This afternoon our youth will be leaving for Traveler's Rest, SC to take a trip to the Fall Extreme Conference.  I have been praying for this event for some time because this is the first time that we have ever gone on this particular trip before.  You never know what you are going to get when you go on any youth retreat, much less one that you have never done before.

My college roommate and I share thoughts on a blog called Same Shoes.  Much of what I put on this blog can also be seen there as well. www.sameshoes.wordpress.com

As many of you know, I spent this past weekend in Chicago visiting my step sister.  We had a great time, and the city of Chicago was amazing.  I loved the weather, the sites, the Cubs game, and the food.  I got a chance to take a tour of the city on asegway.  That was an adventure, and I highly recommend it to everyone!

Hello everyone,

Well it has been a wild and crazy week!  I just got home a few days ago from SpiritUs 2009. The weekend went great with a balance of missions, fellowship, and worship like I have never seen before at a camp.  This was the first year that we intentionally added a missions day to the schedule.  On Saturday morning, the campers raised enough money for and worked to package 20,000 meals.  If you add those numbers to the meals done the first weekend, the total number of meals prepared for Stop Hunger Now was 38,090!  Praise God! Later that afternoon, each youth group ventured to different areas of Brunswick County, NC to participate in local mission projects.  53 projects where completed on that afternoon which included home repair, yard work, environmental cleanup, nonprofit thrift store assistance, senior adult ministry, food ministry, church repair, and Fort Caswell beautification.  The youth at ORUMC helped in a community garden in the Wilmington area by picking vegetables, weeding, and planting.  We will be posting pictures from the weekend on the SpiritUs site very soon.  I will post that link when the pictures are available.

In about two weeks, our youth will be going to SpiritUs, our annual summer beach retreat.  This marks the fifth straight year that the youth have attended this camp, and each year proves that interest keeps growing.  This year we have 52 participants going on the trip, which makes it the largest overnight retreat that we have done.

I hope the title got your attention.  A lot of our youth have indicated that this is a  major reason that many of them don't regularly read the Bible on their own.  According to a recent study from the University of NC at Chapel Hill, only 23% of United Methodist teens who profess a personal relationship with Christ read their Bible at least one time each week or more.

One huge praise that has occurred in the youth ministry over the past year is the growth in popularity and attendance with our prayer breakfasts.  Almost every Thursday of each month, some dedicated ministry leaders and I get the privilege of hanging out with the teens in our youth ministry for breakfast before they go to school. 

At youth group last night, I started a conversation with the high schoolers about stories / experiences from our past that still make us laugh to this day.  As the conversation progressed, there was an obvious smile on every face.  It was so much fun to hear them burst out in laughter before they could even get the stories out.

Today I went to Advance, NC for a meeting with six others from around the Western NC Conference with the common goal to plan the SpiritUs beach retreat for 2009.  As I sat there and listened to conversations about name tag colors, staffing, t-shirt designs, drama scripts, and schedules; I realized the overwhelming responsibility that has been placed on the people in the room.

Year after year, teens come to SpiritUs expecting to meet God.  Some come bringing baggage of sins or relationship hurts, and others come for the ideas of awesome recreation and the beach location.  No matter why they come, we have been placed in a position to usher them into the presence of Christ.  Then I immediately began to get paniced and my pride began to grow.  I started thinking about the pressures of "What if we don't get it right?".  

Just then God smacked me in the face and brought me back to my rightful place.  He did so in the form of the closing prayer given by our conference director Caronline Wood.  During her prayer, Caroline asked Christ to begin preparing the hearts of each teenager that would attend.  She begged God to move in their areas of need and begin His work before they even step onto the Fort Caswell campus.  

I realized that I am but an imperfect instrument chosen to minister.  Chosen to guide and chosen to serve in this awesome area of youth ministry.  God is the author, the wooer, the molder, and the perfector of the faith and lives of these young people...

and for that, I am grateful!