Hang in there, We are!!?

It seems that we are just jumping, skipping, running or something from one activity to the next without much time to think in between let along a chance to blog. What a great Youth Group prayer retreat last weekend with some Loft students along, time taking neighborhood students to morning church and evening Youth Group on Sunday. Shining for our Savior and spreading the Truth!! Hope to Blog more this weekend.

What a great day off school to enjoy friends!!

Tired out so not much energy to talk now but wanted to get this new slideshow on the blog. What fun with great friends at the JT Getaway near Halifax, PA. We were delightfully suprised to find the ponds frozen enough to play hockey and prisoners base on the ice, Yea!! Food, Fun, Friends, Fire, Four-wheeling and so much energy in God's great outdoors. A little mud adds to the joy and smiles as it gets smeared places that looks like face paint. Karen and I believe that our kids and their friends will find something to do so why not give them some good and clean to do. Yes, mud on the face and on the clothes is one kind of 'clean' we can encourage. The other clean is a clean heart which the Lord Jesus Christ will do as we draw close to Him. That is what all this time with youth is all about. Surrounding them with the love of Jesus that flows thru us. Thanks for your prayers and support.

A New York weekend serving at the Bowery Mission

"Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have." 1 Peter 3:15 Wow! What a great weekend we could spend in New York's Bowery Mission. With over 100 years of history of serving the downcast they were well prepared to help some Lancaster County youth help them give a 'glass of cold water to the poor'. The mission suggested that we do not park in Manhattan but to park at the Executive Director's house on Staten Island and take public transportation into the city. Well that was a nice thought but finding out about that 1 hour before we were to leave was not my kind of planning ahead. I quickly downloaded the directions the E.D. send us via. email and google mapped some various options and we finally left by 6:00pm Friday, Jan. 30 from the Loft. We had 15 people a full 'Big Red'. With two youth dropping out Thursday nite Karen and Ken were able to go with us. With a vote from the adventurous 'crew' we headed to Staten Island, we arrived at the E.D. house at 8:46. He took us directly to the train station by 8:49 and we had 11 minutes to unload everything, take off the hitch carrier and lug all our luggage up the train station steps to catch the 9:00. We had it as the E.D. was giving directions on what we do next. We got off the train and had to buy 15 metro tickets. Trying to get 15 people and all our luggage thru turnstiles we must have used up the tickets before all 15 got thru. Using up all 15 tickets and one of us was not thru yet what do we do. Before I could think what to do the person had crawled thru the turnstile. Out comes the ticket clerk trying to get us to admit we did something wrong. They let us go and we knew we had paid our fare. On we go riding the free Staten Island ferry past the Statue of Liberty and on to Manhattan. We get on the subway and arrived at the Bowery Mission about 10:45pm. We were escorted past about 40 men sleeping on mats in the converted dining hall and got to our rooms filled with boxes of donation items. We had to clear away the boxes so we had enough beds for all of us. Sleep was short because some of us were up at 5:30am for breakfast prep. We served over 700 meals on Saturday. Five different times we served. We served the house disciples and the street homeless. The mission had two Gospel services on Saturday. Half of us got to go to the first and all of us got to attend the 6:00pm service. As I sat down before the service I whispered to Karen, "I could preach tonite." (I had inspiration in my heart). Two of the guys were saying how they could sing. (see slide show and some of the singing we did in the van on the way up, etc.) Our friend the cook that we worked with in the kitchen, who we sang and 'danced' with as we were slicing chicken and vegetables came up to me and said the speaker had not shown up and wondered if we could sing and I could give the message? (thus the verse that I started this blog with). I said yes right away and told the youth were going up front to sing. Most of them were right behind me. I MC'ed, we sang hymns, Blake shared his testimony and I was ready to speak when the scheduled speaker shows up. I did not get to share but God got us to lead in the Gospel service and we were not scheduled. If I had planned us to be apart of leading the service I am afraid I would have had to 'pull teeth' to get anyone to do anything. But God knew how to get everyone to serve from the heart. Wow! God you are amazing. (teary eyed) We served one more meal and by 8:15pm we were heading to Rockefeller Center and Time Square. It was cold but we had joy in our hearts from serving others all day. We enjoyed the M & M store, Hershey chocolate store, Starbucks, and the Toys-R-Us store. Sunday we got, packed up and traveled to the Brooklyn Tabernacle for an amazing worship service with 1000's of others from 'every' culture as though we were in the throne room of God. What a powerful reinforcement of the importance of living in the light of God. The contrast between the people we served at the Bowery and the people we worshipped with at the Tabernacle was like 'nite and day' or do we really mean like those in the darkness and those in the light. Pastor Jim Cymbala spoke from John 8:12 and referred to Ephesians 5:8-10. We were challenged to live in the spiritual world as those walking in the light of Jesus. As Jesus, who is the light, lives in us we are the light of the world. We had lugged all our luggage to the church (now we know why they call it luggage :) ). We thought we would have to sit up in the balcony with our stuff but as we entered the church a greeter, door man, bouncer type man suggested we put the stuff in a corner. I doubtingly asked if it would be safe. He said, 'Trust me, it will be safe." I had peace that his God, who is my God would keep everything safe. We lugged all our stuff from the church back on to the subway, the ferry and the train and packed the van and got home without too much of a problem. We were all weary in body but strengthened in soul. Returning by 4:30pm. 1.5 hours before we started our Superbowl party in the Loft. (we are crazy!!!! but sure do love serving Christ by serving youth)

For all who prayed, wow, THANKS. Look in future blogs for comments from the students.