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Welcome to my blog. I pray that you will find something here that will encourage and bless you. I'm still new at this blogging thing so please be patient and kind. Please feel free to comment or offer any advice to about the blog and/or my comments... Thanks for stopping by...

Saturday, July 17, 2010

It’s Never Too Late to Teach an Old Pastor New Things

This past week while serving on a mission trip in Tennessee, I was blessed to discover that I was traveling with eight new and wonderful teachers. These teachers were the youth part of the mission team from the church I serve at. I am so indebted to them for their willingness to love, laugh, and serve while being the hands and feet of Christ to those we were serving this past week. They did all of this in some very hot and humid conditions and did it all without complaint to anyone. I’m still not too sure how they felt with their pastor tagging along with the other two adult chaperones, but I felt it was something that I needed to do.
Of course, I thought I needed to be there for them but instead these eight remarkable youth taught me and showed me that I needed to go for me. I say that because I used to be involved in youth work and ministry for about ten years. I stopped serving in that capacity when I decided to go into full-time pastoral ministry. That was about ten years ago and I have learned something new during this mission trip with the youth; a lot has changed in the last ten years especially in how good youth ministry takes place. Needless to say, that was just one of the many things I learned this past week from my eight teachers.
If you’re curious, I will go ahead and list some of those new things I did learn:
• A smile when you are hot and tired is worth a thousand words.
• Leaders come in all sizes and in all ages.
• Time passes a whole lot quicker when you serve side by side with someone rather than working with someone.
• Sharing a laugh at the right moment can make everyone’s workload and mood a whole lot lighter.
• Rolling down here may be itchy and dirty, but it’s can still be a whole lot of fun.
• The younger generation sometimes makes better listeners that the older generation does, especially if it is someone from the older generation speaking in the first place.
• Youth can worship no matter how loud the music may be.
• Sometimes the youth can articulate what someone else’s sermon is about better than their pastor can.
• Youth are sometimes more willing to give their last dollar for a good cause than their pastor is.

Contrary to what many people may believe about the youth of today, not every teen is only interested in themselves and expects the world to be handed to them on a silver platter. I personally can attest to the contrary because I saw eight great teachers give up a valuable week of their summer vacation to strip and repaint an old barn, pull a ton of weeds off of a 60 degree slope, and paint a metal roof in some truly unbearable heat for two families they had never ever met prior to us pulling up in their driveways. I will cherish for the remainder of my ministry and my life the time I spent this past week serving with Katrina, Benjie, and my eight wonderful teachers. Thank you for all you taught me and for allowing me to tag along with you on this mission trip.
Andrea, Ashley, Austin, Haley, Kaylee, Kimberly, Maddy, and Matthew, you have blessed me more than you will ever know this past week. I look forward to serving with you again wherever God places us together to do so. I love each and every one of you…

I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy.”—Philippians 1:3-4

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

A Little Love and Service Equals Fried Pies

Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity.

Today was the first day of my first mission trip ever. What a great and glorious day! Of course, tonight will be a FOUR Advil night because my muscles from mid-back to my shoulders are hurting something fierce. But it was all worth it! And all of this out of a day, that I really didn’t expect much too happen.
I woke up this morning and checked the weather before leaving for breakfast. It was not too promising; sixty percent chance of showers starting about eleven this morning and the rain on the radar heading this way. I talked it over with Benjie, our church’s youth director, and we both agreed we would try to get as much done before the rain came. We got to the site and surveyed what we needed to do; scrape all the paint we could off an old storage shed and re-paint it. The house belonged to a gentleman who was disabled confined to his bed. His older sister lives with them taking care of him. We were told by the mission group we are serving with that it would probably take us about a day and a half to get everything done. Somebody forgot to tell our kids that.
They hit the ground running. All eight of our church’s youth were scraping that shed like there was no tomorrow. During all of this and throughout the afternoon the older sister, Miss Rebekah, came out side to thank us time after time. The kids were working hard and she wanted them to know how thankful she and her brother were. Well, in no time the shed was ready for painting so we went ahead and got the kids painting. One problem; the mission group only gave us one gallon of paint (and it was a gallon of Kilz primer).
Needless to say, one gallon of paint among eight painters did not last long. While they were finishing up with the paint, we received a surprise. A lady across the street saw what we were doing and came over to tell us how thankful we were to see us helping one of her neighbors and then offered to make us homemade fried pies in return. We came to bless someone and now we were the ones being blessed in return by someone we weren’t even serving. I love it when God does that!
So we ate our lunch and then waited for some more paint to show up. It finally did (two more gallons of primer) and by the end of our day we had the shed looking good. All of us, especially the kids were tired and ready to head back and try to take a shower so we could get some of the paint chips out of hair and the paint off of us wherever it landed.
As we headed back, I wondered what the kids thought about their day. Did they regret coming? Were they thinking about the great job they had just finished or were they wishing they were back home laying out by the pool with their friends? It was then I remembered one of my favorite verses from being a youth counselor. First Timothy 4:12 which says, “Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity.”
The youth group of Mount Gilead lived and portrayed that verse today throughout painting and scraping with not a complaint to be heard from them. On this day, these wonderful hard working kids were examples in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity to Miss Rebekah, her brother, to the neighbor with fried pies, and best of all, their proud pastor. I am truly blessed to be the pastor such a great group of young women and men. Thank you Lord for crossing my paths with theirs.

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Guidance

I have a "Peanuts" daily calendar on my desk in my office at the church where I serve. I love reading the strip each and every day. Today's strip caught my eye: it's a strip where Charlie Brown has picked a flower with some petals on them. Beside him, is Linus (the strip's resident theologian) and he is watching Charlie Brown pull a petal off the flower one at a time. Each time he pulls a petal off Charlie Brown says, "She loves me. She loves me not." Just as Charlie Brown is about to finish, Linus says to him, "It is difficult for me to believe that a flower has the gift of prophecy."
After I finished reading the strip, I wondered to myself of where do people turn for guidance in their lives. Certainly not a flower, but what about horoscopes? A gut feeling, a hunch? With me, I usually start with myself (which I should know by now is not such a good idea) which sometimes work out, but there are too many times where it does not work out. It is then I wonder why I didn't start with God first or at least with those people that God has placed in my lives to help me along the way. God has been so faithful to me over the years that it should be second nature for me to turn to God anytime I need help and guidance with this life of mine. I have been especially blessed by God with a great group of friends who I can turn to anytime and any place and get the answer that will be best for me. It may not be the answer I am looking for, but I know it will be the best answer for me because that is what they want for me. I trust and believe in these people because I know they have the Spirit of the living God leading their lives and it is that same Spirit I want leading my life each and every day.
Maybe just maybe, one day with God's help, I will finally know where to turn without even thinking about it...

"Trust in the Lord with all of your heart and lean not on your own understandings. In all your ways, acknowledge him and he will direct your paths." Proverbs 3:5-6