Nicaragua:: Day 1

What an amazing first full day (and first work day) we had here in Nicaragua. God gave us beautiful weather with a great view and plenty of sun... maybe even too much sun for most!

We started our day early with our team devotional time and then some individual time alone with God. We then loaded the bus and headed up the road about 30 minutes to the Los Cedros community. We've worked in this community on previous missions, building a home and working on the school. We had a little trek up to our work site that sits on a hillside.

Our team is building a home from literally the ground up... and we worked the ground pretty hard today! Since it is on a hillside we had to cut in to get level for the foundation. We also had to dig about 10 2-4 foot holes in what we are calling the honey dirt - because it is so sticky and compact. It was a tiring day, but we got a lot accomplished: footers dug, rebar built, foundation prepped, concrete mixed and poured.

The woman we are building the home for is a 45-year old widow with 4 boys. The youngest is 16 and still lives with her. She has never had a house before. She is currently living near Pastora Manuel and the church and her boys take care of her. Her dream was to one day own a home. She was given a tract of land and the supplies were delivered on Monday. When she walked up the hill today she was overwhelmed. I introduced myself and navigated my way through about 3 sentences of Spanish and then called for some translating help! She proceeded to share her story, her faith and how she couldn't believe she was actually going to have a home of her own. She was overcome with emotion and I was too just listening.

After a full day of work, we did enjoy some down time at the pool and had a great dinner and then team time together tonight. We invite you to pray for us and the work and ministry God has in store for us; but also pray that He would do a good work in our hearts as well!

Nicaragua:: we made it!

Just a quick post to let you know that our construction team has arrived and without incident. Praise God for good weather, a safe flight and all our baggage arriving intact! We have be debriefed and settled into the rooms and are ready to eat dinner. We hit the ground running first thing in the morning at the worksite!

Kulaqua :: Day 4

It was somewhat of a bittersweet day today knowing that it was our last full day of camp. This has really been a special camp for our middle school students personally, but also for us as a middle school ministry. We've had some bumps along the way this week, but God has definitely been present and moving here at camp.

We had a faced paced morning today in order to get us fed and ready to go down the river. Despite threats of bad weather, we had an absolutely beautiful, sunny day on the river. We ended with the same number we started with and that is always a plus. Most overcame their fear of "seaweed" and the "monsters of the deep" and enjoyed the trip down the chilly river.

Our evening chapel time was a great ending to the nightly sessions. Wayne and the band led in a sweet time of worship and Mario did a good job wrapping up this concept of pain, suffering and how we as Christians should respond. He pointed out that our response comes from where our faith is founded. A deep faith in the unchanging nature and love of God will weather the storms we will face in this life.

To end the night, we celebrated Jonathan's birthday and then we had the whole camp in the gym for a huge inflatable, dodgeball, basketball, guitar hero, rock band and some hang time with Wayne and the band. It was loud and crazy - with over 500 ms students running around, but a fun time.

We probably aren't really looking forward to heading back tomorrow, but we know we must. We are all very grateful that God met us here and we ask ou to pray for a safe ride home. Remember, I'll update the hotline with our exact arrival time.

Kulaqua :: Day 3

It is hard to believe that we are halfway through camp already. The time is really flying by and we are having a great week. Today was a pretty typical day for us, even down to the time the thunderstorms roll in during free time.

I have been really encouraged by this group of students and their interaction with each other this week. We have had a few minor setbacks, but for the most part they seem to be enjoying each other and even reaching out to make new friends.

This afternoon I took 10 of our boys with me on the snorkeling excursion to Ginnie Springs. It is easily 10-15 degrees colder than the spring here at Kulaqua. Needless to say, these guys don't have much insulation so they were freezing. It was a little better when we ventured into the Santa Fe River, but still a cold journey. We had a first this year... in all my years here I've never seen a gator, but that changed today. Luckily we had already gotten out of the water, but we looked across from one of the springs to see a nice 5-footer sunning on a log. We were all pretty glad we didn't see him in the water.

We capped the day off with a powerful time of worship and the Word! Mario did a great job explaining the big picture of the Bible - God's plan and purpose for our lives and the story of the Gospel. Many of our students were challenged and were asking great questions about faith and being assured of their salvation during small group time.

Our late night activity was a church hang nite, so I reserved the gym and let them go wild playing dodgeball. They were excited and are looking forward to the dodgeball tournament tomorrow. We also have our tubing excursion tomorrow down the Itchmetouchme (not quite spelled or pronounced that way) River. It will be a big day and our last full day at camp, so keep praying for our safety and that God continue the work He has started!

