“A dusty Bible belongs to one who has a dirty heart”

Today has been a great start to what we are praying is a great week.  Right out of the gate tonight God hammered all of us with the reality that we haven’t spent nearly the time in His Word that we must.  Shawn McBride was fantastic and challenged us all to be less consumed with the world and more consumed with the Bible.

FEE was amazing as always.  Their music stirs passion, energy, excitement, and praise.

Be praying for our students as they have already made commitments to be more in the Word.  Tomorrow many of them are waking up early to pray and spend time with Jesus BEFORE breakfast.  Tomorrow (July 14) is also our church wide day of prayer and fasting.  The focus of this day is for the entire church to pray and fast for our students as they are here at Momentum.  Please join in prayer and fasting tomorrow for the students and leaders.

Here are pictures from day 1.

Scott and Anne hard at work

Reunited after a long summer

Our Theme Banner

Fee

O Happy Day

FEE

Shawn McBride

Stacie Fay

Youth Group Time

Youth Group Time

From Urban Hope to Momentum

We have arrived…unpacked…stuffed hundreds of folders…and found our beds.   It’s been a good day!  The folders we stuffed were for the Momentum Adult staff.  They will all receive their folders at the staff meeting that happens tomorrow evening when everyone arrives.  We are excited to see the rest of the youth group along with Matt, Zach, Melisa, and Lauren.

Tomorrow morning it’s up for breakfast, which is at 8:00…then whatever we can do serve the CE National Staff and help get RMU ready for Momentum.

Here are some misc pictures from the week that may/may not have been uploaded.  I took around 400 pictures and some video.

Making the 4 a 5

“Yo Adriane”

A Picture of the Urban Hope Training Center

Here are the other videos that I took this past week as well.

Day 2

Barnabas and John hanging out together

Today was a great day!  We had a good time at camp and all the students recognize that their campers are feeling more comfortable with them.  This is positive in many ways and makes Kidz Camp much more enjoyable for everyone.  There are also some challenges that go along with that too.  Most of our students, in debriefing today, reflected on how their kids are not listening as well today as they did yesterday.  Some kids are also being VERY competitive with other kids.  Please be praying for our students tomorrow that they will love well and be patient!

Kensey, Carissa, & their two new friends

Our trip to Little Cambodia went well tonight.  It was very stretching for some of us to be in a different cultrual and ethnic section of the city.  Some students very nervous, but we prayed and they went and talked to people with boldness and found out some really cool things and heard some good stories.  It was fun to hear those nervous students have excitement in their voice as they returned to the big group and shared with us.

Sam lining up for dodgeball

After Little Cambodia we went to Target where we bought socks to hand out to the homeless people on Thursday.  According to Partor Josh (OH Church that is here) last year some of the homeless told him they really wanted clean socks.  So their youth group brought some with them and we stopped and bought some.  All in all I think our group bought around 50 pairs of socks.  Thursday will be a fun night when we get to hand those out.

Bob and Johnathon playing pool together

Thanks for all the prayers.  Things are well and we are enjoying ourselves and seeing God do some cool things.  Here are some pictures from the day!  Also, be sure to check out the videos too!

Debriefing Time

Morning Devotions on the Porch

Kensey spending time with Jesus

We’re Dancin’

Touch the Ceiling

Bob and Johnathon playing pool together

Sam lining up for dodgeball

Kensey, Carissa, & their two new friends

Barnabas and John hanging out together

Pictures from Day 1

I knew we shouldn’t have driven south.

Bonding in the vehicle (not pictured…Bob and Allegra)

Morning Worship

The Epistle we are reading this week

Registration

Ben leading prayer time

Bekah at lunch

Taylor

Freddie

Electric Slide, Chicken Dance, Cha Cha Slide

We Have Arrived

We got in last night around 11:45. The trip went well. All the pick up and drop off connections went well.

We begin today with breakfast at 8:00 and then some orientation stuff with the Urban Hope staff. Then after lunch the kids come.

Please be in prayer for the day camp today! I’ll post with more content and pictures later.

The Worst Ever

So I was talking with a good friend today, Tyler Shick, today and we determined together that I am the worst blogger in the history of the world.  It has been since last September that I last blogged anything.   Which is why the fact that  people still check out my site is nothing short of amazing.

So here’s a shout out to my 3 fans…I’ll try and be better.  At least for the next 3 weeks.  I will be doing my best to blog about the Urban Hope Trip happening next week and Momentum Youth Conference, which begins July 13th.  Plesae stayed tuned for pictures, and updates about the day-to-day events and happenings as the Holy Spirit leads us where He wants us to go.

Ministry Tools

So in the spirit of Mark Artrip I decided to add to his already long list of Ministry Tools and Resources. Planning Center Online is a tool that I use every single day…no exaggeration included. I use it to plan our Student Ministries programs and our Worship Services. Here is a list of some of the amazing things this website does. My list reflects the version that I pay for ($360/yr.) but there is a free version available to anyone.

1.  Online access for everyone that is apart of your ministry (my subscription allows for 75 people to have accounts)

2. Online music sharing so that the band can access, download, and practice their music at home.

3. MP3 streaming for the band to practice.

4. Real time “drag and drop” updating to your program.

5. Custom reports and tracking for all  song, programs, and services.

6. A beautiful print out for Sunday Mornings (Fun to look at)

Seriously, check out this  tool.  Do what I did, use the free version for a while and if it does what you need it to Upgrade.  It’s pretty much amazing.

2 More Reasons to Celebrate

Last night at Youth Group we wrapped up a 3 1/2 part series entitled “Baby?”. The original plan had been to take the 4 weeks in December that we’d have Group and look at the 4 different pictures of Jesus that we are given in the Gospels. I say that it was only a 3 1/2 part series because of the snow that shut us down for one week in the beginning of the month.

As a culmination to this series last night we presented the Gospel and asked for those there to make a decision. What a Night!!! 2 students responded to Gospel and asked Jesus to be Lord and Savior in their lives. It was awesome! Not only did I do some speaking on Luke and John’s Gospel we had two other students share during the lesson. One, gave some background and context for John 3:14-17 and the other share her testimony and what Jesus means to her.

Perhaps the best part of the night was when I went to follow up with one of the students that committed his life to Jesus. As we were talking about it he mentioned that he had been hearing one of his friends talk about Jesus whenever they were around (This friend is the same guy that gave us the context of John 3). Apparently Trenton has been telling people about Jesus wherever he goes and Lance has always been around to hear what was said.

I’m not sure I can any more proud of Trenton at this point. A Junior in high school who has made a decision to be salt and light wherever he goes, and the Lord has used that in great ways. Merry Christmas!

Below are the 4 pictures of Jesus from the Gospels, if you’re interested.

Matthew–King

Mark–Suffering Servant

Luke–Human

John–God