4th of July Outreach at NHC

Student Life Camp

Next week we leave for Student Life Camp.  Camp is a love/hate thing for me.  I love camp and getting the students out of their normal routine to an atmosphere that is totally centered around God.  I hate being away from home and family.  I sleep better in my own home and I don't really like camp food.  PLUS I'll miss my kids and lovely wife BIG TIME.

Student Life is so organized.  They really have this camp thing down to a science.  As a youth leader taking my students I really don't have any questions or "wonderings" because SL does such a fantastic job preparing us for camp.  Of course the youth leader who doesn't read everything and utilize the online resources may be a bit lost or confused.

Each step of the camp process is lined out by SL.  The camp prep is super easy.  Today I even got our rooming assignments as well as the student's team assignments.  If you are looking for a camp experience for your students next summer I highly recommend Student Life.  I believe this is our 8th summer camp with SL.

Lunch Live with Andy, Matt and Nathan

Watch us live at noon!

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nags-head-church-live

Happy Birthday To Our Twins!

Our twins are 6 months old today!  Six months ago God blessed us with these two awesome little lives.  I was thinking last night that I can't imagine life without them.  I thank God each day for the miracle of adoption.

The twins are both weighing in now around 17 pounds and are both around the 22-23 inches mark in length.  They are eating baby food (home made I might add because baby food is expensive enough with one baby much less two and home made is healthier) and drinking from a cup.  They still hit the bottle a few times a day.  For a couple of months now they have been sleeping through the night and we are stoked about that.  

Twin A (baby girl) loves to talk and she also enjoys standing in the walker.  Twin B (baby boy) loves to eat and flex his muscles and growl.  They both have great smiles.  Twin B melts me with his big smile and Twin A has had me wrapped around her finger pretty much since birth.

Big brother is enjoying them both more now that they laugh and smile at him.  He enjoys entertaining them (at least for now).

Pray for us as we continue the journey in adoption and heading towards finalization as well as financing the adoption.

The Power of Focus

Ministry is a joy but . . .

Sometimes ministry can be frustrating.  Sometimes ministry can be hard.  Sometimes ministry can be exhausting.  We can’t escape these aspects of ministry.  The reason ministry can be hard is because ministry involves people and people come with baggage, hurt, pain, anger, bitterness, laziness, etc. 

I’m glad that every follower of Christ is a minister.  Some believers realize this and they roll up their sleeves and serve.  Some choose to ignore this because, “I’m too busy”.  Some ignore this fact due to ignorance, years of the church teaching that the guy up front giving the sermon is the minister.

If you find yourself struggling in ministry (and I’m not just talking to the folks make their living “in ministry”) there are some great verses to be read in 2 Corinthians 4.  I strongly suggest you park there for a while and read the chapter, then read it again, then read it again.  There are a few verses there in that chapter that are an encouragement to me. 

As I read this chapter I thought of the person in ministry who feels like they are banging their head against a wall.  The ministry team who is doing their best to stretch their small team to accomplish the ministry task because other church members choose to sit the bench.  The youth minister who for reasons beyond his control is facing opposition from within his church.  The pastor who finds it a struggle to minister because he has a handful of critics who seem to find joy in making his life miserable and also find joy in throwing out obstacles to keep their church from growing.  I often wonder if those folks aren’t the wolves in sheep’s clothing.  To be honest, in my lifetime, most of the persecution I’ve seen has come from within the church itself.

How do you find the strength to minister?

Now we have this treasure in clay jars, so that this extraordinary power may be from God and not from us. (4:7)

How do you not fold up in ministry and throw in the towel?

Therefore we do not give up; even though our outer person is being destroyed, our inner person is being renewed day by day. (4:16)

Why do you keep serving in ministry?

For our momentary light affliction is producing for us an absolutely incomparable eternal weight of glory. (4:17)

The power to minister comes from your focus.

So we do not focus on what is seen, but on what is unseen; for what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. (4:18)

So today if you are weary, tired both physically and emotionally.  If you are waking up to the “Monday morning after Sunday blues” I would encourage you to spend some time in 2 Corinthians 4.  Park there, hang out there a while.  Find the source of your strength, resolve not to quit, realize that you are being renewed, think about what awaits in eternity, focus on what is unseen, the eternal.

 

Camp Blog

Follow us while we are at Student Life the 13th - 17th.

Check out our camp blog HERE

Tracking Medications and Dosage

This year we try something new for camp.  I've created a spreadsheet to keep track of students who will need medications at camp.  Very basic.  Student's name, medication, instructions. Followed by each day of the week with a box to check off when the medication was administered. This will help:

• Make sure the students get their meds when they are supposed to
• To protect accidental overdose or neglecting to take their meds

I've been taking students to camp for 15 years and this form is the result of evaluating what we could do to handle medications better and responsibly.