Wrapping Up

Can I brag on my Lord? Can I brag on your kids? Lucky for me, this is the Internet and I can do whatever I want. It was a privilege to be at camp with this great group of teenagers this week. Not only was I able to watch students learn and grow, but I was able to spend quality time with the Lord as well. I did not post on Wednesday, but I had planned to catch up. I wanted to tell you all that major break throughs were taking place. Students seemed just on the edge of opening up. They had begun to really wrestle with the questions we had been asking them all week. But just when I had begun to get excited about Wednesday, Thursday came. During the evening service, Brad left James to talk about Mary and Martha. He suggested to the students that there are 3 ways to respond to Jesus. One was as Judas, who spent time with Jesus, saw his miracles, heard his words and still had no idea who Jesus truly was. The next was as Martha, a godly woman living at the status quo. She wanted to serve Jesus and she completed the duties assigned to her by society. Still, Martha Martha, Mary had chosen what was better. Mary abandoned all sense of propriety, offered the alabaster jar that represented her wealth, future, and family responsibility, and sat at the feet of her Lord. Brad's invitation to the students challenged them to find out how they had been responding to Jesus. He encouraged students to do more than "pray a prayer ". Whether they wanted to talk to a sponsor about accepting Jesus or not, Brad asked them to move. Do something. As the band began to play, the students did just that. Many found their adult leaders to talk and pray with. Others found each other. Teenagers all over the room sat together to pray. Apologies were made, thank yous were said, and community could be seen everywhere. It was a very emotional time. Several of our own students came to their adults for prayer. The most beautiful thing I saw (maybe in my whole life) was the leadership shown by our older youth members. Our oldest boys approached the younger ones like brothers. They slapped them on the back and took them outside to pray. I could not have been more impressed or more proud. I later told these young men that I had watched them become men of God isntead of Christian boys. Aside from the respect I had for them as a sister in Christ, I was overjoyed that one of these boys was my very own Brostuff. Later that night, we had an event called the Concert of Prayer. All the chairs were moves from the worship center and the students were led through various postures of prayer. After the response time during worship, everyone was that much more prepared for intense prayer. We began by praying alone, then moved into our family groups. Last we moved into our church groups. The teenagers prayed for one another and talked about how much they had enjoyed meeting one another. They prayed for their leaders and we prayed for them. The whole experience was so powerful. I was so proud to see our teenagers stepping up to be the church of today, not tomorrow. If there was anything I would ask for as our students come home, it is support. Support from their families, support from our church, and support from the individuals who know them best. In fact, I'm begging for it. These young men and women need Christ-like role models. They need to be held accountable. They need to know the difference between a shallow emotional response and a genuine encounter with God. This means you. I would love to see our young people spark revival through our entire church and even further. Allow yourself to learn from teenagers as you teach them. Be there for them, we are all more similar than we know.

Tuesday, Snow Mountain CO

Happy Tuesday everyone! I am beat. Fo real. Blame it on the altitude or the fact that I gave up physical activity in junior high, but I could really use some oxygen. Luckily, the students are tired too so I can keep up. We have really started getting deeper into the Word by now. We have been working our way through James and talking about putting our faith into action. Both my family group and our youth group are becoming active participants in discussion. They are asking difficult questions and struggling with concepts that most adults have trouble with. As their leader, that thrills me. Questions lead to searching and searching leads to truth. Ultimately, those potentially uncomfortable questions become a gateway to a deeper relationship with the Lord. Today, Brad spoke about James 3 and the power of the tongue. Working our way through the book, James explains the importance of acting on hour faith. Chapter 3 begins to give practical ways to start. Words are so powerful. James knows that if we are unable to control our tongues, then we can hardly hope to be obedient in other areas. Our boys won today's dodgeball tournament (beat 22 teams!!!!). I feel pretty confident about our title's chances in the volleyball tournament tomorrow. We all had a big ol' time at the Redneck Prom. That's all for now. Be home soon!