Kulaqua :: Day 2

We have made it through our first full day of camp and it has been a long, but great day. We started early as usual and had a jam packed day full of excitement - from dodging thunderstorms, to a late night game of manhunt, and even a surprise birthday celebration!

After our morning chapel we had some time created for the students to get alone with God out on the beautiful Kulaqua campus. We realize that most ms students aren't probably don't have many quiet moments with God on a regular basis, but that is a neat element here at camp that we hope will grow into an important part of their walk with Christ.

After lunch we had free time for all the activities around camp, although the kickball tourney was literally washed out by a big thunderstorm that rolled through. I got to spend a good amount of time down at the blob skyrocketing ms students that are quite a bit lighter than me (that was saying it nicely) into the air.

We had a great night chapel tonight in worship with Wayne and the band and then Mario continued expanding the reality of pain and suffering in the life of a Christian, but with the promise of Romans 8:28 that God is working for the good and conforming us to His image. It gave us alot to talk about in small group time.

We did celebrate Bailey's birthday tonight and finished with a great game of manhunt. Tomorrow we have our snorkeling excursion for those going down to Ginnie Springs. Keep praying for us!

Kulaqua :: Day 1

Well, we had a good bus ride over and stopped in Lake City for lunch. We made it here safely (around 2pm) to Kulaqua and had a great day today. We were fortunate to have good weather during the free time when we got here and the rain held off while we were in chapel tonight.

The students have already explored camp and were all over the place enjoying the waterpark and spring today. I missed out on alot of the fun due to my duties as a Southland director, but I heard all about it.

Tonight we had our first chapel time with Wayne Kerr and the band and Mario our speaker. It was a high energy time of worship and Mario did a good job as he is going to be answering the question of why God allows pain, suffering and bad things to happen.

We had our church huddle time after chapel and our small groups where we were able to go more in depth with the topic tonight and also hear what the students are excited or expecting out of camp this week. After huddles we had our night time party at the River Ranch waterpark where the students could do the lazy river, slide, wavepool and volleyball.

We our packed into the mini-lodges with kids on mattresses and in bunks everywhere, but we did get everyone a place to sleep! We are looking forward to our first full day of camp tomorrow. Be praying for all of our leaders and students - that God would move in a powerful way this week!

Elevate :: Day 6

I am writing this post from home... which is a weird place that I won't see much over the next month! How do I summarize our week at HS Camp? This is going to be difficult!

As most of you know, we had an eventful final day - mainly due to our bus breakdown in Atlanta, but before we even loaded the bus we had our final chapel session on the overlook. It was a beautiful morning with a cool breeze and some morning fog hanging on the mountain. We joined in some acoustic worship with Wayne and then Tim wrapped up the week with a great parallel from Henry VIII to Christ and His Kingdom. He engaged us in a little reenactment that was really moving. It is awesome to think of Christ as our King who desires our allegiance as we see His Kingdom come.

Our delay in Atlanta was really a blessing from God, in that the air pressure leak happened right when we were exiting in Buckhead for lunch. Praise God it wasn't on the side of 75 in downtown!

HS camp was a powerful time in my life and I pray for our students as well. I was able to personally see the evidence of the Spirit calling students, changing students and challenging us all to surrender our allegiance and lives to our King! I am so grateful to serve a church that values students and provides us opportunities to go to camp. There is something about getting away and getting out of the 'world' to a degree. The symbolism of being on the mountain - just like Jesus often withdrew to the mountain - was felt in all of our hearts as we had a great taste of His Kingdom and didn't want to leave. But we leave knowing that He is with us and that we can all personally withdrawal to the mountain to maintain a strong connection to our King.

I'm so honored to have the privilege to just love our hs students and have such a great staff team. Again, it was a powerful week and we praise God for revealing Himself and moving among all of us! Let me wrap up the week by sharing the lyrics of a song we sang this week...

INSIDE OUT

A thousand times I've failed
Still your mercy remains
And should I stumble again
Still I'm caught in your grace

Everlasting, Your light will shine when all else fades
Never ending, Your glory goes beyond all fame
In my heart, in my soul, Lord I give you control
Consume me from the inside out Lord
Let justice and praise become my embrace
To love You from the inside out

Your will above all else, my purpose remains
The art of losing myself in bringing you praise

Everlasting, Your light will shine when all else fades
Never ending, Your glory goes beyond all fame
And the cry of my heart is to bring You praise
From the inside out Lord, my soul cries out