Friday & Saturday in one day

This was the start of the trip. I had 4 kids in my car, Tom had 5 kids in the SUV he borrowed from a Young Life committee member. We drove to Middletown (suburb of Louisville, KY), it was about a four hour drive. Good stuff though. The drive was really fun, and went by quickly. There was a lot of energy, and we all enjoyed ourselves quite thoroughly. We got to a small church, which served as our HUB or meeting place for the weekend. Friday evening, we all (there was about 100 kids from the Kentucky/Indiana area. They are all kids that are interested in doing ~WORK CREW~ and so all the kids that came this weekend, are kids that are ready to go a step further in their faith with Christ. To learn what it means to have a servants heart.This was right after we had gotten there, I think it was around 8:30ish when we finally pulled into the church parking lot.

So, the night eventually came to an end, and we were staying at a committee members house in or near middleville. He was a really cool guy, but there was like 20+ kids & leaders staying in his house. It was PACKED to say the least, but that's all good.

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SATURDAY

Saturday morning rolled around and it was time to meet up for a small amount of time at the church to get our directions for what we were going to be doing, and then we were off to a woman's shelter in down town Louisville, KY. It was really great, because the whole idea is to give them a taste of what they will be doing for a month, while they serve kids that are going to the camp as campers. We wanted to give them an idea or taste of what it means to serve, and get down in the nitty gritty. There were a lot of great people, and we worked our butt's off. In the morning we moved many many heavy wooden tables and benches and what not out of the way of this little courtyard, swept it out and cleaned it up, then placed everything back. In the afternoon we started cleaning car's at the car wash.

Very rewarding too. When we had some free time, my crew (kids that rode in my car) and myself decided that we wanted to walk across a bridge (one of the huge bridges in Louisville).

Here is a picture of THE CREW. We gave Cody's phone to a couple passing by, and had them take a picture of us, it was extremely bright out, so that is why it looks the way it does. We decided as a group that we wanted to cross one of the HUGE bridges that crosses the great Ohio river. So, that is exactly what we did. It was really cool because right as we got in the middle to the bridge, a huge tug with a bunch of barges full of Coal passed under us. It reminded me of what I use to go to school for, and was pretty exciting. I think this picture was also from Cody's phone. When we finally got back to the HUB church, we had dinner, and enjoyed each other. I borrowed Jorden's (another kid in our group who drove with Tom) phone to take this picture. It was a really good Friday & Saturday.

When we got back to our host house, we settled by his big HD t.v. and watched Larz and the real girl. If you have not seen this movie. It is seriously one of my favorites, and I cry when I watch it. Soo good.

I am blessed to be a blessing.

Do you believe in what you see?

I had a conversation with one of my friends a while back. We talked of God, and many subjects that were "God concerned." When it came down to the, "well, do you believe in God?" He was kind of beating around the bush, I got an answer that was kind of like, "well, I know everything didn't come from a dust particle." He further explained that it just was not enough. I asked him, "well, would you surrender your life if Christ came back right in front of you, if he let you touch him, or did miracles?" He kind of shrugged and said, "well yea." I have a strong inkling that he would not. I mean, I am studying the Israelites in my Bible Study Fellowship (BSF) and they had God do all the most amazing things EVER, but still choose to turn their backs and go against him, and do their own thing instead. That is where blind faith plays such a HUGE part in the walk with Christ/personal relationship. Trusting no matter what the situation is, allows you to create a relationship with God, that brings you to new and inspirational levels in your life. It is truly amazing. For me, personally. My belief in God can be explained like my belief in the wind. I can not physically see wind. I can not physically touch wind. Sometimes when it is really cold, it will blow past me and give me chills do the innermost part of my bones. When I see a great tree flow back and fourth on a windy day, I can see the impact wind has on it. The wind becomes real and tangible, but not physically present. With GOD, I can not physically see Him. I can not touch Him or have Him physically touch me. BUT, without the slightest doubt in my mind I KNOW he exists. I know He exists when lives change, for better or worse. When I am chilled to the bone after experiencing the Holy Spirit move in such a powerful way, it is just undeniable. Today, the Young Life conference in Louisville continued. We heard the speaker speak, but the WORSHIP music was what really got me. Don't get me wrong, I took some really awesome stuff from the speaker (Jack), but the worship music, and singing to God with 400 other like minded individuals can do something to a person. This was Jesse, he was the worship music leader for the weekend, and boy was I glad he was. Filled with the Holy Spirit that man was. Great music, very fun, very Holy. I am so glad I was able to go to Louisville with my team this weekend, it was GREAT!!

I got home and took George to Dave Church. Again, an amazing message, and George was glad I kind of persuaded him to go. He didn't want to at first, but after I got him there, he was very thankful he did. This is a great picture of Dave. In his message tonight, we talked about the church, and what the Church's stance needs to be on the topic of the cause. His cause, to paraphrase the whole thing would look like this. [The cause is more important than the people]. SLAM BAM, thank you ma'am! These were some of my notes, I am just going to throw them down because I am tired, and I am taking a kid from Snider to breakfast tomorrow morning, so I wanna go to bed. I love you for taking an interest in my life. I really do.
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CAUSE: We need 2 do what is in Gods best interest: proclaiming Him & loving Him.
-drawing others to Him.
-doing unto others what we want done to us.
-sacrifice ourselves: live in a way that works for others best interest....no matter what. This must continually be made the central focus.
-thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Do we really strive for that? Making those two one in the same is the goal.
-must be sold out for the cause, willing to die 4 the cause.
-a Clear cause creates community. ++COMMITMENT TO THE CAUSE=COMMUNITY++
-Programs, structure, success, aren't gonna be found in this Ministry, BUT A CAUSE, we will have, and it will be bright and powerful.
-implant and execute the principles that allow real people to do for others what they want done to themselves.
We want the big picture (or big opportunities in life), but God points out the little things & we can't even do that correctly or aren't willing.
-He heals your diseases. we all got problems, not a physical healing, but a healing from any kind of condemning promise there is not.

When it is too hard to move forward in Christ, or maybe it is just too hard at the moment, or frustrating or whatever. At the very least, just stand in Christ. Just stand and accept the Truth of salvation overflow into your heart, slowly everything will do exactly what it needs to do.

Louisville trip

WOW, what a blast. From the drive up, to the first song we sang.Here of course is Sam, fellow Young Life leader. I believe I will be spooning with him later on in the evening when I go to sleep. Of course, not on purpose....This is a picture I captured of one side of the room of people. It is awesome because there is so much energy, and God is so ALIVE In these people that are close to my age and just like minded. It is such a powerful thing to be a part of. Our group, like our area people ended up at Applebees, and we ate desserts, and it was really fun and awesome. God has showed up in a big way. I felt lead to give a toast. So I took a glass and got everyone's attention, and explained that ever sense I got involved with Young Life, I have been able to be accountable to the things I want in life, and have just grown so much by being able to be around people that are the same as me, or at the start, were the same as what I wanted to be. Very cool, very good for me to say. Response was excellent from one girl. I explained how I had never heard of Young Life, and then I got super involved, she said she needed to hear that. EVERYTHING HAPPENS FOR A REASON, I constantly learn to listen to God when he tuggs. AMEN.