What would I change in our ministry

Today at Summit our DYD(?), Jeffrey Portmann, challenged us with the question: "If you could change one thing in your youth ministry over the next year, what would it be?" I've been mulling that question over in my head all day long, and I haven't been able to come up with a great answer. Tonight I even posed it to two of our youth leaders who made the trip with us, and couldn't get a great answer from them either. Part of that is because we've only been at the church for seven months now, so there are a lot of things we're slowly changing, but the biggest reason is that things are going so amazingly well right now, it's hard to find anything that's really that wrong. And that's a great place to be.

I case you're curious, here are the things we talked about:
1) More small group involvement by our students.

2) Visitation. This is a pretty big one, and the closest we got to a great answer. We need a plan to follow up with our visitors.

3) Connecting more with students on Wednesday nights.

Well, it's off to bed for me, good night.
-Jeff-

What should I do after I get saved?

Below is a letter that I wrote to a girl who recently got saved in one of our church vans coming home from playing mini-golf. I started looking around the internet for resources about what to do after salvation, and since I couldn't find anything I liked, I thought I'd start a series on my blog. This letter will be part one of many:



Hey I just wanted to write and tell you that I think it's awesome that you took this step tonight. I really feel like God was in the whole experience, and I hope you do too. If you ever have any questions about what happened tonight, please ask. The bible says that all you need to do to be saved is what you did tonight, but there is a lot more to being a Christian than just saying one prayer. Here is a recap of the talked about tonight, just to make sure you understand what's happened.

1) God Created You and Loves You Alot. He created the whole world just so he could have a relationship with you. He thinks you are absolutely amazing.

2) Everyone has sinned. It doesn't matter who you are, everyone has done something wrong in their life. The problem is that God is perfect and because He's perfect imperfect people can't have a relationship with Him. We can never do anything right enough to get back together with God, therefore we are destined to be punished.

3) Jesus took our punishment. The reason Jesus came to this world was to take care of the sin problem. Think of sin as a prison, with no way out. Jesus came and took our place in the prison so that we can have a relationship with God.

4) We can live for Him. God wants us to be with Him, and just like any friendship we need to spend time with Him in order for it to grow. We do that by praying and reading the bible. Prayer is easy, you don't need to memorize any fancy sayings or anything like that, you just talk to Him. Tell Him all your feelings, your hurts, and your desires. He just wants to hear from you. Reading the Bible is God's way of talking to us. I would suggest reading in John. Try and read a chapter a day, but if you miss a day don't give up on it.

Well, that's about it for now, since I've already written you a book. Do you have a bible? Let me know how you're feeling when you read this, if you're confused about anything just ask.

I'm proud of you,
-Jeff-

What should I do after I get saved? Part 2 of 8

The most important step you can take after receiving Christ is to get plugged in to a good local church. There are many reasons why this is important, but here's a few to get you started:

1. To learn about God
2. To get around people who believe like you do
3. To encourage you when you mess up
4. To help you grow in your newfound faith
5. and lastly, because you don't know what you don't know (more on this in a minute)

A lot of people, including people you know, will tell you that you don't need to attend a church to believe in God. They will tell you that they pray on their own and that is enough for them. They will also tell you that the church is full of people who aren't as "Spiritual" as they are, and that being in church is hurting their faith in God. They will tell you all of this and be completely wrong. The reason is that people don't know what they don't know. The most important reason to be involved in a church is to get together with others who are on a spiritual journey and begin to talk with them. When we get into a church it will prompt thoughts in our heads that we've never thought before. And in doing that we will grow in Christ.

Next time we'll talk about what to look for in a good church.

-Jeff-

What should I do after I get saved? pt 3 of 8

Last time I promised a blog on how to find a good church, and here it is. A good church will have several qualities, including:

• They Preach from the Bible- seems like common sense. You go to church to learn about God, where do you learn about God except through the bible, so all churches should tell you about the bible right? Unfortunately no. It doesn't always happen. If you're at a church and the Pastor doesn't refer to the bible during his message, get out of there. I don't go to church to hear someone's opinion of life, I want to know Jesus.
• The People are Friendly- why would you go to a church that wasn't? As a side note, every church pastor I've ever talked to says their church is the most friendly church in the world, not sure if that helps, but there you go.
• They focus on discipleship- which just means they have a plan to help you get to know God better. Incidentally, I think this is an area where our church struggles a little.
  
• They focus on outreach- Some churches are too focused internally. The reason we're here is to tell others about Jesus (we'll cover this later). God longs for us, and for his people to hide in church and expect people to come to them is a disrespect to God.

