One thing teenagers need

Before I was a pastor I was a youth pastor. I had the opportunity to work with teenagers for 14 years and I loved it. In fact, I always said that I would never give it up to pastor a church, of course God had other ideas and here I am today!

A question people ask me from time to time is, "Do you miss youth ministry?" My answer is always the same, "Yes, especially in the summertime." Youth ministry is like anything else, there are certain things I don't miss about it at all, but there are few things in life as fun to me as loading up a bunch of teenagers and adults and heading off to camp or a mission project. I could write a book about all the reasons I love it so much. Since most of you wouldn't read that book, and since I probably wouldn't concentrate long enough to finish that book I'll just share one reason for now.

I loved going on summer trips with teenagers because God always would use those times to get the student's attention. I know that God is big enough to get the attention of a teenager anytime He wants, and I know that a summer trip is not the only way God works in the lives of teenagers, but something special happens when you take a teenager away from their regular environment and help them focus on Jesus. I can't explain why this is, but I have seen it happen time and time again.

This week, a group of teenagers and adults from Freedom have gone to the bustling metropolis of Walterboro, SC on a World Changers project. For a week they will sleep on the floor of a classroom in a high school, eat school cafeteria food, work hard on a house in the low-country heat and humidity, experience great times of worship each evening, make new friends, and God will use all of that to speak to them about how they should live and what plan He has for them.

What does that have to do with you?

- Pray for the students and their leaders this week.

- If you have a teenager that didn't go to World Changers this year, plan now for them to be there next year. You will not regret it.

- Give regularly. I'm talking about money here. Part of Freedom's budget is earmarked for World Changers and other summer trips for our teenagers. When next year's budget is put together, we will budget a large amount to these ministries so the trip's can be affordable for an average family. What you regularly give will make a difference in the lives of teenagers by allowing them to go on a trip.

By the way, I really had a great time yesterday teaching about David and Goliath. God is teaching me so much about Himself through the story of David's life.

Sunday scripture and VBS wrap-up

Last night was a blast! The rain came around 5:30 and threatened to ruin the evening, but tons of kids showed up, and our team moved everything under the big shelter until the rain passed. The kids still got to enjoy all the food and fun. I know for certain that one kid had four sno-cones after he finished his hot dogs, and I saw lots of blue lips after eating cotton candy. Jill Frick was the lead person for last night's event, and she did a great job of making sure everything was taken care of.

If you missed the fun at VBS, be sure you are at worship on Sunday to see the video featuring pictures from the week. If you helped with VBS this week, THANK YOU!!! The effort you put in each evening will have an eternal impact on the lives of kids.

I am excited about continuing the message series on David this Sunday. We will be talking about one of the most familiar stories in the Bible, David vs. Goliath. Before you come Sunday go ahead and read 1 Samuel 17.

That's all for now. After all the excitement of this week my plan is to do some serious relaxing this weekend. I'll let you know next week if it really happens.

VBS: a little wet but still loads of fun, Favre, and beer

Last night we got some rain at VBS.
The night wasn't lost however, due to the fact that the rain came later in the evening when all of the groups had completed the teaching time. Some of the groups missed out on crafts and recreation, but all of the groups got to enjoy the two most important parts of any VBS, the Bible (that is what the "B" in VBS stands for after all) and snacks. I've got to say that the snacks our kids get to eat are better than the butter cookies and kool-aid we had at VBS when I was a kid.

Tonight we'll finish the week with a big celebration.
There will be hot dogs, snow cones, cotton candy, a non-scary clown, face painting, the Chik-Fil-A Cow, and lots of fun. I usually think it's kind of selfish to pray that it doesn't rain, but if you think about it pray that it won't rain at Lake Robinson between 6:00 and 8:00 tonight.

Here's my humble opinion on some other things going on in the world:

Brett Favre should stay retired.
There has been no other player in the history of the NFL who I have enjoyed watching more than Favre, and I think he could still be effective for another season. That being said, this going back and forth every off-season between retirement or playing is annoying. The guy I really feel sorry for is Aaron Rodgers who is Favre's back-up. He is in a no-win situation. The only thing he can do is lay low, and try to avoid reporters who would love to get a quote from him saying he's glad Favre's gone and hopes he stays in Mississippi.

