News and notes

Here's a couple of things that you need to know about next Sunday. First, if you are planning on going to m-fuge with us this summer, (July 6-11 in Birmingham, AL) you need to have your $50 deposit in by this Sunday. Also, since Sunday night there's is a large football game that will be broadcast on TV, we will not be having our regular Storyline service. We will be getting together for some food and other things. Let me know if you got any questions.

Friday @ the fuge

Last day of ministry tracks today. My track group had been at a community center that was running a summer camp. Today was the last day of the camp so we had a party. They gave away awards for attendance, citizenship and most outstanding. It was a bitter sweet time. As things were finishing up, I heard one parent say, "I wish I had money so I could pay them to stay."
It has been a wonderful week. We all have had God speak to us in different ways. It will be really exciting to see what happens with us as we work through these changes that need to occur.
We are exhausted. Sleep is necessary. See you all on Sunday.

Wednesday's m-fuge update

Today was an amazing day. We all had some really great things go on in our ministry tracks. We met some wonderful people who challenged us in some different ways. Tonight, our camp pastor talked to us about our hypocrisy as christians and how we are actually turning people away from Christ by the way we act. Not because we are baggering them with the gospel, but because we are not acting like Christ in any way. By acting this way, we are actually dragging Christ's name through the mud. Realizing that He died for us, there is no way we should even begin to trivialize what was done on that cross. We had an powerful time of discussion and accountabilty after the session. Pray that what was discussed tonight won't fall by the wayside when we get back like it tends to do.
After church group time, we had a really cool night life. Michael, Ben, and Lucas participated in a 3 on 3 tournament and tied for third place. Not bad for some first timers for the mountains. We then headed to the cafeteria to watch Jordan sing "Ring of Fire" in the student karaoke. Not a bad way to finish the night. Pictures will be up in the morning. Thanks for your prayers.
Oh yeah, in this mornings send off celebration, I was called up on stage to compete against two other youth pastors. We were to put as many pencils in a two liter bottle as we could with our right foot. No worries though. We took home gold.

Day two here at the fuge.

Today has been an amazing day. We started off with breakfast bright and early this morning at 7:00. We then broke off for quiet times and ministry track preparation for the day. After an amazing send off celebration time, we were all off to our different ministry sites. Everyone was excited and nervous about what would be in store when they arrived. Some of us were out staining fences while others were leading kids in different activites. We arrived back on campus at 4:00 and had a little free time to unwind, sleep, or just decompress. After dinner we went got to have a wonderful worship time where our camp pastor challenged us to stop living for ourselves and to allow God to be weaved into everything we do. The kids are really tired right now which makes me very excited. Once they get to the point where they are so exhausted that they can't do it any more, then they will be out of the way and God will be able to do some amazing things in there lives.
Pray tomorrow for safety as well as personal opportunities to share what God is doing in our lives. We'll talk to you tomorrow.

pics are up!

And we're here!

After 5 hours of travel we've made it to our destination. We left out of the Mount around 9:30 this morning and stopped to have lunch at 5 guys hamburgers in Columbia. Despite the heat, we were able to find some refreshment at the Coldstone Creamery next door. When we arrived at Charleston Southern University, we were greated by an over energetic M-fuge Staff. Our group was directed to an area to select their ministry tracks for the week while Mike and I finished the registration process. After that was done, we had dinner in the cafeteria and then headed off to the opening celebration. It was a great high energy time and we were then seperated into our different ministry tracks for the week. Everyone in our group is with at least one other person in their tracks with the exception of Beverly and myself. We, are on our own. I'm curious to see what God is going to do with us who are left behind this week. It will be an adventure I'm sure. We finished the evening with a great discussion about what God is going to do this week. The group is already wondering how this is going to change their lives when they get home which is incredibly exciting to me. So pray that we will all get out of the way and let God work in our lives this week. As I was walking back to our dorm tonight, I thanked God for South Carolina. Yep, that about sums it up. Below are some pictures from day one. (Jordan's fry in the shape of the letter A is amazing.) [Stupid web filter won't let me post pictures at the moment. I'll try again tomorrow. Ugh.]