So there you are, remember that there are no churches out there that are perfect, but some are vastly better than others. Good luck and I hope you continue to get plugged in at church.

-Jeff-

What should I do after I get saved? Pt 4a of 8

What to expect when you get to church

Hopefully by now you've picked out a good church to go to, but I know that some of the things Christians do may seem a little weird. I'm not going to explain how every church functions, but maybe some insight from my church will help you learn about yours. Here are a few things you'll probably experience when attending an average church.

1. Worship- A typical church service starts with singing. The amount and style vary, but usually there's some sort of worship that takes place. People stand and clap, they raise their hands in the air (it's a physical way of saying "I surrender" to God) or they will bow down on the ground (to humble themselves before Him). Worship is one of the ways we connect with God, it allows us time to focus completely on God and what He's done for us.
2. Announcements/Greeting- Even now it feels funny to reduce our church service into a formula like this, but it is what it is. During the service someone will stand up and talk about all the things the church has going on that week. Also at some point they will ask you to shake hands with the people around you. Our church is very good at greeting, if you leave there without a handshake, maybe you should have left the chainsaw and hockey mask at home.
3. Offering- Yes, we will pass bags around to collect money. No, you are not required to give. In fact, if you're a visitor at our church we don't want your money. Because we don't want you to leave feeling like you had to put something in the plate. It doesn't work that way. The bible says God wants a happy giver, not someone who gives because they feel the need to.

Well, this blog is getting a little long, so I'm gonna cut it off for now and post the second half tomorrow. Hope to see you then.

-Jeff-

What should I do after I get saved? Pt 4b of 8

What to expect when you get to church part 2

Yesterday I posted part one of this topic (which BTW is part 4 of another topic). I think the most important thing you can do as a young christian is get into a good Christian church. For the rest of this series, check out the sidebar and click the graphic like the one on the top of this post.

So, without further ado, here are a couple more things you should expect in church:

1. Preaching- Some people call it "Giving a talk" some call it a message and some call it a conversation. Regardless, at some point during the service someone will stand up (usually the Lead or Senior Pastor) and speak on something from the Bible. Usually there are notes and powerpoint slides available to help you follow the sermon, and the church should be able to get you a Bible before the service if you need one. Also, if you have questions, write them down and find a staff member after church, you'll never know if you don't ask. Remember, the truth is out there!
2. Altar Call- This is the conclusion of the message, and it's a time when people can come down to the front of the stage (called the altar, I don't know why) and respond to what God is saying to them. Sometimes there is prayer for needs, or because a part of the service touched a person. Sometimes it's loud, other times it's quiet and intimate. During this time just respond as you feel that tugging on your heart.

Well, that's what to expect when you enter a church, be sure to find one near you today!

-Jeff-

What should I do after I get saved? pt 5 of 8

How to read the Bible

If you've been following along on our simple process to becoming a mega-christian superstar(or maybe you're just trying to survive without sinning every 10 minutes), then eventually the question turns to: What do I do with this book? By now you should have gotten a bible (the church you're attending can help you with this if you haven't) and maybe you've thumbed through it a couple times. You may even have decided that you're going to read the whole thing through so you started, like any book, at the beginning, determined to get to the end. I would encourage you to do it a little different.

You see, the bible isn't like any other book you've ever read. In fact, it's a compilation of 66 different books, divided into 2 sections (called testaments), written by different authors and spanning almost 1500 years. Normally I'm not the type of person who reads the end of the book first, but with the Bible you should start in the middle. In fact, start in the book of John (that's in the New Testament, right after Matthew, Mark and Luke). John tells the story of Jesus, the God who became man for you and me. After that, continue on to the end of the bible, reading over the story of the early church in the book of Acts, and then going into a series of letters that were written to encourage the first Christians, 2000 years ago. Pay close attention to these letters because they address a lot of the topics that you might be struggling with. There's some powerful stuff in those letters. And finally, once you've read the ending, go back to the beginning.

There are a few tools you can use to help understand what you're reading in the Bible:

• Devotional: This is a book that takes a portion of the bible and cuts it up into easy to understand sections. A Christian bookstore or your church can help you find one that's on your level.
• Concordance: Some Bibles have these in the back, this is a tool that cross-references all of the words used in the Bible, and allows for easy searching of themes and topics. Ex.: If you wanted to find verses about salvation, you look up the word and it points to verses like these: Acts 4:12, Romans 1:16 and others. If you'd rather look online, Biblegateway.com has a keyword search feature that's really handy.
• Christian Friends: Even among strong Christians, we don't talk about the Bible enough. So ask us questions about it, because it's through dialog that we really grow.

