iServe Day 3

This was the last and final day of iServe, tomorrow we head home (well if your reading this it's probably today)!

  I will keep this brief, because I want you to ask your teens, friends or friends teens what it is they saw today.

  God used us to clean, serve food, sweep floors, throw trash in dumpsters and much much more!

  We've all been on this journey together (you included) as we've seen God move, God work and God use us for His Glory!

  Many stories are yet to be told, many experiences have yet to be shared so poke, prod and dig deep this coming week as to what specifically God has been doing in and through your teen.  If you desire to go back through the blogs for reference, please do! In order for you to do this easily, on the right hand side, there are "categories", all of these blogs are under the title "LIFE 2010"  In fact, I will make it easier!

  Just click HERE: LIFE 2010  to check out all of this weeks blogs!

  I hope you've enjoyed this blogging experience!  In fact, if you have and have time, please comment on the blogs that you enjoyed, share some love and share what has impacted you most.  I will be posting some more videos (like the awesome gospel choir we heard tonight!) on Youtube and even redoing some of the videos to post other places...so be on the look out!

  Don't forget: God used all of these teens this week, so ask them questions (and use the past blogs as starter questions ;) ) 

  Time for bed so we can be well rested for the drive home!

Read More

iServe Day 2

Today was the second day of service and it was a really good time!

  We all woke up super early and met in the lobby at 6:15am.  Many of us were rubbing the sleep out of our eyes as we descended the stairs or came off the elevator, but all of us had an eager anticipation of what we were going to do and what God was going to do through us.

  We were all briefed on the happenings of the day.  All of us were to feed breakfast to the people in the homeless shelters as well as lunch.  Somewhere in the midst of the food serving, the group that was selected to go to the Home of the Innocent was to head out.

  I (Marv) was in the group who headed off to the Men's Homeless shelter along with 54 others, the leaders were: Lynne, Jim Turnbull, June, George and Randy.  There, we served food, prepped dinner, organized the food pantry, unloaded a truck, cleaned dishes, swept and mopped floors, sorted mail, cleaned toilets, organized a newly stocked freezer and pet a tortoise! (seen on left; watch videos here: http://www.youtube.com/user/picako7 )

 

  Although I quickly ran through the things we did, it was not "easy" nor was it done quickly.  They put us to work and we saw God work!  Many of our teens engaged with the men from the shelter (and kids and women who had a special meal time...more on that later).  We were all wrapped and touched by many of the stories of the people we heard.

  For example, I bumped into a guy named Kenneth who was from Memphis, TN.  He had no place to go and was directed to Wayside Christian Mission, where he came and has now lived for 2 years.  Here he has received love and care and was given free lodging and a job on sight at the mission (he was the dishwasher).  He told of his future plans (because now he can actually have them!) in which he was to get married, get a job and a house and be the step-dad to his fiance's son!

  Rebecca Wakeley (during the women and children's special meal time) hung out with some women and children and talked with a lady, heard her story and talked to her about finding a church and sharing with her about the Lord!

  Many more stories like this were shared and touched the lives of our teens.  Watching my team work so hard with no complaining and serving with so much joy was a delight to see!  I even pushed 2 young ladies WAY out of their comfort zones and saw them both grow because of the challenge!

  My team was only a small part of what Jesus did today, the other groups were out cleaning dirty bunk beds, lifting heavy things in a warehouse, working with disabled kids (at the Home of the Innocent) and running into things they didn't prepare for (like seeing dead mice...and live ones).  God is stretching these teens beyond what they thought they could be stretched by and it is a blessing to see.

  After our time at the different sites, we came back, relaxed a bit and headed out to dinner at the Golden Corral!  We ate well to say the least and were well satisfied to go into the rest of the night.

 We had another time of worship, went to prayer stations around the room to experience, understand and read about God's Love and Love in general.

  After the stations, we moved into a time of sharing what we saw and what was saw God doing today.  It was (as last night was) a tremendous blessing!  We heard story after story of what God was doing (i.e. the ones above) and it was a roomful of people praising the Lord for what He was doing in and through them!

  We heard a word from Pastor Scott on perspective and seeing this trip not as a "mountain top" but as a flat plain on a map that God is taking us on.  It's not about the "high" or "low" points he said...it's about the Journey!

  After the time of worship and Word, we had some free/down time and then headed to bed to meet together at 7am for more of the same "type" of work but of course it will be a different experience!

