Well, I’m headed off to Warrenton VA with CSP youth for their Sr. High mission trip. I’ll be leading worship for them in the evenings, and co-leading one of the work crews the rest of the time. Keep us in your prayers!
I don’t know if we’ll have internet up there or not, but if we do, I’ll definitely try to post something! (and maybe finish posting the Jr. High trip)
Continued…
Everybody got here and then we got everything set up. Fortunately, Darrin had a spare air mattress! We had some issues with inflating the airbeds, but someone had an air compressor that hooked up in a car.
We had dinner, which was Hot Dogs, Burgers, Beans, and Mexican Dip. We ran around in the gym and played with stuff and ran around. (and got really tired)
We had our evening worship session. I got to play with Brent and Erin and did acoustic worship. We played “You Are Holy (Prince of Peace)”, “How Great Thou Art”, “How Great Is Our God”, and finally, “Breathe”.
We had a little discussion about how we could do all things through Christ, and talked with our group about the expectations the world puts on us, and how to rise above them.
We had a meeting to split up the teams to the different work sites and went to bed…
So we’re off on the missions trip! As I write this we are on the road driving.
I went up to CSP early around 9am to help Darrin (the youth minister) with a few things. I spent some time in the morning helping Father Craig try to learn how to use Planning Center (a great worship planning tool that I told him about a few days ago) but unfortunately, their internet (which is provided by satellite) wasn’t working properly. We headed out from CSP around 10:30 and headed to St.James. We arrived and waited for the rest of the groups to get there so we could leave.
We headed out down the road and had lunch at the local Arbys and Wendys. We got back on the road around 12:50 and headed up north.
On the way up, Darrin was talking about his new phone and how it could get email, but the feature wasn’t working properly. I took a look at it, and with the help of mobileweb, I was able to find the settings for his email provider and get it set up and working. We were joking that has finally entered the technological age, now that his phone can get email and text with a flip out keyboard! (He says its the most advanced phone he’s ever had)
We were getting up into northern SC and we found out that I-385 was closed for construction. We ended up totally taking a guess (and trusting the GPS) and took a detour through Laurens on 101. This actually cut a few minutes off of our travel.
Our group’s cars got up to Greenville a bit before everyone else, around 4:20. We unloaded our cars and played the game “Signs” for a little while before everyone else got here.
To be continued.
Well, it has been a while since I blogged anything…
I guess the first thing of note is that I am going to have a very busy summer. I don’t expect to get paid much in the month of June, as I will be gone for several days on various ministry related trips and other events.
First of all, I’m going as a Student Leader on the CSP Jr. High (6-8 grade) missions trip to the Greenville area. I don’t know a whole lot about that trip other than that I am going and that it will be Monday through Thursday. I don’t think I will have to miss Greenhouse that week though.
Next up is Youth Quest, which is a sort of Youth Vacation Bible School. I am going to be leading the worship music and probably helping to lead a small group as well. This will be from 9am to 12pm from Monday to Friday. Since I am to be helping lead, I will probably need to be there from 8am till 1pm, which makes me unavailable for work until after 2pm. Tuesday and Thursday I’ll not be working because I just won’t have enough time that day. After that week, on Sunday we’ll have a VBS commencement service to wrap things up.
Then, I am going on the Sr High missions trip (rising 9th graders -12th grade grads). With that trip we are going to Virginia to a town called Warrenton, which is a ways outside of Washington, DC. This will be basically a 8 day trip. I am going to be in charge of the worship music for the trip, and we will have music and lessons every night, and a special service on the Thursday.
We’re going to have four teams that travel around to four different sites. Two are work sites, where we will be doing construction/renovation, a food bank site, and a prayer site. This is all really exciting to me because even though I’ve been a part of churches and ministry all of my life, I’ve never been on a missions trip before. This will be great because I’m getting to go with a group that I’ve grown close to over the last 6 months, and also some of my friends from the L family are going too.
Last but not least, my two good friends AT and JF are getting married in July, and I’ve been asked to be a Groomsman! That is at least two days in July I’ll be unavailable, not to mention JF’s Paintball bachelor party (shoot-em-up, as he calls it) in June!
I sort of hope that my company doesn’t decide to introduce anything new this month…
Beautiful The Blood, by Fee
I never knew death could be so sweet,
I never knew surrender could feel so free!
I never seen such meekness in majesty,
That the blood of Jesus was bled for me!
And now I sing freedom for all my days,
It’s only by the power of the cross I’m raised,
The King of Glory rescued me!
How beautiful the blood flowed,
How merciful the love shown,
The King of glory poured out,
Victorious are we now!
Never knew through these nails would love unfold,
And never knew these wounds would heal my soul,
I’ve never seen such beauty and sorrow meet,
That blood of Jesus was bled for me…
And now I sing freedom for all my days,
It’s only by the power of the cross I’m raised,
The King of Glory rescued me!
