Day 2: We awoke this morning and put on our green mission shirts so that we could look the part during the church service. Attended church here and met a lot of people who thanked us for being a part of their church and for contributing to Colorado Springs. They were truly grateful for the work we have yet to do. Then we ate lunch and had a really enjoyable afternoon. Half of our group went to the Olympic Training Center and toured the facilities – that was really cool! The other half went to a beautiful city park about a mile from the church to go swimming and play some football. Both groups had a great time. Then the other two churches arrived, unpacked, and we all ate supper together. The teens had some free time, and then we brought them all together for a big get-to-know-you/orientation time. We went over rules, expectations, work site details, and a bunch of other info in preparation for our work projects. The teens are gelling quite well with the other churches. I am thankful to be a part of a group that is so open and welcoming. Now it’s time for some quality sleep. Tomorrow the service begins!

For those of you who don’t know, we are working with 2 other churches to accomplish our mission goals this week: Hope Reformed Church from Spencer, IA, and Good News Reformed Church from Sioux Falls, SD. My youth pastor from when I was a teenager is the youth pastor at Hope, and my brother-in-law is the youth pastor at Good News. Our 3 churches have teamed up to kick a dent in Colorado Springs for Jesus! It is great to be here together!

Day 3: Amazing first day of work. We all went to our work projects, received orientation, and got right to work. My team is in charge of painting the entire outside of a two-story hotel building. We made a ton of progress. Other groups are working at therapeutic riding centers, helping sort, organize, and price items at thrift stores, orchestrating garage sales for the Ronald McDonald House, cooking and serving meals in soup kitchens, and doing a host of other things. Worship was awesome tonight! Steve and Emalee and Alecia did a great job of leading us in song, and youth pastor Peter gave us a great message about being the hands of Jesus. Our youth group devotions were really powerful tonight. We shared a lot of hurts and things that are going on in the lives of our teens. They opened up and were transparent from the first word to the last. I am so proud of these teens, and humbled to be a part of what God is doing in their lives. These teens will change the world, and they are doing that right now in Colorado Springs! Check out the great pictures on facebook of some of the things we’ve been up to today.

Day 4: Our group did great again today. We finished painting the upstairs of the hotel building and got half way done with the first floor. The group that will go there tomorrow and Thursday will finish the deal. Blake and Dakota had another awesome day at the horse riding place. Their host shared some big hurt about her close friends, and the group prayed for her in addition to meeting the needs of the horses and riders. Matt Dicus, Lexi, Emalee, Amy, and Jade did a bunch of sorting, organizing, and pricing at various thrift stores in the area. They have helped immensely in the last couple days in getting these non-profit organizations in a place to better help their customers. Matt Harris and Braden got things all ready for their big garage sale tomorrow at the Ronald McDonald House. That will be a big benefit to them as they are raising funds for their residents. Brenton and Spencer spent the day doing painting and yard work for InterFaith Housing, an organization that helps homeless people get back on their feet. All in all, it was a great day. We will not switch locations and continue working on the same projects to finish them by Thursday afternoon. Continue praying for our safety and our ability to impact those in Colorado Springs for Christ. All our teens are growing and thinking and learning. It’s been awesome!

Day 5: What a great day! We went to the Marian House Soup Kitchen today and worked our tails off. They feed around 600 meals daily, and it is all done by volunteers. Needless to say, we were busy from 7am to 2pm solid! Our team did a great job of working hard and keeping a great attitude. I have heard stories from the other groups as well. We have all gotten a couple different experiences now, and all of the teams are really making a dent at these organizations. We are getting work accomplished, making relationships with clients, partners, residents, etc., and are impacting Colorado Springs for Christ. It is so powerful to watch teenagers gel and then go out and serve the community. It is such a blessing to watch them get stretched by God and be used by him on a daily basis. How I wish we could transfer this to their lives back home! Anyway, it was another great day, and everyone is doing really well. Our host church fed us supper tonight, and led us in a worship service as well. They are such gracious hosts, and it was great to mix and mingle with their youth group for the night as well. The youth pastor’s message was really powerful. Many teens made commitments to Christ or reaffirmed their walk with Him. Great stuff today!

Day 6: Last day of work here in Colorado Springs. We really did a ton of work here. 7 different organizations received help from 65 people this week. We made such a difference in the lives of people and the lives of organizations. I cannot wait for our teens to share their stories when we return; there are so many to tell! We wrapped up all our projects and accomplished all our goals. Many of the organizations were asking when we could come back! It was a great day! I gave the message at worship tonight. Our theme for the week is “hands and feet”, so Monday we talked about hands, Tuesday we talked about feet, and tonight I talked about mouths. We want to show others who Jesus is, and we use our hands and feet to do that. But what is easy to forget is that we also use our mouths/words to broadcast the condition of our hearts and the God that we serve. It was a pretty good lesson, and our teens really responded well to it at our group devotions tonight.

