me... how about you? Hope to see you there.

Nothingness

That's exactly what I did yesterday... nothingness, and it felt great. Sarah and I hung out and relaxed with our little boy, we watched the Giants lose, and I got about 3/4's of the way through a book called Youth Ministry 3.0 by Mark Ostreicher, the President of Youth Specialties. Now at First I wasn't really excited about this book because I thought it was the new "trendy" book that all the "hip" Youth Pastors would be reading, but after hearing enough about it I finally caved because my curiosity got the best of me. I have to say that after reading the majority of it, I am thoroughly impressed by the amount of knowledge Marko brings to the table, and not just facts and figures but real life experience blended with a matter-of-fact where we need to go mentality. It has been a great read so far and am hoping to finish it tonight.

So between that and relaxing all day yesterday and a great staff meeting this morning I am fired up for today, this week, and the Mission Trip we are leaving for this Sunday. No real pertinent info for you, but God is good and Happy Youthing.

Water Balloons

So I just got done with the first 200 water balloons that are going to be filled for Sunday Night, I am hoping to have about 1000. While filling them I thought about Youth Ministry and the overall goal, I mean I better have filled these water balloons for a reason because my hands were pruney, my fingers hurt from tying them, and I was soaked by the end of the ordeal.

Youth ministry is about more than throwing water balloons at each other and smearing everyone with ice cream and its toppings (Granted there is a place for that). Youth Ministry is about providing an avenue for kids to meet God, a place for God to crack their tough outer shell and let His love pour in. There are a lot of students in the Selma area with a lot of hurt who don't know where to turn, and that is where we come in. Our goal as a ministry is to provide events to engage students from outside the church walls so we have the right to speak truth into their lives.

Students know when people are fake, they know when others have an agenda, they are all too familiar with the he said she said, so we want to provide a place where they are loved unconditionally by leaders, accepted without hesitation by their peers, and met by the one true God. Filling water balloons alone provides a great time to chew on stuff... dontcha think?

Truck

I got a new one... Keep your eye out for it...


Happy Youthing