Mid Night Madness

Join us next friday night, August 8th,  for a night at the St. Peters Rec Plex.  We will meet at church at 6 pm and return to church at 12:30 am.  There will be a service from 7 - 9 pm at Gateway Central and then we will go to the Rec Plex from 10 - 12 for ice skating, swimming, basketball, pizza and more.  You need to sign up and pay tomorrow:  cost is $6.50.  

Embrace Nashville

Well another "embrace" mission trip is over and I have to say this was one of the best I have ever been on.  I hope you have checked out the video's from the past week and listened to some of the updates from the students.  It was great each night to debrief and to hear what God was doing in the lives of our students.  No matter what I do every year, our mission trip is always the most important.   I hope each year that the students will come home and realize they can "embrace" their community: their home, their school and even their neighborhoods.  Well, one more mission trip is behind us and it is already time to prepare for the next one.  On August 17th I will be catching the train to do my presite visit for "Embrace New York."  Thanks again for checking the blog and being a part of this online community.

Thursdays Update with Kelsey Wright

It's Thursday! Can't believe this was our last "full" day of serving. It was definitely a long and full day. As you know, we split into two separate groups. Group one went to Y-Cap in the morning. They had a fabulous time planning and playing games with all of the kids there. My group, Group two, went to The Boys and Girls Club and got to hang out with all the crazy children. It's definitely been a great week getting to know these kids and just loving on them. After we all had to say our goodbyes to them (last day), we headed out to our friend John's house. He is a client of an organization called Nashville Cares. We had the opportunity to clean up his house and yard and spend some time with him. The other group went out to a veteran's hospital. There they gave the patients get well cards they had made and spent some time listening to their stories. THEN we embarked on a "night exposure"! We were given the challenge to experience life homeless. From our housing site, we walked to a bus stop with only $5 in each of our pockets. In our groups of about six people, we planned out where we would sleep and spend our time and where we would take showers and clean up. With our five dollars, we had to find and buy our bus tickets to and from down town AND our dinner. This exposure is always something good for us students, just to see and experience the life of these people. 

It was definitely a fantastic day. Thank you for praying for us over this week. We all enjoy being together and learning from one another. God has been very faithful to us this week and has met us each where we are on our journey. 

GO NASHVILLE!!!!

Kels Wright 

Embrace Nashville Update 4 with Anna and Kelsey

Tuesday Nashville Update

day 3 update

Embrace Nashville Update 2

Day three of "Embrace Nashville"  has been great.  Last night was somewhat difficult for the girls...their room is a "little" warm, probably in the 90's!  But they have all been great and they all survived the night, maybe just a little tired this morning.  We split up into two groups:  one served at ycap with kids that were 12 - 16, the other group served at andrew jackson's boys and girls club.  Each student had a different experience, but I think they all are being stretched and used.  We took a class at Nashville Cares, went on a prayer tour and had dinner at Swett's.  

Tomorrow morning, my group (kyle) will be leaving the housing site at 4:30 AM!!!!!  We are going to the men's rescue mission to serve breakfast.  Please continue to pray for us as we embrace Nashville.

Embrace Nashville Update #1

Shea Powers shares a little about our last two days here in nashville. We start serving tomorrow!

Embrace nashville Ropes Course

We started off our Embrace Nashville Mission Trip with a ropes course. Here are just a few pics of some of the students.

Made it to Nashville!

We hit the road at 7:30 this morning to head to Nashville.  It was a smooth trip...no blowouts!  We got off the highway and started to make our way to Adventureworks, a ropes course in the Harpeth Scenic State park just northwest of Nashville.  Following the directions I printed off from google maps, we headed down Dry Creek Road and this is what it looked like after 3 miles, not so dry!  Obviously, this road wasn't the one we needed.  After driving around for over an hour and a half and asking five different people for directions we finally found it.

