We're doing Big Stuf!

On Monday, three teenagers piled in my car and our caravan carrying 16 more headed south to Daytona Beach for Big Stuf Camp.  It was an awesome week and I really enjoyed the quality time with some of my favorite teenagers!  Andy Stanley spoke at the majority of the sessions. Donald Miller (author, Blue Like Jazz) and Jon Acuff (author/blogger, Stuff Christians Like) each spoke at one, too.  We got to preview the new movie based on the book, Blue Like Jazz.  All are great communicators and I got a lot from their talks-- so did our students!

One of our students connecting with a student in Kenya! As part of the "konnekt" theme, Big Stuf paired each person at camp with a child in Kenya to write letters to all week!

Looking for letters from our Kenyan students!

Daytona Beach

Enjoying the beach!

Enjoying church group time!

Our students with pictures of their Kenyan students!

"You make beautiful things, You make beautiful things out of the dust."

More "konnektions" with students in Kenya!

Ravenn and me after session

Aren't they so cool? (ha ha!)

some of my favorite people! (me, Sam, Shad, Jacob & Sara)

I really enjoyed getting to connect with my students, visit with Jacob and Sara, be challenged and worship freely in each session!  The memories are treasures I'll keep close while in Alaska the next couple years!  So far, I've reached 10% of my support raising goal.  I am so excited to see how the vision for this mission and ministry is catching people's hearts!  Let me know if you would like more information on the ministry, on partnering with me, or if you know of someone who would like to hear more about it!

Gatlinburg '10 - Middle School Event

Last weekend I had the privilege to once again work with our middle school ministry on one of my favorite annual events... Gatlinburg!  Friday we loaded up the vehicles (2 vans + my car) and made the trip there.  We had beautiful weather all weekend with clear views of the Smokies the whole time.  (My favorite part!)  

Saturday morning started out with a challenging message from Shad about our "friend lists." He got us thinking about if we choose friends who help us pursue our dreams or not.  Our friends are the ones with us on the path we take in life.  The path we're on is the direction we're going and that is what is going to determine where we end up.  Who in our lives inspires us to dream what God dreams for us?

View from our Meeting Room

Small Groups

After group time, we headed into Pigeon Forge for some go-kar-ting.  That is always a lot of fun!!  After go karts we went to one of Gatlinburg's many pancake places for lunch.  I tried a (as in only one!) multigrain & nut pancake which was surprisingly out of this world good!  After lunch it was on to Fort Fun for putt-putt golf, laser tag, and bumper cars... Also a lot of fun! Dinner was at Los Rancheros (I think that's the name) and chips & salsa and diet coke never tasted so good... Saturday night we had another group session.  Sam talked about your "profile pages" i.e. identity and we talked about 3 main questions... Who have you been?  Who are you now?  Who can you be?  The most important task is not what you do, but who you become.

A couple of my girls!

Ready to Race!

They just can't handle all the excitement... Haha

Shad got the Reese's-something-or-another-pancakes...

Girls @ Flapjack's

Bumper Cars @ Fort Fun

Me and one of the Oilers' hockey stars
@ Fort Fun

Don't you wish you were there...

...I mean, really...

...what's not to LOVE?! 

Sunday morning we had our 3rd group session which Barbara led... talking about our "status updates" and how we portray ourselves.  What you do and what you say (as well as what you don't do and don't say) tell other people a lot about yourself.  Then, it was off to go ice skating at Ober.  No injuries this year-- always a PLUS!  We stopped in Pigeon Forge again on the way home for lunch at Gatti's (which I politely refused thank you very much and my ride home was MUCH more comfortable!!).  Overall the weekend was just fantastic... Can't wait for next year!