Beer commercials are the best ads on television.
This has been true for a long time, but there's a Heineken commercial right now that I love. It's the one where people are passing a bottle of Heineken to one another. The bottle passes through all different cultures and areas of the world, and the slogan on the screen at the end is "Share the Good".

As soon as I saw it I thought, "that's what the church should be doing!", not sharing a bottle of beer with each other, but passing along the message of Jesus from one person to another across cultural, racial, political, and geographical lines. My friend Chip wrote a cool post on this same commercial last week. Maybe when Blake gets back from all of his trips I'll get him to help me post the video of the ad on here so, you can see it yourself.

VBS update - No rain!

Two nights of VBS and all has gone very well. Shelley and her team have done an amazing job of creating an environment where kids can have fun as they learn the truth from God's word.

Having VBS outdoors at Lake Robinson is awesome when there is no rain, and so far that has been the case. The average attendance has been just over 100 kids and over 100 workers. I am very proud once again of how so many of our folks are volunteering to serve. Normally a church doing VBS wouldn't have a worker to student ratio of 1:1, but due to this being an outdoor event where everything is set-up and torn-down every night, a 1:1 ratio is needed.

All of the volunteers have done great, and the kids have had a ball. Keep praying for the last two nights!

Great Sunday and VBS

Wow! That's the best way to describe what yesterday was like for me. I was thrilled to be teaching at Freedom again yesterday morning. The band did an awesome job, (Count Me In was really cool), the lessons I'm learning about how God works in our lives by studying the life of David are really challenging me, and the crowd that was there yesterday was small (thanks to the long July 4th weekend) but vocal. It was just another great experience of worshipping with my friends at Freedom.

VBS starts tonight so I will give some daily updates this week about how it's going. In the meantime, pray for dry weather tonight over Lake Robinson for at least three or four hours. We haven't had any measurable rain for three months, and now the forecast for this week is for scattered thunderstorms every night! I hope the word scattered means scattered around other parts of Greer other than Lake Robinson! Oh well, that's part of the fun of planting a church and not having a building. I wouldn't want it any other way.

Sunday scripture and other stuff

Here's some things you'll want to know about, along with some other things you probably don't really care about:

- I'm looking forward to teaching at Freedom this Sunday. Teaching at Springwell last week was great, but it will be good to be back home this week. We are starting a new series of messages called "God at Work". We'll look at the life of David for the next several weeks, and learn together how God works in our lives. For those of you who like to read ahead, this week's message will be from 1 Samuel 16:1-13.

- I'm really ready for Emily to get back from GO Camp. Since Grace was gone last week, our house has been a little out of whack for almost two weeks now. I'm just able to relax a little more when we're all under the same roof. I'm learning now why my Mom always wanted to know where I was and when I was coming home.

- Kung-Fu Panda was much better than I expected. Good story, cool martial arts scenes, and Jack Black is always funny to me. It wasn't as good as the best animated movie ever (Finding Nemo), but it was worth the ticket price.

- I know lots of folks make home-made ice cream on July 4th. If you make a churn tomorrow and can't figure out what to do with all of it, I'll be glad to take some off your hands! Have a great 4th!

Drumroll please....

I know you've been waiting with baited breath (I don't even know what that means, but it sounds cool) to discover what the final total is on Sunday's offering.
Well the wait is over: $9607.06!

Thanks so much to all of you who asked God what you should give, and then followed through by giving it. The folks at Mid-Town and at GAIHN will be thrilled to receive the extra funds next week.

Now that the first part of the partnership with GAIHN and Springwell is over, you may be wondering, "what's next?" Donny and I will be talking to the guys at Springwell in the next couple of weeks about when we can begin work on the house we will be renovating. As soon as we know what the plan is, we will send it your way. There will be lots of opportunity for you to serve using your construction, cleaning, organizational, and administrative skills. Start praying now about how you might be involved.

GO Camp update: Emily called yesterday and said the teenagers had a great first day of work at GO Camp. Sarah Burkhalter gave Tracy and Paige a similar report. Pray for Blake, Laura Beth, and all the students who went on this trip.

Personal note of interest to almost no one but me: I exercised yesterday for the first time in two weeks. I don't know why I drop out of that routine every once in a while. While I was on the treadmill I felt more energetic than I have in...well, in about two weeks. Funny how that works out.