Ohio SBC Youth Camp

This past week I was at a youth camp in Senecaville, Ohio. I hadn’t ever heard of it either. Often when we go to a small, nowhere town bad things seem to happen to us. This week was no exception. At 5:00 AM on Monday as we were preparing to leave, I cut my index finger’s knuckle on my trailer door, which ended up needing stitches except I didn’t find that out until after it had bled for two days and I missed the 48 hour stitch deadline. Then there was the whole disaster involving the mountains and my transmission. A few other mishaps and bad circumstances and I was sure this week was doomed to be a miserable disaster.

Then someone at the tow place asked me about my “I Love My Wife” shirt and everything started to change. She asked where she could get one for her husband and we ended having a nice conversation about Oak Leaf Church and how Jesus Christ has changed my life. One of the wrecker guys overheard a bit of our conversation and commented later on how he “cool” he thought Oak Leaf sounded. Before I knew it, the shirt I had on helped opened to door to have about five basic spiritual conversations with total strangers getting gas and grabbing snacks while I waited for someone from the Christian camp I was playing at to come pick us up.

I’ve been thinking about it all week. My transmission could have given out anywhere and yet it completely died on an exit with a wrecker service and a transmission shop, which also happened to be just a short drive from the camp we were playing. I could have chosen to wear anything that day to make the 10 hour van ride a little more comfortable but I chose to wear my “I Love My Wife” shirt because I am both proud of my wife and the church for which they were made. I could have had a completely different attitude after all the bad stuff kept piling on, but I couldn’t help thinking about the much longer list I had to be thankful for.

The week ended up being a blast and God reminded me of something very important. We wear the name of Jesus whether we have a church shirt on or not and should never be so caught up in our little world of comfort that we miss the everyday opportunities to show people the love of Christ.

Xtreme Summer – Panama City Beach, FL

WHOO HOO…XTREME SUMMER WAS AWESOME!!! Can we please get a new hotel? Seriously, Paradise Found needs to be lost all over again. I love playing and worshipping with all the incredible churches and students, but someone down there just needs to buy some rags and cleaning solution and put some elbow grease into that place. Or burn it to the ground. Regardless, the camp was great. Pete Hixon is hilarious as usual with his crazy warm-ups and emcee antics. Xtreme Idol was fun, but the girl totally should have won. A lot of great memories every year, but next year I think I may ask Lysol for an endorsement.

FBCW Elevate Camp 2007

It was good to be back with the FBCW crew this year. Pastor Johnny did an amazing job (as always) and the Rick and the Lawson had it all together. Considering there are not too many people who read my blog and I’m pretty confident those that do have little connection with another camp I will be doing this summer, I’m going to say it: how exactly does a youth group from one church put together a camp in the same room at the same location as a professional organization that puts their camp on with top name Christian artists and speakers and make it look and feel 1000 times better?

All I know is it was a fantastic week and dozens of students made decisions to walk closer to the Father. There was one hiccup. The majority of everyone there for camp stayed in the hotel with the conference room. However, there were four rooms that had to be rented from the Days Inn next door. Our was one of them. Normally that is not a big deal at all. Except this week, the rest of the rooms at the Days Inn were rented by an organization called Gradparty.com.

I’ll spare you the details.

Burnt Hickory D-Now 2007

What a great weekend! It is always an honor to have the chance to lead worship, but it is even more incredible when God’s work is so evident. The students were on fire and fanatical, the speaker Adam Robinson, was inspired and extremely entertaining. I’ve worked with a good number of evangelists and it is not often you find one who has the ability to keep the interest of teenagers AND present an articulate and intelligent message. It doesn’t matter how fast you speak when all the words hit home. Thanks to Matt and all the leaders who did such an amazing job. We were blessed to be there.

NOTE: Say a little prayer for “Haysues” the goldfish. We still believe there was a conspiracy surrounding his death.

WINTER XTREME BRANSON WAS AMAZING!!!

I’m not exactly sure why I have not been blogging regularly like I told myself I would. Maybe that will be my New Year’s resolution. Anyway, on my way home from Branson, MO and wanted to add a note here about how unbelieveable it was. I completely lost my voice the first day out there and had the most frustrating time time trying to speak, sing, and lead worship. But the people were amazing. Countless saints encouraged me with prayer and blessing. I could not have asked for a better experience. Like I said the second night, my voice could have been completely taken away and I would have still done everything to to see to it that God was glorified in everyway possible even if it meant absolute silence. Hundreds of students came to Christ and hundreds more recommitted their life. It was an honor to be a part of it and it was most definitely an event I will not soon forget.

Thanks to all of you for your prayers and support!

What Have I Been Doing?/Fa Fa Fa Weekend

I am not sure what all Idid last week to not have time to post a single blog, but I am pretty annoyed with myself. This weekend I was priviledged enough to take part again in the annual Fa Fa Fa women’s retreat put on by Shadowbrook Baptist church. Though I absolutely blanked and fogot how a song went while I was in the middle of the song resulting in quite and embarassing moment for me, I enjoyed the weekend and was inspired once again by the effort and creativity the leaders put into this event. As a tribute, in case anyone who was there reads this, I am posting the beauty comes from the inside out song available for download immediately.