Suit Up

A big youth camp hello to all of you! I am so proud of our teenagers. We demand a lot out of them for youth camp and they have responded swimmingly. Except at the moment they are, in fact, not able to swim due to lightning. That is neither here nor there. They are having a good time and getting into God's Word like champs. This morning, our speaker gave a message about battles. He explained thatt as children of God, we have an enemy. Our enemy comes to steal kill and destroy. Fortunately, God has not left us without defence. We are instructed in Ephesians 6:10-18 to put on the full armor of God. Most of our armor is defensive. They are tools for resisting the enemy. Only one is an offensive weapon, the Word of God. 2 Timothy 3:16 tells us that all scripture is useful and profitable. Because our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against the powers of darkness, we use the spiritual weapons of the Lord instead of the weapons of the world. Brad shared a story out of 2 Samuel. When Saul died, the issue of Israel's next king led to war between the supporters of Ishbosheth (Saul's son) and those of David. A particular battle took place when 12 men from each side were chosen to fight each other. Joab was the commander of David's army and Abner the commander of Ishbosheth's. (By the way, there is in fact a person at this camp named Sky Commander. Who does that?) One of Joab's brothers, Asahel was among those chosen. The Bible says that he was as fast as a wild gazelle. Asahel began to chase Abner. Abner was amazed to see that Asahel had gone into battle without any armor. Twice he warned Asahel to pick up some of the weapons of soldiers who had fallen, but Asahel kept chasing. Finally, Abner plunged the blunt end of the spear all the way through Asahel and killed him. Initially, one would believe Asahel to be completely unreasonable. Was he cocky., forgetful, or just plain crazy? However, when we turn the question inward, things get uncomfortable. If we know that every day that we wake up, a battle is raging, why don't we put on armor? How can we choose every day to go into battle unprotected? Putting on armor once a week at church, or every now and then when we have time isn't going to cut it. Keep praying for our teenagers as they learn to put on their armor. Today's. Silly moment is brought to us by Dusty Prism : Terry : How old do you think I am? Dusty : You're a ninja so no one knows.

Here We Go!

We have safely arrived at camp. We were all pleased to see the rain as we came in. Everyone has had dinner and the students have begun exploring. So far, I think we have a great group. I can't wait to get to know each of their unique personalities. If you're wondering what goes on at youth camp, I'll give a little run down. The campers from all the different church groups are put into what we call Family Groups. A student will do rec, meals, activities, and Bible study with his or her group. They will get to know each other and help each other grow. We hope to see them encourage one another to be active participants in what God does this week. Thanks to technology, I know that some of these family groups will stay in contact for years to come. Campers will also spend time with their own church groups. This is important, too, because those are the people who will be able to support them when they get home. I encourage parents to be proactive. Ask your student what happened at camp. How did God work in your life? Encourage them to stay consistent after the camp high fades. This camp has a neat thing going on. Each camper got a bracelet with the name of another camper on it. They do not know the other person, but have been asked to pray for them this week. I hope that they will be able to find the person on their bracelet during camp and let them know face to face that they are praying specifically for them. That's a quick update for you guys at home. Everyone is safe and sound and ready for a great week. See you all soon!

Youth Camp : Day One

Our grand journey to Winter Park, Colorado has begun. We loaded 13 bright eyed and bushy tailed teenagers onto the bus at 5:30 this morning and headed out for youth camp. Right now this cool thing is happening where we sit in two crowded lanes waiting for traffic to get through a construction zone. Total blast. Not to worry, the campers seem oblivious. They are watching Karate Kid. I haven't heard much out of them so far. I'm surprised to see that the majority of our students are boys. I believe there is a misconception about young men in church. It is often more obvious when girls are impacted by the Holy Spirit. But while emotional responses are typical of girls, this is not the norm in boys. Just because a young man doesn't cry all over you, certainly doesn't mean that God is not working in his heart and his life. I think we will be doing our young men a great service by respecting their responses to God. I have heard many opinions floating around in the Church about the role of men in Christianity today. Some are quick to demand that if men would be the leaders God wants them to be, the Church wouldn't have problems. Personally, I believe this ideology has some serious holes in it. Does that kind of thinking stem from a desire to place blame, or from sincere attempts to encourage our brothers? How can we expect positive results from negative communication? God 's will for the church is that we be united in Christ. Every one of us lived up to our necks in sin at one time. When sin entered the garden, relationships broke. The companionship designed by God between man and woman was damaged and we see the effects even today. But Christ came to fix the brokenness. It is so important that we recognize that the redemption Jesus brought inside us wasn't meant to stop there. Christ came to set right, to bind up the broken, and to give light in the dark places. As Christians, the way we think about and treat other people needs to do justice to the grace we ourselves have received. hold up. The Karate Kid sounds were just replaced by an incredibly cheesy 90's praise and worship station. This has happened at least 4 times so far and I am finding the phenomenon pretty hilarious. You'll have to find it within your heart to forgive that I find Optimus Prime singing Steven Curtis Chapman entertaining. No one else seems to appreciate it either. Not to worry. I look forward to getting to know these teenagers this week and meeting my small group later this evening. The arrival of this week makes my trip seem unbelievably close. After that, it is time to start real life again. Bring it on August! I think I can get a good snooze in before we get there. Peace out, Girl Scout.