How beautiful the blood flowed,
How merciful the love shown,
The King of glory poured out,
Victorious are we now!
How beautiful you are!
How merciful you are!
How glorious you are!
Christ the Savior!
How beautiful you are
How merciful you are
How glorious you are
Christ the Savior
So here we are in the hotel after the first night of Acquire the Fire. We had a great trip up, and made really good time. (In no small part to the bus practically flying up here.)
We stopped to have lunch in Columbia at Chic-fil-a. It also happened to be the lunch rush, but we got served pretty quickly. We got back on the bus and headed on to Greensboro. We pulled in to the colosseum about an hour early and we waited around till we could get in.
The evening started off with a worship set by Unhindered. They played “We Will”, “Light This World”, “Who Is Like The Lord” (one of my personal favorites), and ended with “Father Will You Come”. Worship was followed by a message by Mike Guzzardo. This was followed by an awesome drama entitled “Encounter”
The drama started off with a “conversation” between an Angel and a Demon. It then went on to a story about some High School students, a Football Star, his Ex-Girlfriend, a Gossiper, and a “Nerd”. The story was very similar to that of the movie “To Save A Life”, but much of it focuses on how much angels and demon battle over us. The football star discovers that he has made his Ex pregnant. She struggles with what to do, and he struggles with how it will affect his future. Towards the end of the drama. The local school gossiper spreads the story and he nearly breaks down. The local school coach agrees to help them by adopting their baby, since their only child was killed in a tragic car accident. We then learn that the school gossip spreads the stories because of the guilt she feels, because she was the one who killed the coaches child. The demon tells her she is worthless and tempts her to hurt herself, and the nerd comes to comfort her. There is a surprise confrontation between the girl and the coaches wife at the childs grave. They discuss things and forgive each other.
Mike came back on stage and delivered an altar call, inviting anyone who had things to give up to God to pray with him. As a part of the altar call, we sang “How He Loves Us”. After we sang Max invited everyone to go back to their seats and gather together with their friends and youth groups and pray for each other.
The altar call was followed by a concert by Everyday Sunday, a Christian Rock group. Unfortunately, their sound was all messed up and we couldn’t really hear the music.
This was a really powerful evening. I can’t wait to see what God does tomorrow. We will have more concerts, more talks, and hopefully more drama too.
Alright! I’m getting ready to head to the bus for Acquire the Fire. I plan to make an update tonight, so check back in soon!
I can’t wait to have an awesome time with some of my greatest friends from Greenhouse and the supporting churches.
(This song below says everything)
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Now playing on iTunes: Newsboys – Everywhere We Go
via FoxyTunes
One other thing I’ve been doing (I wanted to say recently, but I’ve been doing it for nearly six months) is volunteering at the CSP “Lighthouse” youth group in my area. Many of my friends have gone there over the years, and I’ve gotten to know a lot of the people there pretty well.
I lead worship for them on Sunday nights, and I also am a co-leader of the 9th grade small group. I had previously been working with the 5-6th graders, but the leaders agreed that given my knowledge of the faith, that I would be more accessible to guys a little bit older.
We love doing all of the fast “jumpy” type songs, but I also get to do some of the slower ones that I don’t usually get to do at the Greenhouse. Right now I get to play with “my bro” DL who plays djembe, KD, and who plays acoustic. AT and JF sometimes join us as well.
We have lessons that are planned out by an awesome minister, a real scholar of the scriptures. Right now we are learning methods of studying the Bible.
I’m really looking forward to this summer as well, I have been asked to go along on the Senior High mission trip as a leader. I’m not sure if I am going to be able to go or not, because I am going to be in a wedding shortly after…
Yep, it’s that time again! Time for Acquire The Fire. I hope I can actually blog about the experience this time. Last year I tried, but the WordPress app on my iPod Touch wouldn’t save a draft until I had enough wifi to post it. I’ll have my netbook, so hopefully that will facilitate my blogging capabilities.
We’re going to be back in Greensboro, NC this year. The theme is called “Encounter”.
I actually considered not going this year. Last year, I didn’t really get a whole lot out of it, but then again, it is targeted at 8th-12th graders. I am quite a bit beyond that. However, I really did enjoy the worship music last year, and that is one of the main things I am looking forward to.
Being in the band that provides worship at the Greenhouse, I don’t often get to participate in that sort of awesome “rock-style” worship, since I am playing it. I also know it is important for me to go to be “accessible” to the youth, as someone closer to their age who they can relate to. I know some of the kids might not feel comfortable sharing some of their issues with someone old enough to be their dad… I was like that once myself.
By the way, the band providing worship at the Greensboro event is Unhindered. Check them out if you are not familiar with them, and especially listen to their song “Who Is Like The Lord”.
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