Hopefully this points you down the right path. Comments or questions? Send them to me and I'd be happy to try and help.

-Jeff-

Mystery Worshipper?

I saw this over on MMI. Here is a blurb from the website:

Mr. Harrison -- a meticulous inspector who often uses the phrase "I was horrified" to register his disapproval of dust bunnies and rude congregants -- poses as a first-time churchgoer and covertly evaluates everything from the cleanliness of the bathrooms to the strength of the sermon. This summer, Mr. Harrison scoured a megachurch in Cedar Hill, Texas, and jotted down a laundry list of imperfections: a water stain on the ceiling, a "stuffy odor" in the children's area, a stray plastic bucket under the bathroom sink and a sullen greeter who failed to say good morning before the worship service. "I am a stickler for light bulbs and bathrooms," he says..."

Click here to read the whole story.

My first thought is, what a cool idea! I believe in trying to be excellent in ministry, and I know that churches get sloppy at times because we forgive each other when we let things slide. To have someone come in and be brutally honest with us would be a great thing.

But I do wonder about someone who's paid to be a professional critic of churches. That would be a tough job for me to do, because so much of what a church does is through volunteers and people who are there more for their heart than their skill. You would hate to see a report like this get to one of those people.

If you've ever tried it post a comment and let me know of your experience!

-Jeff-

Saying Goodbye

I'm writing this Saturday night but I won't be posting it until Sunday afternoon. Tomorrow we will be announcing our resignation as the Associate Pastors of Oakville Assembly of God. It is a bittersweet time for us as we say goodbye to all our family here in Oakville, yet we're eager to see what God has in store for us. This is not a new development, but something that God has been stirring in our hearts for several months now. We knew for sure that He was asking us to stay here during the pastoral transition, and to be the interim pastor for that time. Now that Pastor James has been here for several months we know that God is pulling us in a different direction, but at the same time I've been dragging my feet because I haven't wanted to leave. I can't count the number of times I've paced back and forth in the Sanctuary at OAG and thanked God for bringing me to this church, yet now after three years we're set to embark on another journey. Thank-you to all of our church family, you've been a tremendous blessing to us, we wish you well and will pray for you often.

-Jeff-

Do our words matter?

I found this interesting article and I'm interested to get your take on it. Click here to read the article, then you can read my comments below.

Being a youth pastor, I know students have learned to censor their language when their around me. Also I spend a lot of my time working with Christian students at church, which isn't an atmosphere conducive to swearing (although Tiffanney would tell you she learned to swear in a church youth group). I have noticed a lot more hateful language coming from our teens. Even words said in jest are powerful, and we have to be careful with the words we choose. One girl in our group constantly is saying "I hate you." And I know she means for it to be funny, but the bible says that life and death are in the power of the tongue, and words like those can be easily misunderstood. You have to be cautious when you throw around words like that, because the words you speak go on forever. Words can be powerful weapons, we need to treat them as such.

Too much stuff going on!

Hey everyone, I know I haven't posted alot lately, but hopefully that will be changing in the next couple weeks and I'll get back into a Tuesday-Thursday schedule. I needed to take a break though and thought I'd throw out a few updates and thoughts that won't make up a whole blog by themselves:

• We have a new Senior Pastor coming in! I talked with him today for about a half an hour on the phone and he seems like a great guy. I can't wait to really sit down with him and hear about his vision for the church and the community. It's fun to have a new infusion of vision.
  
• That means, I don't have to be the Interim anymore! And Tuesday can't come soon enough! Then I get to go back to just being the youth pastor!
• When I met him he started asking me questions about our house and everything that happened here. It confused me how he knew so much about my life until he admitted to reading my blog.
• Tiff and I went up to her Grandma's house this last Sunday - Tuesday. Her Grandma had open heart surgery to replace one of the valves in her heart and needed someone to help for a couple days. I spent a lot of time with Tiff's grandpa who has Alzheimer's. It was really tough to deal with him, not because he was mean or frustrating, but because everytime he asked where we were going I wanted to cry. He is so confused and just not with it anymore. He's started getting the shakes too. I pray that God takes him home quickly.

Well, those are my thoughts for now, time to get back to work.

-Jeff-

Punished for Cleaning up?