Odds and Ends

Macedonia is 7 hours ahead of Texas. Travel will include approximately 14 hours of flight time on 4 different planes. We will leave Lubbock at 12:50pm on July 21 and arrive in Skopje at 10:30pm the following day. Or is that two days? I'm finding the whole calculation very confusing. Either way, a big concern of mine is the fact that our team will be tired from the beginning. If you're praying for us, ask for stamina. I do not yet know what those two weeks will look like, but I am sure we will be feeling the time change and missing out on sleep. Spiritually, I know I should be excited about the opportunity to learn to rely on the Lord when I reach the end of my own strength. Truth is, it scares me out of my mind. Being like Christ is hard work when I feel great. Lack of sleep has rarely brought out my best. Oh well. Time to grow. I wish I knew more. More language, more about the jobs we will be doing, and how on earth to pack for two weeks. We have learned John 3:16 and How Great Thou Art in Macedonian. The language is Slavic (same family as Russian) and makes me feel pretty awesome. The alphabet is different from ours as well. In English letters, John 3:16 goes something like this: "Zoshto Bog go zasaka svetot, shto go dade svoyot edinoroden cin, ta sekoy koi veruva vo nego, da ne zagine tuku da ime vechen zjivot." Macedonians are (understandably) one of the major people groups in the region. They proudly trace their ancestry back to Alexander the Great, though there is sufficient doubt about the claim. Another important group is the Albanians. A majority of Albanians are Muslim, although some are more devout than others We will be arriving during Ramadan. For Muslims, the month of Ramadan calls for strict fasting. Devout Muslims will go the entire month eating and drinking nothing during daylight hours. If I understand correctly, nights are a time for feasts and gifts, sort of like an American Christmas. For us, this means that people are likely to be very tired and sluggish. There is the potential for our efforts to be more challenging under these circumstances. It is my prayer that the festival will raise questions in the hearts of Muslim people. I hope that the emptiness in these souls will encourage them to seek out truth. I am asking God to show his mercy and goodness to lost people. As I think about Ramadan I am struck by the contrasts in a man-made god and the Living God. Trying to make sense of the world, people often bind themselves up in rituals and rules. The Bible tells us that God desires mercy, not sacrifice. Fasting is an important discipline in the Christian life, but its purpose is not the same as that of the Ramadan fast. Islam demands the physical obedience of its followers. God wants our actions to be the product of obedient hearts. Foregoing food can be an appropriate way to help the heart focus its attention and affection on the Lord. Ramadan seems more like spiritual weight lifting to prove one's worth. I don't say these things to be superior. Without Christ, my heart would make up the same lies to help me fill the hole where he belongs. I make these observations hoping that change happens in Macedonia. I don't expect to baptize a thousand people every day. Our trip is part of ongoing ministry in the Balkans. I only hope to be the hands and feet that show the character of the one true God. I hope to strengthen and encourage believers already in Macedonia. Pray for us to have the physical and emotional endurance to love with our actions and our attitudes at all times. Thanks for keeping up with me as we get ready. Look out for more posts!

Testing...one, two??

Hello, hello! Greetings via my new favorite toy, my Kindle Fire! This post is partially a test run to find out whether my new gadget will post blogs. Why must it post blogs, you ask? Well, dear readers, if you are new to my adventure blog, I am pleased to announce my upcoming trip to Macedonia, Greece, and Kosovo. I'll be traveling with WBU's Mission Center for two weeks of ministry. I will be keeping my stateside friends updated through this blog. I am overwhelmed by the support I have already received. My WBU family bought my pumpkin rolls months before I even planned to participate in the trip. My church family went above and beyond what I could have asked of them. I sincerely hope that many of you who have made this trip possible are reading this now. I want to make all of my families active participants in the work God is doing in the Balkans. I am so thankful for your prayers for our team and your time reading my updates. I could certainly say more, but I'll hang onto it. Time to find out if I typed this for nothing...