So I thought I would take a little time to catch up on my life as I have not blogged much in the past 4 months.
It really has been a good summer. It has been busy, but good. As far as youth ministry goes our summer is very trip intensive. I like it like that, except it is a little frustrating that there is a whole section of students I feel disconnected from for two reasons. Some move on to high school and others just don’t so up for the events.
June’s main thing was our annual Junior High Mission Trip. We again went with an organization called TEENSERVE. We served the good people of Merrill, WI helping them repair their homes. I got to know a group of pretty cool kids from all over. One of the people in my crew I had in my crew 3 years ago. Then she was a sophomore and this year she just graduated from high school. It was an amazing coincidence that was on my crew again. Going on mission trip really feeds the soul. God meets students their and he meets me their. We served a nice lady named Ruth that made us strawberry pie from fresh strawberries she picked that morning. I think our company was truly the mission as she lives out in the country all by herself. We had one kid ask Jesus into his life for the first time at mission trip which was cool. I was a little confused at first because I thought he asked Christ into his life at a different event. However, at mission trip his “girlfriend” broke up with him and it sort of put him in “crisis” mode. God used that pain to draw the kid to himself.
July involved 3 major things. First off I got a new boss. After 2 years of not having a senor pastor we now have a new one. It is weird, I sort of got use to not having a senior pastor. Actually, I was quite comfortable without it. He is a very nice man, and I think is a great addition to our church. However, it is strange having the longest tenure and still being the junior high pastor. It something feels like my existence in my church is a little bit of an oxymoron.
I July I also spoke at a 4-6th bible camp. This is always a lot of fun for me. However this year I was at a camp I have never been to before and I was speaking to a younger age than I am use to. I all worked out. I even brought out my annual Elvis Impersonation to keep the kids attention. My wife and kids absolutely adore being at camp.
The we after speaking at camp me and a few other JHer leader took so students into a wilderness camping experience. This was a pretty amazing experience. We caught a lot of big fish. We sat around the fire and talked about life, did a little improve acting in front of the camp fire, gave each other secret names like Bearbait, Dewit (that was me), and the Guardian of Whatnot. Speaking of bears a couple of other JH leaders thought it would be cool to scare the crud of of me at 3:00 am pretending to be a bear! I have never been so scared in my life. I may not ever go camping up there again. I am scared.
August brought other local events with water parks, amusement parks, professional baseball games, tubing, and lots of other relational building events. At the amusement park we went to I went on a ride that you had to pay extra for to try . It was called The Skyscraper.” It pretty much rocked. And it was fun to scare one of the guys that pretended to be a bear. Payback is sweet.
3 weeks ago I got completely few up with gas prices and I bought a scooter. It rocks and get about 80-100 MPG. Nice, huh?
That bring us to the approaching fall. I am getting weepy because my first born will be heading off to Kindergarten next week. It is the beginning of the end. Pretty soon I will be walking her down the aisle.
We got lots of good stuff lined up for the fall. I have a renewed commitment to reach more lost JHers for Jesus this fall.
My wife wants me to try-out for the local community theatre. We will see…I think I will and then go crazy because I will be so busy. I do get an itch quite often to be on stage doing some musical theatre. Ok…enough said. Thanks for reading.