  To view videos from today (my work station; the prayer stations and worship) go to the youtube account here: http://www.youtube.com/user/picako7

 

Read More

iServe Day 1

Today was a transition day, where our LIFE trip converged with our iServe trip  (thus the picture).

  We all got to sleep in today, which was a God-send.  We were all feeling a bit exhausted so the extra sleep allowed us to catch up a bit of what we lost this past week.

  When we woke up, we put all of our luggage in the lobby and prepared to head out.  Once we packed the vans full of our stuff, we headed over to the park (the same one where we ate pizza the first day)  where we hung out for a small amount of time and got briefed on our next mission.

  We learned of a prayer walk, where we would walk downtown Louisville to our next hotel (which was only 1 mile or so away).  We were all given maps and asked to take our time praying over certain buildings and such along our way.

  Most walks were about 35-40 minutes where we prayed our hearts out for the city of Louisville.  We ended our walk and ate lunch at McDonald's.

  At McDonald's, there was a group of ladies (Anne Kimpel's group) who brought a homeless lady in to feed her.  They had bumped into her on their prayer walk and decided to put action to their prayers and feed this hungry lady!  It was an amazing testimony to our kids and that the transition from conference to service was being completed in their minds.

  After McDonald's, we unloaded the vans, got acquainted to our rooms and got ready to go bowling.  We went bowling (and watched Spain win the world cup!) from about 2:15-5pm. It being a transition day needed a time of fellowship and some "chill" time so we all welcomed the time we had with one another at the bowling alley.

  Once bowling was done, we headed back to our hotel and prepared for dinner.  We had some dinner then a quick briefing meeting from Pastor Scott.  Scott gave a gift to those who made the meeting on time: $5 per person to spend at the local grocery store!  So, Scott just sent us all out to the store and some of us had a free $5 to spend on some snacks to have in our rooms for the remainder of the week...this was super fun!

  After our little shopping trip, we came back and had an awesome time of worship with Jackie Campbell and Josh Blanchard!  We sang, and were encouraged to share with another person who we don't usually hang out with what God was doing in our lives.  We shared for about 15 minutes with each other then convened back to listen to Pastor Scott.

  Scott shared some Scripture and opened the floor to some testimony time, so we could all hear what God was doing in our midst!  This time was probably one of my favorites on the WHOLE trip thus far!  Hearing the stories of what God was doing in the lives of our teens was refreshing and reminded me (Marv) that these moments are why I am in ministry, I am used by God to help these things happen and to witness God's great hand at work in the lives of teens in these precious moments.  We heard story after story of God's work (some I hope to film tomorrow and put on youtube)!

  We shared for a little over an hour; it was totally awesome!

  After our time, of sharing Scott shared a bit more form the Word, encouraged us to stay in God's word and sent us off to bed!

  The first official day of iServe has begun and I am eager to see what it is that God will do next!  Tomorrow is an early day, we start it at 6:10am, where we will feed the homeless both breakfast and lunch.  Keep praying!

  Lastly, go to the youtube account: http://www.youtube.com/user/picako7  to see a video of our "chill time" at the bowling alley!

 

Read More

LIFE 2010--Day 5

  Today was of course, the last day (of the conference).  It was an amazing day chock-full of memory making happenings.

  Before I move on, I had to upload the videos all to my personal Youtube account.  For some reason, I wasn't able to continue editing them together.  Here is the web address: http://www.youtube.com/user/picako7

  Back to what we did today!

  This morning was a tough day to get up...but we did!  We woke up around 6:15am and got to the expo center around 7am.  Breakfast was full of teens dragging themselves into the food line and sleepily putting food into their mouths.  You can see this silly reality on one of the youtube videos!

  After breakfast, we jumped right into our session, where James Grout spoke again on the role of the church.  He discussed how we are to be a solid unit who is there for one another and there for moving out and being the church in the streets, not just in the four walls where we live.

  The coolest thing that happened during this session was the missionary walk.  Each LIFE missionaries from the CMA carry their flags down to the center of the stage and show where they are evangelizing to and what country they are giving their lives to.

  This was a very inspiring sight (and always is).  It tugs at the heart and forces one to see how many people (just by the amount of countries represented) need to hear the good news of Christ.

  The worship was excellent as usual and like I said before, James brought a tough but good message.

  Like our normal LIFE schedule, after the session, seminars were open.  We all end up splitting up going to different seminars and many of the teens came back with some great reports of all that they were learning in their seminars.