I had an interesting conversation with Kadin the other night. It went something like this:

ME: Do you know why you're in trouble?

KADIN: But Dad, I was just trying to clean up all my toys in the living room so you and Mom wouldn't have to trip on them.

ME: Was that what you were supposed to be doing?

KADIN: But I thought you always wanted me to clean my stuff up.

ME: Unless we already told you to get in bed.

KADIN: But I thought it would make you happy...

ME: I love it when you clean up stuff without us asking, it makes me very happy, but I'm even more happy when you do what you're told.

In 1 Samuel there is a story of King Saul. In chapter 13 he was given clear instructions that he was to wait for Samuel for seven days, and that when Samuel arrived he would offer the sacrifice and God's blessing would be upon the people. Towards the end of the seventh day the people started to get restless, and Saul decided that he would offer the sacrifice to God. Here is the conversation that resulted from this decision:

11 "What have you done?" asked Samuel.
Saul replied, "When I saw that the men were scattering, and that you did not come at the set time, and that the Philistines were assembling at Micmash, 12 I thought, 'Now the Philistines will come down against me at Gilgal, and I have not sought the LORD's favor.' So I felt compelled to offer the burnt offering."

13 "You acted foolishly," Samuel said. "You have not kept the command the LORD your God gave you; if you had, he would have established your kingdom over Israel for all time. 14 But now your kingdom will not endure; the LORD has sought out a man after his own heart and appointed him leader of his people, because you have not kept the LORD's command."

To paraphrase, King Saul said, "But I thought it would make God happy..."

I think an even more telling story is in chapter 15, when Saul is told by the prophet to kill everything in a particular area, and yet he decided to save the best stuff to offer a sacrifice to God. That's when God reveals to him the same thing I was trying to get across to Kadin, namely that doing what He says is more important than doing what we think He wants. Here is the way God put it in the bible:

22 But Samuel replied:
"Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices
as much as in obeying the voice of the LORD ?
To obey is better than sacrifice,
and to heed is better than the fat of rams.

23 For rebellion is like the sin of divination,
and arrogance like the evil of idolatry.
Because you have rejected the word of the LORD,
he has rejected you as king."

God was trying to stamp out the same attitude that caused the Pharisees in Jesus time, and causes a religious spirit today. This is the attitude that made the Pharisees balk when Jesus healed a man on the Sabbath, or when He chose not to have His disciples fast on certain days like everyone else did. We need to learn to do what God is saying now, not what we think He wants.

With Kadin, his heart wasn't to clean the living room, it was to try and stay up a few minutes longer. I think with King Saul, he wanted to please the people more than he wanted to please God. God is good at exposing the attitudes of our hearts, and He wants a people who a fully devoted to Him, not using Him for our benefit. Ouch.

Learning to walk with Him daily,

-Jeff-

I dug through the trash the other day.

Blog posts are supposed to have catchy titles in order to attract more readers, so how did I do? I did have to dig through the trash, but first a little backstory.

In the middle of August Tiffanney and I put our rental house on the market. Since then we've been making two housepayments (no, that's not why I dug through a trash can, we're still getting there, hold on a minute). FINALLY, October 29th we got an offer on the house!!! Yeah!!! We'd spent some time praying and fasting about the situation and felt like God would get us an offer by the end of October, which He did.

The next week I get word from my Senior Pastor that I need to preach on the 11th, only to find out later that he is interviewing at another church (I knew before I preached that Sunday). He comes back and tells us that he is leaving on December 9th.

We've been desiring a vacation for a while now, but making two housepayments makes it impossible to save any money. We decided that we would go on Dec 3rd thru the 8th, assuming the house had closed by then. It didn't. This left us with the hard decision of waiting until we had the money in hand and possibly not taking a vacation for several months (until the new pastor comes in) or putting it all on credit cards and trusting that it would close while we were gone (it didn't).

None of this led to me spilling trash all over the floor in the post office though. Here's the main culprit. On Tuesday afternoon we were running through Toon Town in Disneyland, trying to decide where we should eat after we went to visit Mickey Mouse. Standing on the steps of Mickey's house we got a phone call. It was our Childrens pastor. She said that guys from the National Guard were standing at our front door and were waiting for our permission to put up sand bags around our house. We froze, what could we do? Absolutely yes, please sandbag, but then what? How can we get home, and what will we find when we get there? We didn't make it to see Mickey the entire week.

