pro-short-term missions

Short-Term Missions + Youth: 

Creating 'serving adults' starts by providing serving opportunities with youth

http://holysoup.com/2011/10/12/short-term-missions-a-waste/

gathering resources

Upon all of my travels these last few weeks, I've gathered lots of resources - both tangible and online. Wanted to share a few that are really challenging me right now. Take a look and dive in when you get a chance to surf the net a little bit!

Girls Ministry

http://speakingpink.com/

http://purefreedom.org/  

http://secretkeepergirl.com/

http://vickicourtney.com/

http://www.girlsgonewise.com/

 

Seattle-based mom and youth and girls ministry expert: Neely McQueen

http://www.morethangossip.com/

Small Church Youth Ministry:

http://www.smallchurchyouthministry.com/

From a Pastor's Heart:

http://mikehowerton.blogspot.com/

traveling the world

Left Alabama today. Been with Shades Mountain Baptist Church: http://www.shades.org/
Drove to Blairsville, GA to see family.
Headed to Overlake Christian Church in Seattle, Washington: http://www.occ.org/
Visiting North Shore Baptist in Seattle, Washington as well: http://www.nsb.org/
Then to Graystone Church in Grayson, Georgia: http://www.graystonechurch.com/

Working hard! Love what I do!

On the air with Rick and Bubba

19 Oct 2011

Had an opportunity to be on Rick and Bubba's national radio show promoting Living Hope and talking about the importance of short-term missions. Had a blast!

 

If you're on Facebook (which I'm not), here's a link to some behind-the-scenes video footage of Meagan playing around with the studio staff. This is what happens during commercials on air:  http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150356249999795

 

Check out Rick and Bubba online:  http://www.rickandbubba.com/index2.php

commissioned for another year

Pastor Danny Wood of Shades Mountain Baptist Church honored Living Hope, Meagan and myself as he called us to the front of the church during worship for a commissioning prayer-time. We were humbled and truly blessed by the support shown!
Thank you Shades Mountain for your constant love and support. We need it and feel your presence in prayer. Can't wait to see what God does in and through both Capricorn Community Church and Shades Mountain in this coming year. God's got big plans. The harvest is ahead.

looking toward 2012

I'm about to head to the US for a visit!

Looking forward to doing Living Hope and Capricorn Community Church business, raising funds for my 2012 living expenses, and visiting friends and family. 

Please pray with me as I go about requesting funding partners and updating people on what God is doing in South Africa! 

seals and whales and sharks... oh my!

Only in Cape Town, South Africa can you drive home from a hectic, long day and stop along the road, walk to the beach and find seals swimming, whales jumping, and sharks circling. As Meagan and I drove home from Capricorn, we saw an unusually large number of cars and people standing looking at the ocean. We too pulled over the car, wanting to see what they were point at. We found a pod of whales splashing and making beautiful jumps in the air! We decided to make it an even better pause by walking to the nearest bakery for a hot croissant and then sat and watched the whales some more. After awhile, we got back in our car and saw another mass of cars and people along another shore miles away from where we'd just been. We stopped again, wondering if they were admiring the whales or if there was something else. We parked and walked along the beach to get to the 'action.' We saw seals swimming and jumping; then, as if watching a tennis match, we jolted our heads to the other side of the landscape and saw shark fins circling near the beach. The black 'shark warning flag' on the beach was raised and we were an amazed crowd as we watched the sea-life dance in front of us.

I'm so thankful for living in such a beautiful country. God's creation is amazing! 

it's Holiday Club time ... again?

This year-round school thing throws me. Seems like we just had a school holiday ... where I wore my tail off doing Holiday Clubs. Well, it's here again. Unfortunately, I only participated in one day of Holiday Club in Capricorn because I'm headed to the US this week. Here are a few highlights from my day:

. When trying to get the children in age-groups, I asked one little boy (who is known to be 'devilish' and too clever for all of us), 

"How old are you, D?" 

He replied in a firm tone, "How old are YOU?"

I smiled, holding back a chuckle, "D, How old are you?"

He got closer, rolled his neck in a circular motion and in a sassy tone asked, "How old do I need to be?" Later I found out, little D is 7 years old but clearly he already acts like a teenager.

. We taught the kids a new song today. After teaching it, practicing it all the way through and then really driving it home by doing it 'full out' once, the adult song leader asked the crowd, "Did you like that song?" One of our 4 year olds (who rarely says a word) yells, "NO!" The song leader ignored him and asked, "Do you want to do the song one more time?" The little boy even louder yells, "NO!" His honesty, awesome! I felt the same way since we were beating that song into the ground! 

. We had 22 teens in Club this afternoon. It was so great spending time with them. The girls wanted to play net-ball. This sport is still foreign to me. It's like basketball, but you can't dribble and only certain positions on the court can shoot to score. I played on the court today! The girls laughed and laughed at me because I wasn't going to play by their rules. I told them, "I don't know how to play net ball, you don't seem to want to teach me, so I'm going to play basketball!" They thought that was hilarious. So, then we all started playing with our own rules - that's where they get the phrase, "it was unruly!" I had the best time laughing and being silly with our teens today. It's nice not to be 'authority' all the time. 

Pray for Holiday Clubs going on in South Africa this week. 

Pray that kids and teens come to know the Lord. 

Pray that those that already know Christ will have a fire ignited and seek to know Him in a deeper way!