  After the first seminar session time, was LUNCH.  People weren't dragging as badly as they were for breakfast, but they were still a bit tired.  I myself got 2 free shots of espresso from the college espresso booth!  It jolted me right up.

  After lunch was more seminars, which some teens went to and other didn't.  Some students were so tired that they passed out on the couches at the Nyack booth.  We decided they've gone to all the other hours of seminars, so if they decided to get some rest or hang with new friends during this time, that would be OK.

  Some students however, came back excited and on fire from some of the seminars they had attended and were more than excited and willing to share what God was saying to them.

  After the seminars was a bit of free time, which some more resting took place and others were doing all the activities they could before it was time to shut them down.  Steven Kimpel challenged me to a race in a blow up obstacle course.  I totally CRUSHED him!  OK, sorry he beat me, but it was only by a bit.

  Dinner happened and was good.

  After dinner, it was time to go back to the very last session of LIFE 2010.  It was sad, but also good because God moved in some amazing ways.  We had A.B. Simpson (well an actor posing as AB) speak to us about his experience with missions and God's call on his own life.  Jason Ostrander (the CMA National Youth Director) then followed up with some great insight as to how God calls us.

 After Jason spoke, Dr. Dave Thompson spoke about his calling, and how God was moving in Gabon.  He challenged the kids to seek out what God is saying to them and their hearts.  Jason followed up by asking who was hit by God this week.  he asked for 2 groups.  The first were those who God saved this week and the second were those whom God was calling into ministry.

  The scene was powerful and many of our students stood up on the second piece saying that God was calling them into some sort of ministry. Lynne Bogolin wrote down all their names so we would know who all was saying they were being called.

  We ended with communion and glow sticks.  The communion was a way of connecting us as family and the glow sticks was just a flashy way of ending a GREAT week...if you go to the youtube page you'll see the glow sticks...6,500 people waving glow sticks does look pretty sweet!

 Once we got back to the hotel, we debriefed a little bit, had small groups and went to bed.  God has been doing so much in the lives of these teens and I get a front row ( and so do you now, with the blog!)!

  Keep praying because we move hotels tomorrow and begin our run of service!  Thanks for checking in and I will see you here tomorrow!

Read More

LIFE 2010--Day 4

This has been a very exciting day!  We woke up as usual, headed down to the bus and went over to the expo center for some breakfast...which was of course delicious!

Once breakfast was done, it was time for the first session of the day.

  We had a great time of worship which really focused us on the cross of Christ as well as on the freedom we have in God to worship Him and to glorify His name.

  We had a new speaker again today; a Youth Pastor named Jame Grout from Chicago spoke on the collision of faith with our lives.  He opened up to James 1:19-27 where James shares with the church he was writing to (as well as to us) that God desires more of us in the world of faith than just hearing the Word of God.  God desires we actually do what the Bible says, and that in fact true faith will naturally and habitually do what the Bible says!

  James was winsome, funny and very direct.  He brought the truth of God's word in an easy, and very understandable way an yet challenged the teens deeply with what God asked him to preach!

  After the session, we headed to seminars.  Most of our boys headed to a seminar called: "If Jesus Played a Sport..."  Which was taught by a friend of Pastor Marv: Paul Allen.  Paul shared how we as athletes can (and should) use our teams as places where we can share Christ with our actions.

  Next it was on to another delicious meal for Lunch: pasta and garlic bread!  Usually at conferences the food is not good...yet here the food has been stellar, so your teens are being fed well spiritually and physically!

  The schedule here is pretty packed, so right after lunch there was another seminar.  I attended the seminar called "Life Hurts" which was taught by a handsome young man (OK, it was Scott Wakeley) and it was very good.  Scott talked about the hurts that life throws our way and helped the teens see the need of finding out why things are happening and learning how to respond in a Biblical way when they come.

  Next on our schedule was some free time, where the teens hung out at the Nyack College booth and the expo center main area where there is tons to do.

  After the free time we had, we headed to dinner, which was super scrumptious!  We at pulled pork sandwiches and Jo-Jo's (Big Potato fries).  I also snuck a cookie :) 

  Directly after dinner, we had our final session of the evening.  This was titled: The Alliance Youth Project and was a night focused on missions, how we can help the CMA missions and even some ideas of where some teens may be called. 

