Thursday, July 31, 2008

Leaving the nest...

Last night we had some students over to celebrate (not in a bad way) the moving on of one my wife's graduated senior girls. It was so amazing to see the students rally around her, encourage her and affirm her. She impacted many of their lives while she was in Vegas. Some things that I learned from watching the students last night were:
1. We all want to be apart of something. The students are so connected and they have some really special relationships.
2. God created us to be in those relationships. We were never intended to do life alone, just read about Adam in Genesis One.
3. Students are fun to be around. Students can either charge you up or drain you. Not everyone is called to work with them and when you are it is amazing.
4. Real relationships are formed over time and sometimes over hard times. Charity, my wife, has poured into the girl who left today and you can see the special bond they have.
5. Pour into others with reckless abandon. You can almost never go wrong by investing into the right person and that is how the Kingdom of God has grown.

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

The Dark Night

So we finally made it back from Hume (it was amazing, I will write about that soon) and then on like six hours of sleep went to Church. After church we all mobbed it to Panera for some grub. I had the Bacon Turkey Bravo and a bowl of Broccoli Cheddar. Then we headed over to Green Valley Ranch for the Dark Night. While waiting we went and played some video games.
The movie was amazing! We went with a grip of students and that made it better. The movie really was pretty crazy and the Joker was a great character. I love the part seeing that Batman is there to protect, but not always loved. That is how I feel as a pastor sometimes. Well its time to go home and see the wife.

Saturday, July 19, 2008

Hume Lake: July 20th-26th 2008

This week we are taking a great team of leaders, students and some students who really need Jesus, to Hume Lake. I am super excited to see God work in this week. Hume does a great program that allows our leaders to spend time with students and really invest in them. We have had some last min sign ups, and have some last min drops. Please pray for us this week. Pray for safe travel. Pray for students to have walls broken down in their lives so that the Holy Spirit can really impact them. Pray for me as a leader to set the example to all we take.
Also, I just received a call from a former student in San Diego who her sister just got back from Hume. She told me that there is some sort of stomach bug happening at Hume right now. She told me that about half the camp had it (almost 500 students) which is a huge number. The bug lasts for 72 hours and causes the person to vomit about every 5 min (not sure how much is true, just sharing what I heard). It makes sense because Hume called me this week and told me that health department has asked them to call all the churches and ask them if they have any students with flu like symptoms to please not bring them or the student will be sent home. Please pray for us, I want to make sure that this is an amazing week for students and that God gets all the glory. I am asking all the people I know to pray for us.

Friday, July 11, 2008

The Church being The Church

We have a HS student name Kyle Watanabe who has Cystic Fibrosis, but you would never know it. I remember the first time he came to Mexico with me and I thought he had to do breathing treatments because he had asthma. Since then I have been to the hospital about 10 times for him, but he is a fighter. God has a huge plan for this kids life. He is so full of joy and models the love of Christ to others, he is some we can all look up too. About four months ago he called "Make a Wish Foundation" and they totally redid his 1970 VW Bug. It is amazing. We revealed it at the church and just seeing the people coming together and reaching out the VW community here in Vegas was super cool.
Here is a video of the event.

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Worship Tonight

Tonight we had our summer nights Bible study and Marc Faircloth lead worship. It was one of the most moving sets of worship I have been involved in in a while.
We sang Mighty to Save and our church was just singing so loud and you could feel the Spirit of God moving in that room!

Wednesday, July 09, 2008

Staff Meeting

Today in staff meeting we were going over the new guest report and there was a lady who found out about our church from "a woman sitting at the slot machine next to me".
I love Vegas!