Oh The Things We Do....

Oh the things we do to minister to others...in this case, dress up as nerds. This past week was VBS at our church. For the youth there were different dress up themes each night. I think Jeremy looks dashing, don't you agree.

We also had a band that played live praise & worship music each night. They did a wonderful job engaging the students in worship.

Two of our high school girls decked out for Mismatch night. They definitely went above & beyond the call of duty here.

We had a great VBS week! Ultimately, three students accepted Christ and a number of others rededicated their lives to Christ this week. We had over 100 students attend throughout the week and an average of 80 per night. It was a fun and challenging week for our students. And tonight is the carnival. I will be face painting all night; a great end to a great week.

iLift Middle School Camp - i know. i grow. i go.

Group picture that we took on the way home.

Three of our middle school girls hanging out.

Jeremy and I sitting in a worship service with our students.

We took our middle school students to Lift Camp last week in Springfield, MO. We had a really awesome trip and had two students get saved. Between paintball & bowling, there wasn't much time for rest, but, after all, we are talking about middle schoolers. They enjoyed not getting much rest. This was the last trip of the summer for our students. Now we are looking forward to VBS and promotion Sunday. They are both coming up very quickly.

Don't Worry, Be Happy

Sometimes when you are in ministry, it is easy to get caught up in worry. We worry about trips, and the spiritual condition of our sheep, and whether or not we are making people happy or even making a difference. When really, the only one we should be striving to make happy is our heavenly Father. I was praying today about some of the worries on our hearts lately and God brought these verses to my mind and heart. I wanted to share them with you.

Matthew 6:31-34 says,

"So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

I love these verses. How many times has the Lord provided for us? More than I count, and yet, we still worry. So my motto for today is "Don't worry, be happy.....because God loves us and knows exactly what we need."

Summer Time Means Camp Time

We took our high school students to Crossings Camp in Bagdad, KY last week. It was a very good, but very tiring week. The youth stayed busy with all kinds of activities like:

Blobbing;

Rock Climbing;
and horse-back riding.

It was truly a life-changing week for our students. I'm very glad that I was able to go on the trip. God gave me the strength & energy that I needed to make it through the week. Hopefully I'm on the end of this whole morning-sickness thing. Middle school camp is coming up in one week, so I need to get caught up on laundry! Speaking of clothes, I'm currently in that in-between stage where my regular clothes are too small, but maternity clothes swallow me whole. So I pretty much look silly all the time. Maybe I'm on the end of that stage, too.