Appalachia Day 5 - Wednesday
This is officially hump day! This trip is exhausting on many different levels, and once you hit Wednesday, you know that the majority of the exhaustation is behind you. I noticed a pick up in our youth's energy level today.
This was another good day of VBS - at this point of the week, a good sized portion of our youth have taught, and their perspectives have been interesting. Youth from both churches have expressed disappointment and concern over the seemingly lack of interest they notice in the kids as lessons are being taught. I am surprised at this, but am reminded that we are a people who so desperately want to see results immediately. We are trying to encourage the youth that they are planting seeds and may never see them come to fruition, but we must trust more in the Lord's working than in our own. It is good to see our good God stretching us this way.
A neat experience for some of us today was watching a storm come over the mountain ... the church faces a mountain range, and after VBS had ended and Greg and Andrew were taking kids home, some of us were outside chatting and playing 4-square. We noticed it getting darker and darker over the facing mountain, and watched sheets of rain start washing across the mountain side. Some of us commented on how cool it was, and then one of us realized that the outpour of rain was heading our way! We ran for the church, and got there just before the sky opened up over us! So far, it has rained every day here ... we keep on praying that the rain will make its way to GA!
We had another wonderful night of worship - John Cook explained to us that Christ's perfection is our perfection, and this is our security ... and another assurance of security is that God is not done with us, but is constantly at work in us to make us more like His beloved Son. Another wonderful message! The singing has gotten better every night, and tonight we had a great round of "All in All". We ended worship with a prayer meeting for all of the participants.
Tomorrow we are all wearing our matching t shirts, because the camera crew will be coming out to film us in action! James "Lugnut/Lugznuttz/Big Country/Stud" Thompson volunteered to stand in front of 480 people tomorrow evening and give a report on the work we are doing. Please pray for James - this is a big task for anyone! But, we are all confident he can do it, and do it well!
Below are some pics of our kids in action. Hope you enjoy!
This was another good day of VBS - at this point of the week, a good sized portion of our youth have taught, and their perspectives have been interesting. Youth from both churches have expressed disappointment and concern over the seemingly lack of interest they notice in the kids as lessons are being taught. I am surprised at this, but am reminded that we are a people who so desperately want to see results immediately. We are trying to encourage the youth that they are planting seeds and may never see them come to fruition, but we must trust more in the Lord's working than in our own. It is good to see our good God stretching us this way.
A neat experience for some of us today was watching a storm come over the mountain ... the church faces a mountain range, and after VBS had ended and Greg and Andrew were taking kids home, some of us were outside chatting and playing 4-square. We noticed it getting darker and darker over the facing mountain, and watched sheets of rain start washing across the mountain side. Some of us commented on how cool it was, and then one of us realized that the outpour of rain was heading our way! We ran for the church, and got there just before the sky opened up over us! So far, it has rained every day here ... we keep on praying that the rain will make its way to GA!
We had another wonderful night of worship - John Cook explained to us that Christ's perfection is our perfection, and this is our security ... and another assurance of security is that God is not done with us, but is constantly at work in us to make us more like His beloved Son. Another wonderful message! The singing has gotten better every night, and tonight we had a great round of "All in All". We ended worship with a prayer meeting for all of the participants.
Tomorrow we are all wearing our matching t shirts, because the camera crew will be coming out to film us in action! James "Lugnut/Lugznuttz/Big Country/Stud" Thompson volunteered to stand in front of 480 people tomorrow evening and give a report on the work we are doing. Please pray for James - this is a big task for anyone! But, we are all confident he can do it, and do it well!
Below are some pics of our kids in action. Hope you enjoy!