10:45 Experience Day 3

10:45 Experience Day 2

The Journey!

Well it is finally here! The first mission trip I have ever been on is also the first mission trip that I have ever planned. If you know me you know I am a let's go do it type of guy. So needless to say I was in shock when I realized how much paperwork there would be to do. But thanks to my amazing wife, paper work is done and everything organized. Enough about that stuff, let's get to the stuff that matters.

Our journey didn't start today. It started months ago when we, (I), felt God leading me to do something different. I had always gone to a summer camp, the church I am at has always done a summer camp. So that means we stick with tradition and do a summer camp, right? Not! Nothing against camps but lately I have been pulled into focusing on meeting the needs of others, loving people wherever they are, and serving the LOCAL community. In other words giving my life as a living sacrifice. Pretty sure the Bible says something about that. So the journey began.

Forget all the details on how we chose the trip and how we hooked up with the body of believers we are working with. Plain and simple, God did it. Camps are great. We go away for week and have this mountain top spiritual experience. We get off the bus and sprint to the top of the mountain and it feels so good. We are recharged! We get on the bus, come home and before we know it we have tripped and slid down that mountain as quick as we went up. Honestly it sucks! What a draining experience. That's where this trip was different from the beginning. We started preparing months ago. Every message I gave on Wednesday nights was pointing toward the trip. Unity, living life abundantly, love, encouragement, focus. I got this crazy idea that 30 days before the mission trip I would challenge myself to go "deeper" in my relationship with a loving Savior. Then I decided to bring everyone for the ride. Knowing it would be hard for any of us to finish it. Well I never knew how serious some of them would take it. I am pretty sure I had some parents ready to smack me when there kids gave up their cell phones for a week to focus on God. But through this whole journey I have seen friendships formed, and spiritual growth in so many of us. This wasn't a sprint to the top but a steady climb.

Day 1. We got off to a rainy start but the sun was shining when we got off the bus. The hotel was amazing and in a later post I will share how God was already preparing this place for us. We broke up into teams to get our job descriptions and started planning for Xtreme Nights. The skit practice went amazing. People were engaging with each other and not just within their circle of friends but with everyone.

Amazing start to an amazing week!

Feeling Good!

It was one of those weeks. You know the kind. You have enough to do to keep you busy for a month but a deadline to meet in a week. You feel like you can do nothing right. You have a line of people with some complaint. You crave a day off to relax but can't afford to put things aside long enough to get that time away

That was my week. I was up late working on numerous projects and getting less sleep each night it seemed. my body was tired and my mind was numb. I had been putting in extra hours at both of my jobs. There are days when it just doesn't seem worth it and I was having a couple of those in a row. I was behind quite a few paychecks at the one. Thankfully my wife has done an amazing job at juggling our bills and somehow kept everything up to date.

Something that hadn't happened in a while happened that weekend. My wife and I were able to go out on a date. Our son was invited to stay the night with some friends and the mother-in-law took our daughter shopping. We finally got to go out. We enjoyed every minute of it. It was a gift card date. Used gift cards for dinner and then used gift cards to see a movie. It was perfect. We laughed and joked the night away. We acted like teenagers going out by themselves for the first time.

We even got to go to the beach by ourselves on Saturday. I taught Laura how to catch fish. Really, barehanded. Ask her. She didn't even have to make mud pies that day. We caught crabs, the crustacean kind. The only drawback to the beach was we both got a little burnt. No big deal, we have shed and back to normal already. Then we were able to find "The Chattaway" for lunch. It is a little hole in the wall burger joint. I loved this place. I ate there for an emergent church conference I attended in 09. Somehow we found it and enjoyed a great meal.

Then it was back to reality, fun was over and back to the real world. I honestly was feeling a little, okay, a lot, beat up. I felt like a cage fighter in a handicap match. Don't get me wrong there were plenty of "good" things going on. We had 10 visitors in our youth gathering. Yes 10! It just seemed the bad was so bad in over shadowed everything else. Then I began to remember to focus on the things that matter. Love God, Love people. I had someone who was visiting tell me they wish their youth group was like ours. I had someone else tell me they wish their youth pastor cared as much about them as an individual. There was also an email sent about how much people loved our group. I am not saying any of this to receive thanks, or glory. I am saying all this to say one thing. Through life's crap God's love is still visible. Christ came to give us a more abundant life. Not an easy life with more stuff. Those people who shared in my life this week, Thank you for helping me see the abundance of life!

Ready for round two.