Rooted '10

Day 1

Left the house on time. (+10)

Forgot water bottle and had to go back. (-10)

Got to the church within 5 minutes of being on time. (+5)

I was not the last one there. (+10)

Got everything done for work that I needed to before I left. (+10)

Lost my water bottle. (-10)

Scored a great group to ride with. (+10)

No one blew a tire. (+25)

Watched 2 great movies on the way there--Robin Hood and Thr3e. (+10)

Day 2

I woke up early and got to see the sunrise. (+5)

Dede french braided my hair in pigtails for skiing. (+15)

We got to Winterplace in time to enjoy a full day of skiing. (+20)

I struggled my first few runs building building the comfort and confidence that I lost over the past year since I last skied. (-10)

However, I did not fall! (+10)

I skied a lot with Amber on Saturday and just loved hanging out with her; we have a theme song from the weekend. (+15)

One of our students got hurt and had to go the hospital. (-25)

Saturday night we had a big group time where Jonathan and Anna led worship, and Shad shared a message. It was really great! The theme for the weekend was being "Rooted" in Christ. (+25)

Our hotel room had no heat. (-10)

Our hotel bathroom had no hot water. (-25)

Despite the above, I slept pretty well anyway! (+20)

Day 3

We woke up to pouring down rain; so NOT what you want to ski in!! (-20)

When we got the the mountain, it wasn't raining. (+20)

Apparently the rain down below deterred a lot of people from hitting the slopes, so the lift lines were shorter. (+20)

Shad borrowed Kelsey's pants to snowboard [he used injured Student #1's snowboard]. (+10)

He only got to make one run because Student #2 got hurt. (-25)

Two more (for a total of 4) of our students got hurt. (-50)

All ended up (more or less) okay!! (+50)

We had another great night of worship. (+25)

Right as we're all ready to get ready for bed, our bathroom starts leaking, I mean gushing water. (-30)

Shad saved us and got us a new hotel room. (+10)

We packed up and headed to the new room, but it hadn't been cleaned from its previous visitors. (-10)

We got yet another room, barely, and only thanks to Shad's persistence; fortunately, this one was acceptable. (+10)

Day 4

We all packed up and headed back to Georgia, leaving relatively on time. (+10)

We stopped for lunch in Knoxville, but unlike last year, I didn't get the chance to see any of my pals who still live there... they were working! (-5)

We all, eventually, made it back in one piece. (+5)

Score

0-25 Terrible Trip; would never do it again.

26-50 Okay trip, had better, had worse; probably won't do it again.

51-75 Pretty good trip; probably will do it again.

76-100 Great Trip; absolutely will do it again.

So normally it is my goal to take as many pictures as possible... but for whatever reason, this weekend my camera spent more time in its case than it ever has on a trip. I did take a few, but not nearly enough so, a big thanks to everyone who has already posted pictures on Facebook, allowing this post to be a little more visually appealing. :-)

Sunrise Saturday morning. Oh how I love sunrises!

Jonathan and Anna,

our worship leaders for the weekend.

The Walking Wounded...

Mike (sprained ankle), Gabe (concussion),

Matt (something to his elbow), and Michael (sprained wrist)

Irony is cruel.

The group.

Amber, Michael, and I on the slopes

Kelsey and me

Shad boarding.

Lexie, me, Kelsey, Camille, and Amber-- some of my favorite girls.

24 a lock-in.

What an awesome weekend...

Back in February, I think, I talked to Shad about planning a back-to-school lock-in for the youth. I talked to our Sunday morning band about leading worship, talked to my friend Grant about speaking, talked to Ashley about designing some promo stuff and tshirts, talked to a guy named Joseph who is the most amazing sound/tech guy I know and started planning with Shad. Early in the planning stages, we picked Romans 12:1-2 (from the Message) to be our key verses:

Maybe in April or May we decided the theme would be "24" (totally Shad's idea, and I loved it!). Again, I met with all of the aforementioned people to update them... and started meeting with a handful of other people to plan. If you are a fan of the show, you know the intensity that comes with every episode, every second. Shad and I wanted every second of the lock-in to count. Let me just tell you that it is a great concept... but much harder to actually execute than to dream about. Mid to late July everything was really coming together. Our small group leaders were excited and involved, our speaker was set, the band was good to go, there were a handful of people responsible for each hour as well as transitions so that we could make sure "every second counts."