Day 7: Today was fun day! Two churches went white water rafting down the Royal Gorge on the Arkansas River and also went to the Garden of the Gods. The other church went to the Olympic Training Center, the Garden of the Gods, Spelunking, and then to a dinner and show at the Flying W Ranch. What a great day! We all got to hang out, spend some quality time together, and just enjoy the beauty of God’s creation today. The teens had a blast! You have to check out facebook for some killer pictures of us at Garden of the Gods and on the river. Nobody fell out of the rafts, no one got hurt, and everyone had an amazing time! All in all, it was a great day! Tomorrow we’ll travel up to Estes Park and start our summer camp. Going to be another great day!

Day 8: We made it to YMCA of the Rockies safely today. We had an uneventful drive from Colorado Springs. Some traffic on the north side of Colorado Springs, but everything else went well. Estes Park was unbelievably busy; so many tourists! But we got to camp and we registered, and we settled in to our first day at 8,500 feet. We ate supper, had an adult leader meeting, and then went to the first main session. Kristian Stanfill and Allie Rogers lead worship, and Jared Herd gave a powerful message to kick off camp. Then we had some small group time and then personal devotional time before we had “after hours”, which is basically free time with concerts, djs, coffee bars, and a bunch of other fun activities. Now it’s bedtime. I am exhausted and still need to take a shower. The teens are doing great. They are tired, but are super excited for this camp. There’s going to be a lot of fun over the next few days! Stayed tuned for more updates and pix.

Day 9 and 10: Sorry for not posting yesterday. I uploaded some pictures, but neglected to make the updates. Yesterday was our first full day at camp. Breakfast was at 7am, then we went right into our first main session. Kristian Stanfill lead worship, and Ben Glenn gave the message and did his chalk thing (simplybenglenn.com, simpleadhd.com); he is amazing! Then we had morning quiet time and headed to our first seminar. The speakers are Ben Glenn, Tom Tufts, Dave Bartlett, and Craig and Molly Sanborn. The topics are “I’m Special”, “Going Deeper”, “Authentic Faith”, and “How to Have the Best Sex”, respectively. Then lunch, and then our afternoon activities. Half the group stayed on campus and played a bunch of games. The other half hiked up a huge mountain and enjoyed God’s creation. Some of the new pictures on facebook are from atop that mountain. Then supper, then main session #2, and youth group time. Then after hours, which is basically more free time/concerts/comedy/entertainment options. Great day at camp!

Today was much of the same, only we went to different seminars. Now we have done 2 seminars, 4 main sessions, 3 youth group times, and 3 quite/devo times. Plus 2 full afternoons of recreation. Today we went to downtown Estes Park and went shopping. We walked around and hung out a lot. I bought some ice cream and some homemade salt water taffy – so good! Tonight’s youth group time was really powerful. Jared Herd led us in an incredible main session, and many teens made commitments to Christ. Our students made re-commitments and were deeply touched by the Spirit in the room. So we went to devos and had some huge personal breakthroughs. This in not the place to share those stories, but perhaps soon they will be told by the teens from a position of peace and victory! Such a great night! So glad to be these kids’ youth pastor!

Day 11: Our last day of this trip. Wow, what an amazing 11 days! God has done some huge things in the lives of our students, and I am anxious to get back home so that they have the opportunity to share their stories with everyone. Today looked much like the last two days: breakfast, morning session, quiet time, seminar, lunch, rec time, supper, evening session, youth group time. The teens are all out having fun right now. It’s “after hours” and they are getting their last fun activities in and saying goodbye to all the friends they have made in the last 11 days. We have most everything packed, and I am hoping to wrap things up and get in bed. We have a long way to go tomorrow! I’ll leave you with what the speaker (Jared Herd) said tonight: “It doesn’t matter much where we are headed in life. What matters is the person we will be when we get there. You may not know where you are going, but what is important is that you know who you are following.” Amen and amen.

The plan is to take off around 7am tomorrow and arrive in SS between 11pm (Wednesday) and 1am (Thursday). We will be in touch via phone if anything changes.

Day 12: We arrived home safely today at 2:15am. Technically, that’s day 13, but who’s keeping track at this point in time? The van ride was wonderfully uneventful, and we all made it home in one piece. We had a ton of fun in the vans, and were quite silly for most of the trip (due to lack of sleep). But we made it, and we are thankful that everything turned out well. The trip was an absolute success from the mission work to the camp to the van rides, to the fun day, and everything in between. The teens had a blast, and did a great job with everything that was asked of them. Thanks, God, for a great trip!

Now we turn our attention to the end of summer party. Read below for all the details…

When: Sunday, July 31, 2011, 6-9pm

Where: Killgore House (416 Stonebriar)

What: party

Who: middle school and high school students in youth group at SOC

Why: so we can celebrate all that God has done in and through us this summer

How: lots of food, lots of games, lots of swimming, lots of fun, and a few awesome videos

Guys need to bring chips, girls need to bring desserts. Please bring your own towel and a church appropriate swim suit. For directions to the Killgore’s house, please call or text 903-348-0375.

Anchor Point, our children’s environment
for birth to 5th Graders,
opens for check-in at 9:45