To make a long story short, here's what the next few days looked like. We called around to find out about changing our plane tickets, but the waters didn't receed until Thurday, meaning that even if we had flown home we couldn't have gotten to our house. We had to trust the people in our church to help us out, and they came through for us in a BIG way. Even during the flood we had people over at our house giving us updates, and once the waters went down a little there was a crew over there moving furniture, building fires and trying to make sure that everything was contained.

We got home on Saturday just after Sunset, and were greeted by piles of clothes in our living room and all of our furniture in our dining room. In all there was about 8 inches of water in the bottom of our house and only our family room and master bedroom were affected. I will detail the clean up process and our interactions with insurance companies, FEMA and Home Depot in other blogs ('cause this one's getting too long), but right now I know you want to know about rubbish.

Before we leave our house for a few days, we always try and make sure everything is clean and that any food that might spoil is taken care of. We also typically eat a lot of the food in our house, knowing that when we get back we'll be grocery shopping anyways. So we returned home not just to piles of clothes, but we had no food and our vacation had been payed for with credit cards, so we had no money to buy food. Add to that the fact that the house still hasn't closed and we need to make Decembers house payment still and I think it's safe to say we were a little stressed out. We called a friend who works with the mission and got some groceries from him, and tried to go to the store to pick up some newspapers for firestarters. First we stopped at the post office and I saw that we got those little circular ads in the mail. I thought to myself, if I got one everyone must have, and everyone throws them away, so I jumped into the garbage can and pulled out all the newspaper I could find. I only stopped when I stuck my hand on top of a moldy banana peel. I was so proud of myself for thinking of this that it didn't even occur to me that it was people's trash until that point.

I'm not used to asking for help from people. Usually I'm going out of my way to help others out. To be in the position where I need help is most humbling. Thanks to everyone who's helped during this time, you've all blessed me so much. Please remember to keep praying for the flood victims here in Washington, we can all use it.

In closing I just want to say that while the majority of this post was probably a little depressing to read, we're doing well and we can see God's hand in everything that's happened all along the way. I just needed to vent and this is one way that I can do that.

-Jeff-

Eyes on the prize

Last night while I was reading from the book of Galatians I noticed something that really stuck out to me,

1Paul, an apostle—sent not from men nor by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead—

Our Senior Pastor announced on Sunday that he had accepted a position at another church. This introduced all sorts of uncertainty in our lives, but God, knowing my human tendencies, practically screamed this verse at me Sunday night, letting me see that He has everything under control. Then this morning I came across this story from ESPN's Page 2:

Studies of crashes during aircraft landings under difficult circumstances, he said, showed that pilots who made bad mistakes when approaching an airfield and crashed, but lived to tell the tale, reported that they had been focused on avoiding obstacles. Pilots who made difficult landings without incident reported they had focused solely on the runway. Business and artistic success, Costello continued, follow the same pattern. Setbacks result from constantly trying to avoid obstacles, worrying about what might go wrong. Achievement results from keeping your eyes glued to the prize and endlessly repeating to yourself, "I can do this." Or, as I once wrote, "Keep your gaze in the distance, and though you will stumble, you will reach your destination."

God is in control of our lives. He directs the events that happen and He is in everything we are doing. I'll leave you today with this thought from the apostle Paul:

8Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

If we keep our eyes on Heaven, we will not be shaken either.

-Jeff-

Breakthrough

Yesterday I had a breakthrough moment. Sometimes in youth ministry you just plug along looking for a hint of light on the horizon. Sometimes it's tough to see if you're making a difference in the lives of students at all. Especially because none of them seem very skilled in expressing gratitude. And they don't bother to try. Ever. But we don't do youth ministry for the glory, do we?

With the stress of making two house payments and looking at declining numbers in the youth (and churchwide), it's easy to make the jump to thinking that I'm not effective, or I'm doing something wrong. But yesterday I had a breakthrough. God has been calling me to fast on Wednesdays and I've put it off. Until yesterday. While my family was eating dinner I slipped into the family room to spend some time with God before church and instantly I knew that God was there with me. Within a few seconds the peace of God flooded my soul and I knew that our house was sold and things were turning around in the youth group.

Last night we had church and there were 13 people there, but more important than the number (which was average for the last 3-4 months) was the conversation we had that night. I say conversation because I didn't get to preach. Instead we talked about God and just about everyone was engaged the whole time. God was moving in that place.

Recently God has been revealing to me a strategy to win the youth of Oakville to Jesus. I am now more excited than ever that God is going to do something great here. Like I told the youth on Wednesday, sometimes God says yes, sometimes no, and sometimes He tells us to wait. I'm waiting with anticipation to see what God's going to do in the Oasis.

