Back in NC

We are happy and sad to report that we are back in North Carolina. It was so bittersweet to return home. We missed our family and friends so very much, but we hated to say goodbye to our new and old friends and family from Alabama.

Just to recap the summer, here are a few things that we experienced. Everyday for sports camp and vacation bible school, we had a total of over 100 people at the center. We hosted 2 community dinners where 50-75 community members attended. We shared in worship with the community of 5 different Sunday's. We constructed a ramp/porch on the house of a lady in wheelchair. We did yard maintenance for a number of community members. We fixed the interior wall of a lady's house. We visited many community members and offered prayer, cookies, and baby blankets to new mommies. We painted the school room walls and much more! While these sentences start with "we", none of these things were accomplished by us alone. God gave us the desire, materials, and knowhow to get it done. We also could not have done any of it without the help of Asheboro Friends, Marlboro Friends, Concord Friends, Centre Friends, Cedar Square Friends, South Fork Friends, Providence Friends, and Holly Springs Friends who volunteered their time, energy, money, love, and hard work. We also could not have done it without the financial support, love, and encouragement of the many other Friends Meetings before and throughout the summer! It was all so appreciated and necessary. Despite the difficulties of this summer, each one of us in Alabama can attest to the awesome power of God that was experienced. We witnessed the Holy Spirit fall on the community and members within it. We heard testimony of students from North Carolina and Alabama who were forever changed by the time they spent at the center. This was definitely the highlight of the summer and the most important accomplishment of all. God was felt by campers, volunteers, staff members, and participants alike. Praise God for his faithfulness and love!

Again, I just want to thank everyone for the support shown in various ways. A lot was accomplished this summer in the name of Jesus Christ and I think we can all be thankful for that! 

Ready to travel the WORLD!!

We are quickly approaching our final week of camp here at the MOWA-Choctaw Friends Center! We are so sad to see it coming to an end; we feel as if we've just gotten here! However, we are all the more excited about the VBS that's about to happen! We are busy getting things decorated, planned out, organized, and set up. We're going to be looking at ways that countries around the world worship our Lord, Jesus Christ. Sometimes it's hard to remember that Christ is praised all around the world in a multitude of ways. We hope to have our eyes opened to the fact that He is known elsewhere and experience the way others might praise His name!! We cannot wait until the over 40 North Carolinians get down here! It's a lot to prepare for but we welcome the task. We just have one more Walmart trip to make to ensure that they will be fed well during their stay here :) They will be arriving sometime tomorrow night and we will get started with the fun!

We ask that you be praying for strength and endurance for the SOUL staff and the participants coming down. For us already here in Alabama, we are tired. It's so easy to come down here and get off to a good start. We were excited, energized, and ready to go. While our hearts are still in the same place and just as excited as before, sometimes it is difficult to be energized. This is the time when we need God's strength instead of our own. We want to have as successful of a VBS as we did sports camp. Over the last few days, we have been getting a little more rest and it has really helped. Please pray that the rejuvenation will continue and we will be prepared for God to work mightily like He always does!

Pray that we go out with a BANG!! :)

Rhino's and Butterflies, Oh My!

We have victory over the power of death! God has given us the opportunity to serve Him and what a blessing it is to be served while serving. We have just finished our first week of SOUL. We had a smaller group from Cedar Square, Centre and Providence Friends and 2 from Mississippi. The week leading up to the start of sports camp we as a staff we so nervous because we have had up to 100 campers from the McIntosh community visit, and with a total of 22 people (including staff) how God was going to allow such a large camp happen would be nothing short of a miracle of how God leads, builds, constricts and stretches the faith of all involved. While children learned of ways to build their relationship with Christ through prayer, reading the Word, going to church and spending time with other Christians, they learned sports skills. The youth from North Carolina and Mississippi led groups around to stations, also led by youth,  that taught them good sportsmanship while learning how to pass a soccer ball, dribble a basketball or throw a football.

In the afternoons the participants would work on landscaping a families home, building a wheel-chair ramp or cleaning up trash off the roads. These times offered common ground to build relationships with kids in and out of their own youth group. After such a long day we'd rest before dinner and follow up our full stomachs to fill our hearts with what God was going to teach us through Caleb Hunter. Can I say we did not expect to hear about Rhino's or butterflies.

During the week we had worship and many from the community would join in to hear what God wanted to say. Service is all about putting ourselves last, but we can do that while forgetting to put Jesus first. We learned through the contrasting examples of Levi (Matthew) and the Rich Young Ruler. As we served the community we were challenged to look at what we had placed before God, and how to put Him before all else. At the end of the week, campers, community, participants, and ourselves did not leave without learning to be bold about Jesus Christ in our lives.Many were saved or made re-commitments and we ask that you pray for those fresh in their faith. Ask God to give them ways to build their faith, ways to be accountable for each other, to fill their hearts continually with the desire to seek Him first but also to make them a "crash of Rhino's" with the potential to make great things happen under the name of Jesus Christ.