I am a great caddy!

I have successfully survived Golf Marathon--and the unofficial figure for $$$ raised yesterday was $65,000 for YD and Reachout, and $2500 of that will go towards my personal support! So praise the Lord for some great provision.

My duties for the day were fairly simple--to help with food prep--for lunch and snack! YUM! Although, I won't be eating any ham and cheese wraps for awhile!

But in the middle of the afternoon, it turned out that one of the Arlington Area Golfers was without a caddy! He still had forty holes to golf and only about three hours to do it! So I said, "I will be a caddy" and we embarked on the great adventure of running forty holes as fast as we possibly can...I felt like I was manning a getaway car! My golfer would grab his clubs while the cart was moving, jump out as I slowed down to the tee, and then would jump back in with a running start as we glided down the fairway at top speeds. BUT--he got his 100 holes in, and I helped caddy FORTY of them, and I was beat, so I have no IDEA how people honestly golf 100 holes! It's just crazy--that's like, a thousand swings. at least.

I got to spend time with some of my YD and Reachout coworkers yesterday too, which was great, because I have not seen most of them since I arrived in Washington. AND it was an encouraging reminder that I do have great friends in the Pacific Northwest--they just don't all happen to live in Arlington. Four of my coworker friends are even going to drive down for a party that my roommate and I are having on Saturday, which makes my heart happy that I have friends to invite to a party! hooray!

You're all invited too. It's Saturday at 7pm at my apartment. Be there!

Golf Marathon!

Please be praying this week and throughout this weekend as we prepare for Golf Marathon! On this next Monday (the 30th), Dr. Mark Spencer of Arlington will be golfing 100 Holes to raise money for my personal salary support! His goal is to raise $25 per hole--being $2500 for the day. 7 other golfers are also raising money just for Arlington Youth Dynamics. The day promises to be long, but exciting, since all of the money raised will directly be used for Arlington kids this year.

My responsibilities for the day will include helping with meals and perhaps caddying for a bit. So--I don't need too much prayer. BUT, the golfers definitely need prayers for energy and stamina, not only for Monday, but also as they are working to gather pledges this week and weekend. Be praying that God uses these eight men in a powerful way to raise resources to give kids Jesus!

Rejoice!

Today, my first official missionary newsletter was put in the mail. I am certainly excited about that!

If--within several days of reading this entry, you have not received a wonderful newsletter in the mail, it may mean that I have incorrect information for you or that you have been mistakenly left off of the list. Please drop me an email if that happens, so I can make sure you're in the database for next newsletter.

My Monday Night Gang.

The boys at Monday Night Bible Study never leave me at a lack for interesting stories. Last week--it was the disco in heaven....this week--it's confronting our need to be in Christian community.

This was the first week I was the facilitator for our Bible lesson. As it turns out, this week, none of the girls showed up (meaning it was me, 2 male adult leaders, and six 8th-10th grade boys!) The theme of the lesson was "Fitting In" and the Scripture for study was Acts 9--Saul's conversion, and Paul's acceptance by the disciples.

These boys--everytime Bible discussion starts, it's a cacophony of conversations, none of which are focused on the lesson itself. There's also disco boy (who always has a tangential question) and the note-stealer boy (who stuffed my lesson notes in his hat and refused to return them.) We talked through Saul's conversion, which led to another tangent of "Can I be saved if I don't have a donkey to be knocked off of?"

After realizing that six different boys were going six different directions, I returned to the theme of "Fitting In" and asked, "So where do you guys fit in? Do you have a place?"

*Silence...*

The conversation took on a new tone, still scattered, as everyone confessed that they have a group of friends that they fit with...but they don't necessarily fit in in their families or at school.

And finally--I was able to tie it back in with Saul and ask them how they would go about moving from one group of friends to the other, just like Saul moved from the Pharisees to the Apostles--like, what happens if you're a Boarder, and you wake up one morning and realize you want to be in the Choir. How do you switch groups and gain acceptance?

And eventually asking--what happens to you as a Christian? How do you make that transition to "Fit In" as a Christian?

Suddenly--the boys got focused and serious, and some amazing discussions followed. One of the boys shared that he does not talk about Christ in his current group of friends, and that he doesn't see a need to. Another boy shared that he is a Christian, but for the most part, he dislikes people in the church, and he knows that we do not have to go to church to go to heaven.

Four of the six boys confessed that the church is not a place where they fit in.

The hardest part of hearing them say that is knowing why they say it. All of them are craving something open and genuine and honest--where people openly confess their struggles and admit their wrongs and seek the Lord honestly. They feel like they can't fit in with a church because they don't act and look like a church kid--they might swear, they might wear an offensive shirt, or in a few cases, they smoke. They love Monday Night Bible Study because it's in someone's living room and they fit in--yet how am I to respond and to challenge them to move outside of this comfort zone because it is YD's goal to see them integrated into a local church? They are definitely already members of a Christian fellowship and a Christian community on Monday nights, but they have not yet bridged the gap into a local church...and how do I see that it happens?

This is Bronco and I's biggest area of prayer right now--asking, "Lord, give us your vision for integrating these kids into the body of Christ..."

We are involved in a very relational ministry, therefore we see relationships as the key bridge-builders. If kids and adults who are already integrated into local churches develop relationships with these disconnected Christian kids, there's huge potential. So how is that going to happen? There are ideas rolling around--but it will take prayer, and committed individuals with a shared vision...

*Rainy Days and Mondays*

For three days in a row now (and at least three more to come), it has been an overcast, rainy 60 degrees. I now feel like I am a true Northwesterner, and I am beginning to understand the need for espresso stands. In fact, I think I'm going to stop for a caramel latte this morning.

