Guest Speaking at Christmas, Mountain Streams, and Munchkins

Sorry for the delay. I've been busy. The Saturday after my last post I had a unique opportunity. Another church in our area was having a Christmas in July party. They had two other guest speakers cancel on them and the two days before were scrambling. The previous week at Chambersburg Project the daughter of the youth pastor had been in my crew and I had met his wife. This woman was making phone calls trying to find someone to fill in and Mark was her first call and I was her second. So I had my first guest speaking gig. It was a really good learning experience. Their students have gone through quite a bit and are overall largely unresponsive to things like the devotion I led. But despite that I found good in the opportunity because it was a unexpected chance to speak to some youth and gave me a chance to evaluate my own speaking ability.

Last Tuesday we also did another prayer hike. We had a much better turn out this month and I was much more prepared for the hike. It was a great time and I got a chance to spend some time in prayer and the Word while sitting next to a little mountain stream complete with a mini waterfall to provide peaceful sounds.

The other big thing last week was VBS. It started Sunday night and went through Thursday night. I helped out with some tech stuff and got a chance to interact with the 20-some students we had that were helping. It was a good time but after spending each of those days working and then helping there I felt like I never left the church. It was a tiring week.

This week begins painting in our lobby outside the Sr. High youth room. Two weeks ago we had the old carpet torn out and replaced by a tile floor that looks like a street going with our ministry's theme. Now we are painting the walls to look like a street in downtown Chambersburg. Its going to be pretty cool looking when we finish. I'll post pictures when we get that far.

Anyway, I tried to keep this shorter, one because I didn't have a lot to say and because I know how boring it gets having so much to read. Hope you all are doing well and thanks for reading!

Things to pray for:

-Energy. Our big stuff for the summer is done, but I'm still busy.

-Focus. I used my busyness as an excuse to avoid some of my homework. Now the busyness is subsiding and I need to get to it.

-Our students. They have amazing potential.

-Everyone getting ready to head back to school in the coming weeks.