  This time was POWERFUL and God was certainly among us.  We heard some amazing stories from some of our CMA missionaries.  We also heard a testimony of a young lady who was on an CMA missions trip who was healed from a disease she had which caused her not to walk or see.  It was a powerful time of seeing God at work and desiring to do our best to help!  A lot of teens were hit hard by these stories.  Tomorrow we are going to take an offering for the CMA missions and I hope it is a larger intake than last year (which was $117,000).

  God continues to move in the lives of your teens!

  Sorry for no video today,  there were some complications with the movie that couldn't be resolved until later this afternoon, check back in for the video!

Read More

LIFE 2010---Day 3

Day 3 has ended and boy was it packed full of some GREAT stuff!
We woke up a bit earlier this morning than yesterday, so we could secure those sweet seats from yesterday once again, which we did for the first session but sadly, not for the second.

Anyways, the first session started full of energy and God focused electricity! We worshipped, watched some funny videos, some people in the crowd won free stuff and then it was time for the message!

   Derwin Gray; former NFL star got up and preached to us about the incarnation of Jesus Christ. He shared how Christ took on flesh and He dwelt with us and was here on earth. Derwin shared with us his personal testimony about how he collided with Jesus and realized that Jesus was on a collision course with the cross the moment he was born. Derwin challenged the teens to see how even they at their age can do great things for the Lord

   Right after the session for the day, we headed directly into some seminars. I (Marv) attended a seminar with a few students from are group entitled: "My Friend Just Asked..." Which was a seminar based off of the questions people ask us about our faith.

  The speaker (Matt Archer) had us break up into groups and see how we would answer certain questions in certain scenarios. In the end, he reminded us that the ultimate question to ask is: "Do you know Jesus?"

  Several of our leaders attended an amazing seminar entitled: "Exodus" which is all about how a large number of teens are seemingly slipping through the cracks and eventually leaving church all together. This "Exodus" seminar was chock-full of ways in which we as leaders can help take this statistic to its grave.

  Next up was lunch...which was a troublesome spot for about 55% of our team. The caterers were about 1.5 hours behind schedule, which delayed the dispersion of food tremendously. Some of us (the other 45%) were able to sneak in and get the beginning trickles of food without delay, but the rest of us were staggered throughout the food line that was only letting in 100 people at a time (and with a line of approx. 3,000 people this took awhile!). This caused some of us to be late to session 2 and also resulted in our not snagging those sweet seats again :(

  The worship was very well done yet again and Derwin Gray got up and preached part 2 of the incarnation. This talk was a personal challenge from Derwin to the teens to live like Jesus and be the incarnation of Jesus where ever they find themselves. it was a powerful message to our teens to actively live their faith and not just give lip-service to the whole "Christianity thing". This is also where (in my mind) the quote of the week popped up. Derwin talking about the death and resurrection of Jesus said: "They put him on a stick like a poster, but on the third day he popped up like he was in a toaster!"

  After the session, we went directly to the Louisville Slugger Stadium where we were to see Kutless play. It was 100 degrees outside and we were waiting for the bus to pick us up to take us there, so some of us were a bit grumpy but God got us through! We got to the stadium and found our seats to be viewing the concert from the rear...which didn't have great sound, so we chilled, talked and tried to find water and shade.

  We also ate at the stadium and enjoyed some good down time. Some people stayed at the game and others left because of 1. the brutal heat and 2. the lack of interest in a AAA game of baseball.

  Those who headed back (like myself) hung out with their leaders either at the pool (which most of the girls did) or in my room (where all the guys hung out). It was a GREAT time of relaxation and bonding with one another.

  We ended the night with some good debriefing and we leaders sought to see what God was saying to the hearts of these teens.

  The feedback was great and very insightful. The trip is going very well and God continues to move in the hearts and lives of the ACAC teens! Below is a 2.5 minute video recap of all that went down today. Enjoy..and don't stop praying!

Read More

LIFE 2010---Day 2

The picture here is a picture of Francis Chan hugging his daughter.  He used this picture as how we should be with God, totally trusting and totally free to rest in his arms!  This was from the night session and it was GREAT!

  Today, we woke up and got on the bus around 7am so we can get to the expo center for some breakfast!  After eating, we headed directly to the first session of the day where Francis Chan talked about creation and how awesome all the things God created are.  He hit the point, his "Big Idea" if you will that we are not only created by God but  for God and so we should live that way, handing over our lives to God because it's all  for Him!

  After the first session, we broke out into seminars which were varied but the feedback from all the teens and leaders was extremely positive!

  After the seminars, we headed to Lunch!  In the video below, you'll find out what we ate for lunch as well as what some of the teens are learning!

