Playing Catch Up

What has been happening with the addyouthpastor?

Two weeks ago we took 18 students on a great trip to Camp Shenandoah Springs for our week of summer camp.  We staffed the camp and the program and relied on CSS for the facilities and the meals.  We had a great week unpacking together what it means to be a follower of Jesus. 
It was a fun week of building relationships and growing spiritually.  We had a blast tubing on the river, hiking to a waterfall, riding horses, archery, campfires and practicing our sasquatch calls (yes, we did get a response from a squatch).  The best part of our week was when one of our students gave her life to Jesus Christ by placing her faith in Him!!!!!!!
Camp Pictures and video to come!

Last week I took off the week for comp time.  After 8 straight days of work and most days averaging 17 hours a day I was wiped out.  I'm glad I get to do this.  Can you believe some churches don't give their youth pastors any time off after being gone from their families and working around 100 hours that week?  I spent the week last week with my family.  I gave each one of my three kids some alone time with me and we went out and did something they wanted to do followed by some fro yo at my favorite spot (and theirs) the Surfin' Spoon. 

I am super thankful and applaud the volunteers who went with me to camp and led small groups and helped with organizing, caring for students and ministering to them.  Most came home and didn't have the luxury of time off, they went right back to work.  They also used vacation time to be our staff at camp!  God has blessed our youth ministry with some awesome folks who love ministering to students.

Last night we had a great time hanging out at the beach for Contagious Youth and we took a look see at Matthew 6:5.  Many braved the cooler water temps (I hope it's warmer this coming Sunday).

Now today I caught up on 265 e-mails.  Read some reports, staff meeting minutes, elders meeting minutes so I could catch up on what's happening.

Now that I've caught up we are hitting the ground running.

 

This is an event we are hosting here in The Loft with several other youth groups coming together to challenge the students to reach their campus for Christ this coming school year.  I'm excited about this night!  We are also introducing The Life Book to them.

Gonna end the summer with some fun here

Planning a fun trip to sweat in the sweltering heat of Busch Gardens in Williamsburg, Va

So what have you been up to the past couple of weeks?