Regional Staff Conference

I am writing now from my home in Galax, VA!  I'm home for the first time since moving up, and ready to spend some time with family and friends over Thanksgiving!  I haven't posted in a while, but just wanted to write a quick note about our Regional Staff Conference in Alexandria, VA.  Every year our region has a staff conference for all of the  Cru staff as far southeast as Virginia Beach, as far southwest as Virginia Tech, as far northwest art Pittsburg, PA and as far northeast as NYC.  This brought over a hundred staff together from various cities, colleges, and leadership positions.  It was a great time to come together and hear wisdom from people who have been in ministry for years.  It was very encouraging to hear them discuss some of the things I struggle with in my own ministry and it was great to see about 30 other Cru interns who I could really relate to.  It was just a great time of worship and fellowship, and we got a lot of stuff done planning for our college conference called Radiate which will be held over the New Years holiday.  I think the main thing I took away from the conference is that the most important aspect of my ministry should be my alone time with God.  I can work my tail off trying to do do do, but if God isn't working in my own life it will all be a waste.  I think this is something that is relative to people inside and outside of ministry.  I know that it is easy to get caught up in to do's, and lose focus on what's important.  Right now is an odd time for high school ministry as sports seasons change, holidays are happening, and theres a lot of uncertainty and planning as we start to head into the next year.  So, please be praying for me as I seek God's wisdom as I close one thing and start to learn something new.

The Bulldog Dinner

It's been a busy week here as we prepared for the annual Bulldog Dinner.  This is an event that has been held for the past few years just to recognize the hard work of the different Morrisville High School sports teams.  We invited them out for spaghetti and meatballs, and then later in the night had the chance to talk to them about getting involved with Student Venture, and we had a guy share the Gospel with them.  It went really well!  Katie (the new staff girl) and I were both in charge of the event.  Our director helped us a lot with the planning, but he could not attend.  Early in the week we spent a lot of time going over details for the event because we were expecting 50-75 guests.  In the past I heard they had even more, but this year there wasn't a junior high football team at the school, and we had the dinner kind of late in the year, so we knew going into it that we would have fewer students attend.

Wednesday night Katie, Brad, and I set up tables, chairs, and put down all the plates and utensils.  Then, the next morning we spent a lot of time preparing.  I was up early rolling and helping cook meatballs at 9am!  Once we had them all baked we put them in big crock pot like things, and they continued to cook and marinate in the sauce for the remainder of the afternoon.  We made 183 meatballs and probably close to as much in sweet sausages!  We finally finished all the meat stuff by around noon, and the cook said he could take it from there, so I went to get some other stuff done.  When I returned things were set up and everything looked great!  For the dinner we had about 40-50 guests, which was awesome!  We had way too much food, but that gave us the option to offer food for the students to take home.  Many of the students come from poverty, and don't get a lot of good meals at home, so it was good that we had extra.  For the event, I emceed, we had a girl from PBU come and share her testimony, and then a local youth leader shared the Gospel.  After the event, the students went up and played around in the Solid Rock Youth Center and we got to spend some time with them there and play some games.  Overall the event went great!

Some of the guys in attendance were from the football team.  I have been working with them some because we have an optional weekly chapel with them to talk about spiritual things.  We usually have 10-15 guys come out.  Many of these guys come from one parent homes, low income families, and rough lives.  Morrisville has a bit of an inner city feel at times, probably because it is directly across the bridge from Trenton, NJ.  These guys have had hard lives, and to be honest it is hard for me to relate to them.  I never played football, and never dealt with a lot of things they deal with daily.  We took them golfing once, and I have started getting to know a few of them.  Please be praying for me as I build those relationships.  Many of them really need good adult male guidance.  Just pray that I will be able to relate and love them like God loves them, and that God would use us to show them that He loves them.