Summer Fun

The days and weeks have flown by since camp! Sorry I haven't updated you about whats going on (by you I mean Dave).

After camp, we left to Montana on a mission trip...one of the hardest ever! We then had a great day of boating and bbq-ing. There were a lot of leaders and a couple of students that went on another mission trip to Mexico. And then there were a couple of Amazing Races. And we are still not done with the Summer schedule!

As I said, Montana was very hard! It was different than any mission trip we have been on... different is good and different is bad. We had a great time as a group. Our fellowship brought us all closer together and the community that we are bringing back to the group is something I hope spreads around to the other kids and we continue to grow as a youth group! It was hard for a couple of reasons. First, the schedule was packed! We always seemed like we were tired, and that is hard to process everything that we are taking in. Second, the Native American culture is a hard culture to minister to. They need HOPE! They need JESUS! Hopefully the time we spent there made an impact, but we can't help but feel that one week there of helping clean up neighborhoods, painting houses, and working with a handful of rowdy and unruly kids made any difference. It only shows us how bad they need Jesus in their life to change their hearts! Pray for the Blackfeet Reservation, pray that people will come in there unashamed and teach them, not about "church" or "christianity" but about Jesus Christ and Him crucified!

As far as other events in the summer, who doesn't love the Harbor in 80 degree weather? We pulled some of our elders together to solve the mystery about who they are, and they then hung out with the students and towed them around on their boats. It was a blast! I loved seeing some of the kids I hadn't seen all summer long, and reconnect with kids I saw at camp and the Montana mission trip.

Mexico is a blog in itself! Come to church August 30th for the re-cap on that. :)

The High School Amazing race was yesterday! It was hard to compete with the epic two day race the year before, but I think it did okay. The sights seen and the challenges met were well worth the zero dollars the kids had to pay. Seriously, how often do you see a methane flame geyser? Or play putt putt at a hundred year old mansion? Or go to a farm to get the freshest fruit available? Congrats to the winning team of Erika Moss, Amy Moss, and Chelsea Demoss as well as Beth Moss (driver). Way to go girls!!

Stay tuned for the end of the month update where you will get re-caps on CORE groups as well as Backpack Attack!

much Love,
jp