*Rainy Days and Mondays always get me down*

church yesterday.

Ashley (*name changed*) and I had a great time visiting the Lighthouse Fellowship yesterday. It happened to be a communion Sunday, and she had never even heard of communion before, but she was excited about it. I was praying for her all throughout the service, because here she was, a baby Christian, never really attended church, and we're singing worship songs together without an overhead projector (meaning that she didn't know the words and had to just sit there.) I was worried that she would be uncomfortable and nervous. As it turns out, she listened to everything the pastor said, followed along as he talked through the Scripture and commented on what a funny speaker he was!

So, silly me for worrying about her, because she had a great time. She even shared that her mom wants to start attending church regularly with her...

After church, we went out to lunch with our friends at "Faye's Diner" where Ashley ordered a pancake--and I swear to you that this pancake could set a world's record for size. It was about 2 square feet, and took up this humongous platter! She couldn't even finish it. In fact, the family we were having lunch with shared two pancakes between all three of their kids.

So--if you come to visit me in Washington, I promise that I will treat you to the world's most impressive pancake.

pray!

tomorrow i'm taking one of my girls to church with me. we're going to be visiting the church home of our owyhee river guide and his family. she's never had a church home before (and i don't have a church home right now either) so we're going with his family. she seems to be looking forward to it, and i just pray that she feels comfortable and enjoys the service!

please pray for her! my #1 goal right now is to get her connected to a church home, because she accepted Jesus about a month ago and hasn't been to church yet....

The future of "The Mud Hut" hangs in the balance.

Yesterday, my supervisor (Bronco) and I had a meeting with a youth pastor and youth volunteer from one of the area churches to discuss the future of "The Mud Hut." For the past several years, Arlington YD has partnered with this church to open up a coffeehouse/drop-in ministry for kids ages 12-18. By last spring, it seemed that several problems had escalated:
1. inadequate staffing--full-time staff were burnt out and there was a high student/adult ratio.
2. difficulties monitoring what happened outside the building ("The Mud Hut" is on the 3rd floor of the American Legion building)
3. problems with loitering (kids hanging out on the 1st floor in front of the American Legion means that the American Legion is in violation of their liquor license)
4. vandalism (because of the first two problems, unmonitored kids punched a hole in the stairwell.)

So "The Mud Hut" was shut down for the summer, to repair the vandalism and to also take a break and evaluate the future of the center. All month, Bronco and I have been diligently praying about what to do with "The Mud Hut" whether to relocate it, to revise it, or just to abandon it...and since we're partnering with this specific church in keeping it open, it has to be a more community decision.

In my opinion--the youth center is a vital part of bringing kids into the ministry. Kids will show up at a drop-in center that would never show up at a church, and several kids are now integrated into the local churches and have given their lives to Christ as a result of being at "The Mud Hut." But--up to this point, "The Mud Hut" has been devoid of solid guidelines and adequate staffing. This has to be amended before we could re-open. We're going to continue to talk with other area pastors over the next few weeks and keep praying for direction. In two weeks, the four of us will meet together again to perhaps make some more clear-cut decisions. (because there's also an option of utilizing another local church's youth center for more open community activities, which we want to explore. it's a better location and a bigger facility).

It seems as this point that if God does not give us a go-ahead, or if we cannot recruit passionate, committed volunteers to invest in the lives of kids at "The Mud Hut" that we may just lay it to rest. Whatever decision is made though, Bronco and I are united in the fact that we can't just plan and go ahead with our plan and ask the Lord to bless our decision--we have to ask the Lord for His vision.

So for now, we wait and pray.

i'm popular!

okay--maybe not popular, but yesterday we took a group of 18 kids up to a Water Park in Birch Bay, Washington. It was a fun day I suppose. Our group had 3 girls and 15 boys, and I'm definitely looking forward to building up the core group of girls YD is reaching this year.

Anyways. After we arrived back home, I was talking on my phone in the YD office parking lot, and there were still about 6 of the 15 boys hanging around. Since I was not paying attention to them and since they were bored, high school boys, they began pelting me with ice cubes from across the parking lot. The boys, overall, have been treating me like I'm a big idiot, but when they began pelting me with ice cubes, I thought, ha HA! I'm victorious! I'm popular! They want me to pay attention to them! So I yelled out "stop it!" which they of course did not, and I felt very happy to have received the official teenage boy stamp of approval--being worthy of their annoyances.

"the disco part of heaven"

last night at the Monday Night Lifeline Group (Bible Study and Fellowship with about 8 kids) we were discussing the Proverbs referring to "taming the tongue," watching your words and such...

at one point one of the boys in the group said, "why do we have to do all of this work to get into heaven? I thought it was supposed to be easy--you ask Jesus into your heart, and that's it."

"Well, yes, that's true," the adult leaders respond in unison, "but there's also your opportunity to respond and decide to live well with your time on earth...because we are still here for now..."

"So," our young inquisitor asks, "Does that mean I don't have to have a job to get into heaven? I can just sit around and be lazy?"

"Well...you could..." we say..."But if you live well on earth, you're working towards a reward that you won't get until you get to heaven..."

"Yeah," he says, "maybe if you're lazy and don't work while you're on earth, you don't get to go to the cool part of heaven. You have to go to the lowest rung of heaven, that they reserve for all the bums--it's like--you have to go to the disco part of heaven."

apparently, to a 14-year old boy in 2004, eternity in a disco is on par with being a bare-minimum reward. i wonder how john travolta feels about that?

p.s. if you're wondering if eternity in a disco is for you, please follow this friendly link, which was provided by the blogmaster Nate Shorb: Disco Dance Lessons