  Next, we moved into another seminar time, and then some free time followed that where students were encouraged to check out the expo room, look at the LIFE store, check out the college booths and have a good time.

  After our free time, it was again time for some grub.  We had a great meal then headed to the last session, where we snagged some SWEET seats.  Here Francis talked about temptation and how we have a real enemy who doesn't want God to effect change in our lives.  This was a deep time where God really hit some of the kids deep down.  Each student we talked with had a desire to make these changes real and not just some "spiritual high" here in Lousiville.  Chan also talked about our trust in the Father and how we are able to run to God with open arms and he will not let us go.  As pictured above, he brought his own daughter up to illustrate this point.

  Lastly, we went into small groups to share authentically what God was speaking to us. God is moving! Many teens were open and real about their fears/struggles.  We prayed, headed back to the hotel and went to bed!  Below is a 5 minute video of our day...enjoy!

Read More

LIFE 2010--Day 1

 The trip today was fun, tiring, busy and interesting, but great all in all.  The deluxe bus that we had (in which the girls reaped the benefits of) happened to lose AC during the trip, so we made an unexpected stop in order to hydrate the girls and give them a chance to cool off. 

  Thankfully this happened when we were only about 2 hours away, so they were spared for a super long time of suffering.

  Despite the hardships of the road, we made it alive and in one piece!

  Once we got to the Galt House, we were all in awe at the beauty of the building and all the cool things this amazing hotel had to offer.  We had little time to be awestruck however, because with the AC breakdown and the unexpected stop, we were running a bit behind schedule. 

After everyone got out of the vehicles, settled and unpacked we headed over to the park behind the hotel for some good pizza.  The pizza was from a  well known local pizza shop called Wick's Pizza which was completely delicious.

  Now that our belly's were full, we were ready to head to the Louisville, KY Expo Center (pictured here)

  While here, we headed into the large room where all the fun toys were.  We walked around the room looking at all the sites and gazing at all the toys we know we're going to enjoy this week. 

 While in the large "fun room" Josh Blanchard did and impromptu concert for ACAC (and everyone else) at the Nyack College Booth.

After the concert, we headed into the main session room, where the Holy Spirit was thick and evident.  There were some fun "Pre-session" moments, but once the worship began, it was all focused on God.  It's amazing to see 6,500 people worshipping God all at one time, so to give you a small taste, here is a video:

  After this powerful time of worship, Jason Ostrander got up to speak about Collide (the whole weeks theme).  He explained for us how we have things in our lives that collide with God and we sometimes have collisions with God ourselves.  He briefly described how each day would go and which certain "collisions" we would discuss on each day.  The Collisions will go as follows: Creation; the Incarnation; Faith and the Church.  We will post much more on these specific topics, so make sure you check back each day for more information.

  After the wonderful time of worship, and powerful message from Jason, the President of the C&MA (Gary Benedict) got on stage to bless the youth and to encourage them. 

  When the session was over, we all went into a room in the expo center and with our small groups (broken up by who was in your room) debriefed the night, worship and session.  We asked 3 questions: Why did you come to LIFE?  Where in your life do you collide with God and When the Holy Spirit reveals the changes, the desires and the collisions you need to make, will you yield to Him and allow him to work in you?

   This time was amazing, where we got to see the teens first-hand wrestling with God and these questions.  Please continue to pray for our teens for God to continue to hit them hard and to challenge them deeply.

 Tomorrow morning we are hearing from Francis Chan on the collision of Creation!  More info, pics, videos and interviews forthcoming...stay tuned!

Read More

LIFE 2010-ACAC Blog

  Hello and welcome; this is the official Blogspot for  ACAC LIFE 2010!

  This is where you will have up to the minute, on the money information from Louisville, KY.

  Each night, we will write a new blurb of what happened that day, but it will be so much more than just a blurb.  We will have interviews, pictures, videos and testimonies of what God is doing in the lives of the teens as well as in the leaders.

 Once the conference is over, this blog will not stop, because we will be moving into a service component and will remain posting all new content each night!

  You may be wondering what the rest of the stuff on this blog is and that's a good question.  Normally this is Pastor Marv's personal blog, but he has reliquished it for the next 11 days so we can keep all of you informed as to what is happening in our lives and what God is up to during this trip.  Please check in each night for an update on LIFE 2010!!

  It's going to be an amazing trip, please keep us in your prayers!

Read More