Demonstrate Like Jesus

Wednesday June 25th....  After a very late night of group devos -- Our kids woke up sleepy but ready to go...  "Mud" crew got right to work digging up bricks and fixing a fence for Helen,   our kids club crew continued their work growing faith in the   children of the Hamlin community.  Several of our groups read to the area children in the morning...these are the same children that we have in kids club in the afternoons.  It has been wonderful for all of our kids to work with the children of Hamilin in addition to  their work projects.

The highlight of our day was our evening activities... We were able to watch a clogging performance by some local experts... for 30 minutes the group shared their skills with us and then we were able to try it out ourselves.  Mike T " It was a sweaty night but is was a fun sweat"  Jake G " I met a pretty girl  who was a cloggger"  Aly K  " It was really fun., especially how everyone enjoyed it without caring what others thought"  Carly "We clogged so awesomely but we shut down the town of Hamlin"  Halli "We clogged up a storm , Clogged down for what" Kendra  "How can I become a  snazzy,clogger?"  Kim- other youth leader "I thought it was great how and 80 + man showed up the 15 year olds at the cuban shuffle" Mickey "I knew 3 of the songs so it wasn't too new.... Sure it was fun"   Maddie 'Considering my beautifully natural dance moves, clogging came with ease. It was easy-breezy beautiful '   Brendan "Clogging was the best experience of my life....I LOVED IT SO MUCH I could do it every day-- Mom I need some clogging shoes"    

fh

Tuesday June 24~  This has been such an fantastic experience for ALL of our group... sincerely... Spiritual growth for every one of our kids and adults and each and every work site has been fantastic.  I cannot say enough about our great Youthworks staff-- helping us to grow in faith and love and learn so much about DEMOing Christ in all we say and do and how we serve.... REACHING OUT to our community around us to show Christ's love.   One group fought through challenges of a chain smoker in the hometo paint an entire kitchen while others in the group played with her grandchildren outside... Dolores has severe diabetes and can only play with them outside when the sun goes down.  A second group finished an entire deck in 2 days with a crew of 11. "Wicked" crew weeded and shingled for Roger- a wonderful character who has Parkinsons and played a tape of his singing to the kids in his truck - He prayed with our kids and asked them to wave up to God with them to close their prayer.  Our Kids club group  has been amazed at the influence this program has had on the community around them.  In the afternoon we wrote postcards to our prayer pals. In the evening we participated in a youth worship service led by a local Christian Band and the outgoing youth leader at the church hosting our group.  Our small group breakout went until midnight, with many of our youth having true "break through" moments.....  What a wonderful week we are having in ministry.  To His Glory!!!!

MONDAY JUNE 23~STARTING OUT AT OUR MISSION SITES

We started out on Monday receiving our new work 'crews' and assignments ...  Our crews are mixed with the other churches present from Illinois and Ohio~  everyone is so excited to have an opportunity to get to know these friends in Christ and to serve with them side by side.  The teams, worksites, youth leaders and Youthworks staff are  AWESOME.  We have a big variety of sites. including KIDS CLUB children's ministries. home owners and area schools and their reading programs.
After dinner we were able to visit Miss Lottie,  a lifetime resident.  This community has been serves by Youthworks for 17 years and has a wonderful connection and love of this ministry... we are thanked every where we go.

S

Arriving at our mission site!

We had a GREAT night's sleep in our replacement accomodations-the Hampton Inn...at least for those who slept???  All the kids enjoyed the opportunity to get to know their 'cabin' groups with several late night chats!  
 In honor of World Cup this week and to surprise Maddie.. the group decided to surprise her by joining Kristin at Maddie's Regional game in Dayton- and then back in the vans to make the winding mountain trek to our mission site!

 More pictures to come but the kids dove right in to our evening worship and 'club' with our fellow churches... Lexi and Brandon even were finalists in our group games :-)

 Our theme for this week and for our worship and devtions is...

DEMO-- Live Like Jesus...

 Imagine reading about the beauty, precision and composition of an incredible song but never hearing it played. Although demos have since gone digital, singers used to record their best music on cassette tapes, allowing others to hear an example of the artist's work. These demo tapes displayed the artist’s ability in ways words never could.

It’s kinda like being told to live well, love others, pursue the most important things, but without ever knowing why – never seeing how those things come together in one life. How do we serve? How do we love? How do we live well? What we need is a Demo: a single example that shows us the rhythm of a life completely in tune with God’s best for us.

Jesus is that Demo. By studying the way Jesus served, loved and lived we have an incredible example of God’s best plan for us. But, like a good song, you weren’t meant to only read the lyrics, but to turn up the volume and sing along. How will you reach out? How will you step in? How will you let go? How will you live like Jesus?

But truly God has listened; he has attended to the voice of my prayer...Psalm 66:19

What a day... and we are so thankful for all of your prayers!

We had a great sendoff...
Thank you so much to all of you
who took the time to come send us off with your love and prayers!

 We had quite the day!  Travel went well... As we stopped for lunch at a Rest area picnic spot, we received a phone call from the campground that they had DOUBLE booked our Camping Cabins..  Thank goodness, the campground owner/mgr truly felt badly about the mistake and with God's plan & guidance he followed through until he was able to find us 5 hotel rooms in not only the Dayton area, but closer to our activities and all in the same hotel in a very Sold-out Dayton due to the Regional Soccer tournament.  We made it to the sports center on time and Ken and Maddie were even able to join us for dinner and lots of fun at Scene 75.

The Indoor Go-Cart track and Lasar
Tag were both a huge hit
and the girls loved the inflatable
 playland.

 So off to bed we go...Very tired from a packed day of travel ... so appreciative of the time we were still able to have together enjoying all the Gifts we received today with God's grace!
 
  Kristin, Lisa, Jeff , Luke and IMPACT

Lincoln County, West Virginia ....Here we come!

We are preparing to head off for our trip... and  our so thankful for our Prayer Pals, parents and congregation who will be praying for us each step of the way.... We are excited, perhaps nervous, and most of all waiting for what God's plans are for us on this journey!  We will do our best to blog along the way to keep all of you who are praying for us 'in the loop'!

 Our theme for this week is DEMO- Do it Like Jesus ...

I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.   John 13:15