I was extremely proud of our students!  Some of the elements on the high ropes course were over 50 feet off the ground!  Each of the students did what they could, many even going past where they felt comfortable.  It was a great opportunity for them to do something some of them didn't think t

hey would be able to do. There were several things they all did really well: communicate with their partner, learn to trust in some difficult situations and they all encouraged one another.  It was a great start to our Embrace Nashville. 

 

Finally Leaving to "Embrace" Nashville

It seems like we have been talking about "embrace" nashville forever!  Well the time has finally come and we will be leaving at 7 am tomorrow morning.  I am really excited about this trip and anticipating what God is going to do while we are in Nashville.   Starting Sunday night I will be posting videos of students giving updates on what has been going on.  Please check back sunday night and be a part of our trip.  Please continue to pray for us!

New Blog to Check out

If you have a chance you should check out this blog by this beautiful girl I know.  Read a little about her family and what is going on in their lives!

Next Love with Action Project

Our next love with action project is going to be school supplies.  Our goal is to collect enough supplies for 50 backpacks.  Here is a list of what is needed:

2 Packages Loose-Leaf Paper (wide rule)
2 Folders with pockets (Plain colors preferred)
No. 2 Pencils (pack of 6)
Eraser
Crayons
A pencil case
3 Spiral Notebooks (wide rule)

If you can please bring all that is on the list.  This will fill one backpack.  We are also asking that you place in the offering cash or check for $2.75 to purchase the backpacks at a bulk price.  We are then going to donate the money and the supplies to Bridge of Hope.   

Thanks for helping us as we are trying to be the church and reach out to our community.  1 John 3:18 says, "Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth."

Crazy Love

Just finished a book by Francis Chan, pastor of Cornerstone Church in Simi Valley. The whole book talks about our response to this crazy love that the Creator of the universe extends to us. This is an extremely challenging book...one that calls us to put our faith into action and to respond differently than most of us always have. He also has a great website that goes along with the book with some challenging videos.

Chan writes this in Crazy Love, "The goals of American Christianity are often a nice marriage, children who don't swear, and good church attendance. Taking the words of Christ literally and seriously is rarely considered. That's for the 'radicals' who are 'unbalanced' and who go 'overboard.' Most of us want a balanced life that we can control, that is safe, and that does not involve suffering."

If you want a book that makes you uncomfortable and challenges you to evaluate your faith and your response to this "Crazy Love," this is the book for you.

A great example of Making a Big Deal out of Nothing

I couldn't believe this when I read it.  He must have never been to summer camp with teenage boys!

Just A Few Reminders

Just wanted to remind you all that we will be meeting on Sunday morning at 9:30 to go over "Practical Justice."  Also, you must have a adventure works release form turned in.  This is to clear you for the ropes course on Saturday night. We will be meeting on Saturday July 19th at 7 am...please do not be late!   You also need to wear or pack whatever you are going to wear for the ropes course.  This should be something that is comfortable, as well as comfortable shoes such as sneakers or running shoes.  You will also need money for lunch on the way down and dinner on the way back, along with any other money you want for snacks.  If you have any questions please either post a comment here or email at stlstudents@sbcglobal.net

This is what I have always needed!

You hold the light!

Our theme for the summer is "A Summer of Hope" and this week we looked at a part of the sermon on the mount where Jesus tells his followers that they are the light of the world.  He is standing on a hillside by the Sea of Galilee and he says, "A city on a hill cannot be hidden."  He was more than likely talking about a town called Safed, which the fisherman would use to know where they were.  It was known that as long as you knew where Safed was, even in the midst of a storm or heavy fog, you could find your way home.  Jesus was saying there is no way that Safed could ever be hidden.  He makes it pretty clear that we to are not supposed to hide our light.  He later says, "Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl."   I challenged our students tonight about not hiding there light, but by doing the simple things: being kind, compassionate, forgiving, giving, loving, etc, that those around us will see our light.  In the end, I challenged the students to come forward and light a candle as a symbol of them wanting to put their light on a stand and not cover it up.  It was great to see students come forward and make this step in their journey.