-Jeff-

PS: Pray for us, it's off to Youth Conference tomorrow!

About Fasting pt 2

Fasting brings power in our lives. In case you missed it, here is my first post on fasting. I wanted to show an example from scripture about the power of fasting, and I came across this interesting little nugget in the book of 2 Chronicles:

1 After this, the armies of the Moabites, Ammonites, and some of the Meunites declared war on Jehoshaphat. 2 Messengers came and told Jehoshaphat, “A vast army from Edom is marching against you from beyond the Dead Sea. They are already at Hazazon-tamar.” (This was another name for En-gedi.) 3 Jehoshaphat was terrified by this news and begged the Lord for guidance. He also ordered everyone in Judah to begin fasting.

As you can see there was a vast army approaching Israel and they were given very little warning. Typically they would send out messengers to the corners of the land to raise up an army to defend their country, but with the speed of this attack there was no time to do that. Jehoshaphat recognizes that their situation is desperate and he knows that the only way out is through prayer and fasting.

Sometime during their prayers he must have heard from God, because what he does the next day is VERY strange. Let's pick it up in verse 21:

21 After consulting the people, the king appointed singers to walk ahead
of the army, singing to the Lord and praising him for his holy
splendor. This is what they sang:

“Give thanks to the Lord;
his faithful love endures forever!”

I wouldn't want to be one of those singers! But because of their prayer and fasting, God showed up and delivered them. In fact the army of Israel never had to lift their swords because by the time they got to the battlefield, the armies from the other nations had killed each other off and Israel just walked around and picked up the plunder.

And that's just how God works. In the darkest and most desperate times, He fights for us and provides victories in ways that we can never even imagine. What are you going through today? What are the giants facing you in this life? Through prayer and fasting, God wants to provide a way where there doesn't seem to be one.

About fasting

Wednesday night we had a pretty interesting discussion in youth about the subject of prayer and fasting. I believe that with fasting comes power. God wants us to see that this life is not the end of everything, but the very beginning. If we live with this life in focus then we grab whatever we can now, because tomorrow doesn't matter. But when we live for eternity, we realize that denying ourselves in the short term benefits us forever. The power in fasting comes from giving up something that gives us pleasure in order to focus on what God wants. As I challenged the students on Wednesday, we need to give up something that going to be hard for us.

I love this story in the book of 2 Samuel chapter 24. David has sinned and knows it. Now there is a plague ravaging the country and the prophet has told David what to do to end it. He must go and make a sacrifice to God in a particular spot. The man who owns the field offers to give it to him, but David refuses, and watch what he says:

But the king replied to Araunah, "No, I insist on paying you for it. I will not sacrifice to the LORD my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing."

David recognized that when we serve God there should be a sacrifice. Eternal Life is free, but it costs us everything we have. It's important to remember that it was God who created us for His pleasure. We need to live for Him and see His plans accomplished in our lives.

What's the fun in hiding all the time?

If you've ever owned a turtle, you know they're no fun when they're in their shells. They don't do anything. Tiff and I had a turtle for a while, but Kadin was scared of it most of the time, and our schedule meant that we were always needing people to watch it. The joy of having a turtle was outweighed by the cost of ownership. Especially since he spent a lot of time inside his shell.

Last week was See you at the pole. I had a couple students peek their heads out and it was a thrilling experience for me. I was so excited to see them step out of the safety and comfort of their shells and put their neck on the line by declaring to their friends what they believed. God was moving in that moment, and I hope these students are beginning to see what God has for them. Because this christian life is meant to be lived, not hidden away from.

-Jeff-

Drama

I am on my way to our second ever drama practice. I'm so pumped about this new team. God is really going to use this as a springboard into ministry for several of our students. I can't wait to see everything that God is going to do. Starting something new is really akin to childbirth. There are great struggles, but the joy of seeing new life far outweighs the pain associated with labor. I know I'm speaking from a guys perspective, but I've heard this from the ladies too. Be praying for us as we go through this time, because I know the enemy will try and attack and tear down what God is doing.

During drama practices I always try and play a game to loosen everyone up, and then I have a short bible study and prayer time. Today God has spoken to me that for the drama game everyone needs to try their hand at evangelism, and for the bible study we're going to talk about the game. We may also talk about the importance of purity in the heart of a minister, but we may save that talk for another day. Well, gotta run.

-Jeff-

PS: Also pray because we listed our house yesterday, pray for a quick sale!