Ice Skating

Monday, was ice skating day!

A family from my home church invited me to go 

ice skating with some of the teens.

I picked up one of the families (like sisters and a little brother to me) 

and we headed over to the York City Ice Arena.

With every lap we made around the rink,

we did our best to become better skaters.

Most of all I enjoyed the fellowship.

I will miss these girls and ladies when I get to South Africa,

but I also look forward to a new ministry with

other ladies and girls.

It almost felt like time stood still for those few hours and I could forget about everything that needs to be done and just skate around, 

laughing and playing with the teens.

We need days like that now and then.

 Of course, the day was not without a few blisters, falls,

slidding on the ice, near accidents, and the whip (led by Kyle :)

I am so glad to have such good fellowship.

As I looked around at each of these girls three thoughts came to mind:

1) they all have great and godly mothers who spend time with them, pray diligently for them, and have taught them to honor God.

2) hopefully, one day each of them will raise daughters to love, obey, and honor God.

3) they are my hope for the future of our church in South Africa.  Wouldn't it be great to have a group of young ladies who love the Lord and desire to serve Him!  Wouldn't it be great to have Zulu girls who have godly mothers!

Keep Praying!  He IS Faithful!!!

Addicted to Youth Ministry

   

For the last 18 years I have had a part in youth ministry.

If you have any part in youth ministry, you know that it has lots of drama.

Some days you love working with teens,

 and other days you never want to see another teen again.

Oh, the DRAMA!!!

My favorite years during my experience in youth ministry

were those that I served with this faithful group of interns.

(this picture is over 5 years old)

They were "my kids"!!!

We lived on the campground together,

 played together, worked hard together,

played harder together, sang together,

laughed together, cried together,

did devotions together,...

Those were the days!!!

When you work with teens, you wonder,

"how many will continue to serve the Lord?"

God only requires us to be faithful to His ministry.
It is not our responsibility to make anyone do anything.


I am happy to say that most of the teens
in that picture are serving the Lord!


Today, there is one in particular that I want to tell you about.
His name is Steve.

Steve has a great family.  

His dad works with the youth at their church in New Jersey.  

Like his dad, Steve also has a burden for youth ministry.  

He feels God leading him to be a youth pastor one day.

Steve has a great relationship with God, his parents, his pastor, and is involved in ministry.  God is certainly  using all of his years 

of hard work and service to prepare him for future ministry.

This Wednesday, I was asked to speak to their youth group.

There were between 65-70 in attendance, with some visitors.

As I began to speak, more teens came in.  It was standing room only.

What a thrilling experience.

As I spoke, the teens watched and listened intently 

to descriptions of my ministry in South Africa and an object lesson 

(which I will share with you in the near future).

I saw Steve again this evening.  

He told me with tears in his eyes just how blessed he was.

This evening at the camp chapel was a special testimony time called 

"Share the Gift".

It is a time when the staff, interns and campers get a chance to share with each other how they accepted the "gift" of salvation and how God has changed thier lives.

Steve was taken back at how many of his past campers

shared that they were saved in his cabin.

He was so blessed to hear how they had grown in the Lord.

After he left, I thought how blessed I was to be able to hear him explain to me how he was so overwhelmed with being used by the Lord in others' lives.  How blessed each and everyone of us are.

Like me, he is addicted to youth ministry.  

18 years in youth ministry and counting!

Take a look at some of the youth that 

I will get to work with when I finally get to South Africa -

(Me and Londiwe)

(Friday Kids' Club)

(Young Ladies Bible Study)

Already, I can say, "I have no greater joy
than to hear that my children walk in truth.  III John 1:4".
May the Lord bless  each of us (who serve in Youth Ministry)
with many years of blessings.

Travel Journal: Teen Competition

Here is a look at the competitions that our teens participated in for the last two days. The college has this competition in preaching, vocal music, instrumental music, storytelling, and girls' 5-on-5 volleyball. Everything is done to help the teens learn to prepare for ministry (except volleybal, that is). Volleyball is purely for fun!

Our church had two teams and they ended up having to play eachother in the second round. They were pretty competitive too.

On Wednesday morning our two Bible quizzing teams went against 8 or 9 other churches.

These three young ladies from our church were the overall winners. they really did a great job!

Others compeated in instrumental and vocal solos.

And a few of our young men preached.

It really was a great day to see how the Lord could use these young people for His glory!

A Missions Conference Tradition

It has been my tradition for a few years to have a sleepover for teen girls on the Thursday night of Missions Conference. Of course the amount of girls is limited since I drive a pick-up truck. This year I asked another single lady to come. Rachel and her mom helped me to bring the girls home for the sleepover. The first 7 girls I invited were the ones who got to come (sorry to those of you who couldn't come because of lack of space, we will have to plan on doing something together soon).
After settling in, we usually have a campfire and snacks. This year it had rained all day, so this was our campfire.

We roasted hot dogs & marshmallows over the stove tops. It proved to be quite an experience, especially when the cheese inside a hot dog would make the flames spark and grow higher. The girls all brought delicious home-made desserts (Moms, you did a great job with teaching your daughters to bake! Yummy!!!). We also had coffee, hot cocoa, and hot cider to help us stay up to play games.

Game time was so much fun! You really get to know alot about people by playing games. We played: Bop-It, Maffia, 4-on-the-Couch, Apples to Apples, Pit, Dutch Blitz, and of course Silly-Slidding-Sock Races.

As you can see, socks are not just beautiful footwear, but also make great attire for a very competative sport (which took place around 3am).

The Bible instructs the older ladies to teach younger ladies about godliness (Titus 2). My desire is to be a blessing to those young ladies by providing a time where they can get together and enjoy eachother's company, talk about what the Lord is teaching them during Missions Conference, and maybe the Lord could use me to encourage them on in spiritual things.

The Bible also tells us that when you invest time in others by trying to be a blessing and encouragement in thier lives, you will also be blessed and encouraged. I thank the Lord for the great teen girls we have at our church. My prayer is that God will use each of them in a wonderful way!

Blessed by Growth

2 Peter 3:18 "But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen."

The Lord has blessed me with the priviledge of going to the mission field with 17 years of experience in youth ministry. My first summer job as a teen was serving the Lord at a Christian camp for inner city youth.
The other weekend, I was pleased to spend some time with some of those kids (who are now college age).

It is such a joy to see them laugh together and encourage one another in thier walk with the Lord.

None of these young men and woman are perfect (neither am I), but it is a true joy to see all that the Lord has done and is doing in thier lives.
3 John 1:4 "I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth."