Louisville DAY 5

  Wow!  Did it really go this fast?  Day 5 is done, over, finished and tomorrow we will head home to your loving arms.  The great thing is that you are armed with so much information as to what we've been up to you will have a great starting point for conversation when they get back!

  I wish I could give my best effort explaining the day we had but I will simply talk about the evening because it was amazing and I need to get to bed!

  Tonight we engaged in a tremendous time of worship.  We sang some powerful songs and the mood in the room over all was pretty worshipful.  Then we heard a talk about loving differently and how Jesus was God but still loved others with a servant's attitude, so much so that he washed his disciples feet!

  Then, the speaker announced that the Youth Works staff were going to wash the leaders feet, then we the leaders would wash your teens feet.  When the staff washed our feet, they also prayed over us and so we leaders did the same, we prayed over your students.

  God's presence was thick and very real to your teens this evening.  Many of the leaders spoke truth over your teens and shared God's truth about them.  These truths so impacted your teens that many of them cried from how overwhlemed they were by the love of God and the meaning of God's truth to their hearts.  It truly was a touching time.

  We leaders are lucky to have your teens this week.  I am proud of each one of them, so thank you for allowing them to come, serve like Jesus and hear God's voice.  Many of your students mentioned they changed this week.  A good deeper discussion question would be "How do you think you changed this week?"  So don't be afraid to ask deep, probing questions...because you might just have your socks blessed off, I know we leaders sure did!

  Well, its a bit shorter than usual but I know you prefer I get a good amount of sleep before we hit the road.  As always, the facebook page is full of new photos, so check them out and enjoy here: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.129950060426691.34178.100002350920814&type=1


Please pray for safe travels for us tomorrow and SEE YOU SOON!!!

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Louisville DAY 4

 Day 4 is in the books and it was the best day yet!  We did our normal schedule as the morning goes.  We woke up at 6:45, had breakfast, did devotions and headed to our sites.

  My group got to go to a different site this morning where we got to hang out with the Elderly at a site called Kling Retirement Center.  There my group engaged on many levels with the older folks but their favorite interaction was with an older guy named Marvin (not me).  He kicked their tales at Wii bowling for about an hour, then eventually Josh Grant took Marvin's pro status and then our kids started to beat him at bowling.  They loved it!

  The group for highlight today is not my group however, but my hero of a wife's group.  Many of you may not know, but Hilary is 4.5 months pregnant and she and Craig are heading up a great group of students and leading them well!  Hilary and Craig's  group: Nate Zeigler, Analese Erickson, Abby Furman, Gabriella Owens-DeMarco, Sage Wilson, Hannah Thompson, Josh Dever, Elena Matos, Joshua Thomas and Elisha Barlett were asked to be the team that stays all day with a Salvation Army Day Camp.

  They spend each day going around with these 25 students, helping to teach, lead games and hang out with them.  They've engaged with these students every work day so far and have developed great relationships with the kids.  One kid, which I continue to hear about is Sammy.  Gabriella always shares stories about Sammy and how much he loves them and church.

  I asked Hilary today who she would nominate for "student of the day" and she said two names: Josh Dever and Nate Zeigler.  She asks them everyday to develop and lead the gym time and she said they've been doing great at it!  They make up the games the kids are to play, then lead an entire hour of game time!  They are helping Hilary lead gym time because she just can't do it and says they do a great job!  I would love to show you pictures of this great work, but due to issues with the campers families, photography is strictly prohibited.

  After our work day, we headed back for free time and dinner.  We had Taco Wednesday!  After tacos, we headed to our evening event, which was a Black Baptist Church down the road.  Our kids joined right in because the service felt very close to home!  The worship time was great and the message was spot on for many of our kids: "God can't catch what you don't throw" was the title and could be boiled down to this: We are called to cast our worries, burdens and cares upon God, but if we aint throwing it, he can't catch it...so throw you burdens to Jesus!

  Many of our teens were touched by this as well as the evening lesson titled: "Reacting Differently" Where we were challenged to react different than we normally do to life situations.  We read about the wicked servant who was freed a large debt, yet held a person to a much lesser debt.  We discussed the idea of reacting with the same grace we've been given.

  Last came my favorite part of the day/night...we broke into our church group!  Here we talked further about the lessons we learned and how we could apply them.  I was about to break into our normal small groups, but felt the Holy Spirit ask me to keep them in a big group and share what God has been doing in and through them.  I was blown away at how impacted these students have been!  God has really been growing them.  Several students stated that this week has changed their lives.  I challenged them to not let slip away the lessons they've learned here and called them out to allow God to help them live this way more than just this week.  We went late so I didn't have any interviews, but man was it worth it!!

God is doing a deep work in your teens.  Keep praying. Tomorrow is going to be a hard day physically, emotionally and spiritually.  Please pray for the teens to have good attitudes, and open hearts to hear and feel the love of the Father!











There is so much more to tell, but not nearly enough space!  Don't forget the pics at: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.129950060426691.34178.100002350920814
and the videos at www.youtube.com/picako7

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LOUISVILLE Day 3

Day 3 is almost in the books.  God has done several things already today.  All of our teens have smiles on their faces and are still buzzing with energy.

  We woke up at 6:45 again this morning, and headed to breakfast.  This morning was a treat because we had biscuits and gravy as well as cereal and fruit!  Many of the students were excited for the new cuisine.  We ate, cleaned up then headed down to devotion time where we learned about acting differently because believing differently (as we learned about yesterday) should then translate into acting differently.  God spoke to our teens about this idea of acting differently and I think many did act differently!

  Today, the group for highlight is Gary Gazica and BJ Miller's group which includes: Brian Foster, Natasha Yeso, Umoja Shaw, Vivian Jones, Alisa Quemado, Michaela Sibbet, Katie Trimble, Josh Kovaly, Mikey Bliss, Will Moman, Nick Vignone and Jared Zeigler.  These folks were troopers today!  They worked with the elderly in the morning, playing checkers, pool, wii bowling and scrabble.  They hung out, chatted and enjoyed the company of those they served.  After that they moved into the 95 degree heat to mulch trees. 

   This is why I called them troopers because none of them complained and all worked hard, despite the uncomfortable conditions.  Gary highlighted Alisa Quemado especially stating "She worked harder than anyone else!"   I am so proud of this group because of their servants hearts and their amazing hard work!

  Many of the other groups have been doing amazing things as well.  My group scraped up paint, repainted some walls then hung out with some hyper kids!  Others spent all day with kids, teaching them and loving on them.

  Again, I am amazed at the hearts of our teens.  They serve with joy and even when the weather is hot and they are obviously tired, they continue to push through.  After our sites, we visited the historic Church Hill Downs Museum and learned many things about the historic site and the many races they host throughout the year. 

  Later, we headed back for pizza dinner and some free time.  Tonight, we are going to continue our talk about Acting differently where we will see in the book of Luke where some of Jesus followers acted differently and how it effected their lives for the good.

  Continue to pray for safety and for the students hearts to be ready to receive what the Lord desires to share with them!

  Below are some videos from yesterday where Mike and Gabriella share their experiences from their work sites.  Enjoy!  Don't forget to check in at www.facebook.com/acacstudentmin for more pics and www.youtube.com/picako7 for more movies (which I will put interviews on from today's activities)!  For pics from today go to: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.129950060426691.34178.100002350920814

  Thanks for the blessing of your teens this week!

 

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LOUISVILLE Day 2

 Wow, today was packed but it was still AWESOME!

  We woke up at 6:45 and got ready for the day.  Many people were a bit groggy but in pretty good spirits.  We ate a delicious breakfast meal at 7:15, cleaned up breakfast and the facility then headed to our morning devotion time.

  Once we got to the devo time, you could feel the excitement of the day welling up in the kids.  They were all anticipating what was coming and were seemingly ready for it too.  We spent 20 minutes in our devotions, then headed out to our sites.

  We all pretty much arrived at our sites around 9:30am and hit the ground running.  In my group (Nate Davis, Josh Grant, Zach Hanson, Austin Reed, Shelly Kovaly, Trey Bailey, Calema Graham, Rebecca Rodney, Allison Turnbull, Morgan Moman and Caylyn Smiley Jones) we headed to a Baptist church.  This church had a flood 2.5 years ago that wiped out their whole basement.  Our task was to clean and prime the space and tomorrow we paint it.  The students did an amazing job!  There hearts were full and their hands were busy. God truly used them to bless this church.  After we were done there, we ate lunch and then headed out to our 2nd site, which was a Boys and Girls club.  There we played sports, watched movies, played games and helped keep the kids in line.  Again, the teens jumped right in and engaged with the kids.  Many I saw really getting to know some of the little kids and starting a good relational foundation we will keep throughout the week.

  I will try to highlight a different groups day in the coming days, so don't worry, more news of different children is forth coming.  Some groups helped refugees learn English, helped refugees move into their apartments, worked alongside the elderly, and helped run a day camp.  Glory to God all the leaders reported a great, safe first day.  All of our teens had great attitudes and servants hearts as they did these adventures today.  Craig Lawhead specifically named Josh Dever and Abby Furman as servants serving like Jesus!

  After we had out projects, we headed home for free time and dinner.  We hung out, showered and ate spaghetti!

  Later we headed to a park to enjoy some sports and water spickets!  We had a blast playing football, Frisbee and running through the water park.

  Next we headed back to our site and had our club time where we learned about "Believing Differently".  The speaker shared about the Centurion and his faith.  He touched on the fact that the Centurion had more faith then others because he believed differently.  We were asked to rethink some things we take for granted in the Christian faith such as: Jesus Loves Me.  We know it, but do we believe differently than just knowing it?

  We broke up into small groups and discussed what we learned and many students were catching the fact that they didn't believe it as deeply or as intimately as they should have.  It was a great and powerful evening!

  I can't tell you enough how much God is doing in your students here in Louisville.  He is stretching them for sure but they are starting to see that there is so much more to this Christian life than they originally thought.  Please keep praying for there attitudes and their openness to hear and see God this week!


Below is an interview with Nate Davis.  I will be posting these on my youtube account : www.youtube.com/picako7 as well as the ACAC Student Min Facebook: www.facebook.com/acacstudentmin check all the videos and photos out!  Great shots of all the students!!

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LOUISVILLE, Day 1

We did it! We’re safe and all are getting ready for bed. The ride up was wonderful, scenic and fun. We sang songs, played games, and had an all around great trip to Louisville, KY.


On the road, we only stopped 3 times. The first stop was a 12 minute…YES only 12 minutes (your kids rock) rest room break. The second was a lunch at Wendy’s, which when put all on one bill equaled a long receipt!! The third stop was one more rest stop and we were in Louisville by 5pm! We stayed the speed limit, saw no accidents and hit mild traffic near Cincinnati, OH.

God has been so good so far! Getting here safely, having good fellowship in the car and eating a wonderful meal of Pulled Pork and Mac & Cheese…I told the kids MJ would be so upset knowing I ate “Maceeroni”!

After dinner, we headed into our club time where we learned the theme of this week, which is “Be Different”. We read from Luke 6:27-31 where Jesus challenged his disciples to be different in the way they treat each other and their enemies. After our club time of great worship and good intro message, we headed into our church group time where we challenged your teens to step up to the plate and be mature and to hear and see God this week. I specifically called out the new 8th graders to be leaders and to show the younger group what being on a missions trip is all about. We then broke into smaller groups where we talked about how we try to fit in and how we can try to be different. We then prayed as small groups and headed to bed.

Pray for tomorrow as we embark on our first service projects. Some of us will be building and working with the elderly. Others of us will be working with the inner-city kids at a summer day camp and still others of us will be working with refugee kids teaching them English. Pray for strength and a strong desire to see God in their life as well as the lives they are working with.

To see up to date photos and videos make sure you visit www.facebook.com/acacstudentmin

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LOUISVILLE, Here we Come!

Myself and 47 other people will soon be leaving on our missions trip to Louisville, KY!!

  I am taking a group of wonderful Middle Schoolers and this is the blog to check in on!  Everyday I will post pictures, videos and the like in order to show how God is moving in the lives of the kids at ACAC as well as in the people we serve.

  I am excited and pumped for this trip and know that God will do great things!  Many of the students going this year will be experiencing short terms missions for the first time, which means some parents are first time "senders" if you will.  If that's you, don't worry, your kids are safe and will be serving the King this week.  Pray that God will grow them, stretch them and show them more of Himself as they serve like Jesus serves.

  This years Youth Works theme is "Be Different" and that's what this trip is all about.  Many teens sit at home, eat junk food, watch TV all day and do nothing with their summer.  These teens will be different and experience missions, serving Jesus!  We will be working with the inner-city summer day camps, the homeless, city planting and the elderly.

 Please pray for safe travels, expectant and servant hearts and for God to show up in a big way in the lives of the teens and those we serve!

  Keep your eyes peeled as we daily unwrap the news for you right here!

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