Inspiring Quote

Have you ever gotten on YouTube looking for a video and then come across a totally different one than what you were looking for. I have had those instances before, but I had one today that really got me to think.

I was looking for a video that would have some kind of a motivational background for it so that I could maybe show it sometime next school year at church, that is if I'm able to stick around in the capacity that I would enjoy, but that's a totally different story. As I was watching the video I was thinking to myself "This is a waste of time," but just as I was about to close it a quote from Braveheart the movie was said. The quote was so profound because of what I have been working on for the fall with other pastors here in the student ministries office at NMC that I needed to stop the video and kind of step back and think about what it truly meant. What William Wallace said was: "Free men you are, but what will you do with that freedom?"

WOW!!!!!

That is so true as Christians. We are free because of the blood of Christ but all too often we don't do anything with it. We, as a staff, had been talking about how we need or should challenge our students about how they should live out their faith, especially since many of them came back from our summer camps wanting to live out their faith. But it hit me that we are free and we do abuse our freedom by not telling our friends, families, coworkers, etc. about the true freedom that we have in Christ.

So my challenge is that you would go from this post and actually do just that. Go and share the freedom that you've received from Christ Jesus and not take it for granted.

AWED BY GOD

Have you ever watched a sunset and been totally awed by God's handy work? Usually I don't watch sunsets that often, and growing up on Lake Huron I don't know why I didn't take advantage more often of God's creativeness and his mighty work. But a couple of weeks ago when I had the opportunity to go to Nappanee Missionary Church's Jr. and Sr. High camp I was awed by God and how creative he is.

The camp was at Beulah Beach Camp in Vermillion, OH, which is on Lake Erie. While I was there helping lead students into a deeper relationship with the creator God of the universe, I was able to watch some pretty amazing paintings that God wanted to show our students. There was one night in particular that he wanted to show us his glory and this picture is of that night. God showed off and showed up that night. It began with some worship where everyone was singing praises to our God, but then after a while it turned into a different kind of worship. It was the kind of worship where everyone from our group was looking at the mighty display of God's creativity. The students were worshiping God with all they had and with all they were. It was amazing to see what God was doing in each of their lives.

After being home for a little over two weeks God is still doing some amazing things in these student's lives. Just this past Sunday morning I had the opportunity to play the drums in one of the services that takes place at NMC, and there were people in the service that said that they could sense something different in the students. God is raising leaders out of this youth group in this church and adults are noticing. This is no longer the forgotten generation, this is the changed generation.

Breaks my heart!!!!

As I was looking at another friend's blog I came across this video, it absolutely broke my heart.

How can we just go about life taking advantage of the small things when these kids have nothing. What are you going to do?

Meeting with Students

Meeting with students and seeing where they are at in their walk with Christ is one of my passions. Today I had the opportunity to meet with a few 7th and 8th grade guys for lunch at Dairy Queen. First of all let me say that anytime someone goes to DQ you know it's going to be amazing, but today it was especially amazing. Why? Well let me tell you. Nappanee Missionary Church, which is the church that I'm interning at, recently had their annual summer camp, and the four guys that I met with went to camp. At camp they were challanged to live out their faith and when they got home they were challenged to put it into practice. And after being home for about two weeks I could really tell that these guys are ready to get out and share their faith with their friends and people they may know at school. God is doing some pretty amazing things in this youth group and I am really blessed to be a part of this program. The passion in these students is amazing. This town and this world better hold on, because God's doing some pretty amazing things in this youth group. PRAISE GOD!!!!!!!

My First Blog Post

Today as I was sitting in the office at work looking at videos on YouTube, a friend of mine, whom I work with, said to me "You should get a bolg." I totally agreed with him because everyone else in the office has one but me. But that's not the only reason why I got a blog. I'm pretty excited about how this blog could be used to guide students, and maybe even adults, in their walk with Jesus Christ. I'm also excited about just having a blog in general. So this is the first of many posts, and I hope that you find this blog helpful and challenging. God Bless!