Megan had great games and activities planned for every potential moment that we had some extra time-- she was awesome, never letting there be any down-time. Brian and Chip planned a game of waterballoon volleyball that was incredibly fun. Barbara and Rachel planned a scavenger hunt that went over so, so well! And, we had the students involved with learning the key verses of the weekend... memorizing Romans 12:1-2.

Grant and I had been talking a lot over the past couple months; he planned both messages and both small group sessions. When he sent me the first draft of the small group time, I was really blown away. He had put so much time and effort into making it relevant, interesting and useful—he really exceeded my expectations! I heard so many great things about the small group times.

Plans with the band changed on Wednesday (3 days before the event). Part of me kind of wanted to panic, but Shad was praying about it with me and just prayed, "God, you knew this was going to happen. We wish we knew sooner, but this is no surprise to you..." and it really hit me that God really was not surprised by this, so I really just needed to trust that it was in His hands-- and honestly, it would be better that way anyway. I texted Joseph to let him know what was up and he wrote me back asking me if I wanted him to ask around and try to find someone. Well, sure. Why not? I filled Shad in and we both started kind of working up a plan B. By the end of the day, we kind of had a plan B, a plan C, and maybe even a plan D haha. But, I'm pretty sure you can guess what I'm going to say next... Yep, there was no need for a plan B, C or D. A band, Chasing Seven, was available and interested in playing. The funny thing is that a good friend of Joseph's knew the band, but none of us had ever heard them play or met them. It really was totally out of our hands...

The band was amazing. So much more than I ever expected. They sounded great, had great energy and were awesome worship leaders. I met up with Jeremy for a few minutes after they played to thank him for coming out (they traveled over an hour each way to come play)... I filled him in on some things from "this side" and told them that they were truly an answered prayer--in several ways. "Ironic" enough, the band had had crazy things happening on their end, and Jeremy told me that if he had gotten the call any earlier in the week, they would have probably declined. God is good, huh? That is an understatement!!

After an amazing time of worship led by the band, and an awesome message on living a life of worship from Grant, and a great time in small groups... We headed outside (where it was not raining/storming even though it was supposed to) to enjoy some camp fires and roasting marshmallows.

At the camp fires, Shad initiated a kind of open forum, sharing his story and encouraging the students to share theirs... what a great time of getting to know each other a little better. I think that was great for the students. Barbara G asked Shad why he liked working with teens so much, and I so admire his response.. "When I look at teenagers, I see who they can become..." Because I was once a teenager in his student ministry, it was really cool and encouraging to hear that. Grant and I were hanging out and he said how much respect he had for Shad because he is so genuine. Me too, Grant!

Sunday morning was a breeze--Grant led worship (I had no idea he could sing? haha), talked on Romans 12:2 and not conforming to our culture, then dismissed everyone to small groups again. The whole weekend went better than I even hoped for, and I'm so glad it was out of my hands!

Though most of them will probably never read this...

On Sunday afternoon, I started making a list of everyone that really made the weekend come together... I'm posting that on here, so (1) if you read this, you know how much I appreciate you, and (2) so that anyone else who reads this will see how many people made the weekend great. A big thank you to...

Shad (couldn't have even done the weekend if he hadn't believed in me enough to let me start planning it-- not to even mention all he did during the planning and during the weekend),

Barbara R (planned the meals, scavenger hunt, prizes, and was a small group leader),

Steve (helped me at registration and with planning),

Megan S (planned games),

Brian and Chip (planned games and were small group leaders),

Barbara E and Dede Z (small group leaders and helped with any/every random thing that was needed),

Barbara G (helped with registration and was a small group leader),

Andrew, Caitlin, Chelsea, Ronnie (college guys who were small group leaders, helped with any/every thing!! huge help all weekend),

Chris C (small group leader),

Michele and her sister (small group leaders),

Mary (helped with scavenger hunt and honestly a sight for sore eyes on Saturday),

Jeremy & Chasing Seven (band),

Grant (speaker),

Joseph & Kari (sound/tech/videos/game/prizes) & some friends of Joseph who I don't even know who helped Joseph and Kari with videos/sound),

Travis S (lights),

Judy (prizes),

Ruth (donation),

and probably many more who helped any/all of the above--including donations, planning, etc.