2 more got dunked!!!

So tonight was amazing because we got to dunk two tonight.  One of guys named Orlando that Chuck did a bible study with this afternoon and one of our teen boys named Steven.  It was awesome to witness the two of them put on Christ.  Orlando is such a big guy and we accidentally filled the baptistry so much that when we dunked him the water spilled over the edges.  We didn't have that problem with Stephen because the water got lowered enough.  So keep them in your prayers as they start a new life.

On another note, we had another great day in Birdsville doing the VBS.  We also spent the morning cleaning the building and the buses.  And tonight's teen class was awesome.  We talked about Cain and Able and there are so many interesting points in it.  let me know if you wanna hear some of them!!! See ya

Exploreum!!!

So today was a greeeeeaaaaaaatttt day.  We took our kids from to this science museum thing in downtown called the Exploreum.  They have a black hole and space exhibit, a mechanics physics and sound exhibit, a body exhibit, and we watched and IMAX movie on space and Hubble Telescope which was very interesting.  The Mobile Housing Board has a deal worked out where kids can come with a non-profit group for free to see the exhibits and learn some stuff.  All the kids really liked the exhibits and they were all really interactive.  you got to pull levers and ride bikes and learn how blood moves through the body and watch a movie on bypass surgery and it was just wicked.  All the kids were pretty well behaved and we had over 70 come.  I tried to lead some songs on the bus but i might have forgotten some lines. But it is all good. I did also take a small nap during the movie.  It was like almost an hour long and one of the girls sitting next to me said she was tired so i asked her if she wanted to sit in my lap and she did and curled up in a ball and we both fell asleep for at least 10 minutes.i had to carry her out of the theater.  Her name is Maya and she was soooooo cute.  Just making it harder to leave.

This afternoon we had the second day of VBS in birdsville.  We didnt have as many kids as yesterday but we still had a great time.  We made prayer rocks and played duck duck goose and had bible lessons and puppet shows.  All in all an awesome day.  I think i convinced a dad to come to church on sunday with his kids as we were dropping him off.  Especially once i told him i was preaching!!  We got to have dinner with our campaign groups and then devo and then we went to watch one of our girl's basketball game.  She didnt play her best but even so did really well.  I am so excited for tomorrow!!!

So sorry about the last week and a half

SOOOO i am really really sorry that i dont post as often as i would like, but the hours are crazy and im so tired some nights.  I'm gonna try to post more for the last week and half im here.  We had Hamilton and Highland with us last week.  They put on a Vacation Bible School for kids in the area.  We did a lot of canvassing and we had a large number of kids.  The first night was only about 35 but the second and and third night had 60 and 85 kids.  It was wild.  It was amazing to have that many kids but they were slightly out of control.  Over all they seemed to have loads of fun.  We had some issues with a few of them but we got past them.  The groups were some interesting groups.  Ryan and Barry, the two youth leaders, were absolutely hilarious guys. They had a passion for their work and worked hard to plan this VBS.  This past weekend i flew to Virginia for a Wedding.  My friends Dan and Lauren got married last Saturday.  It was a gorgeous wedding.  It was at a farm just south of Roanoke.  One of our past campus ministers Seth performed the wedding and it was just great to see him and he did awesome for them on their day.  It was good to see everyone and to be honored to share the day with Dan and Lauren.  They are such amazing people.  Sunday I drove with my friends Julia and Becca to Mobile.  They started their internship here yesterday.  They are both so excited and i wish i could be here to rest of the summer to work with them but i gotta do what i gotta do and im sure they will have an amazing time. 

This week has started off great. We have a group from Scottsboro and Mt. Dora and they are really ready for this.  They are doing a Vacation Bible School too but in Birdsville.  It went well today with crafts puppet shows games and lessons.  We had only about 30 some kids today but as past history has shown we very well could have 60 some tomorrow.  This is a much bigger group than last week so hopefully they will be able to help more with controlling the kids a bit.  And the way we are setting it up outside we can split the groups up more and so that helps stuff a lot. This group is especially cool for me because there are a couple of college students that go to Harding and Freed in this group so its cool to have people my age again.   Their leaders are awesome.  Eddie and Chris have been great and they are good good goooooood leaders.  This last week is gonna be busy.  Im gonna write tomorrow about this cool trip we are taking the kids on in the morning and then of course day two of VBS in birdsville.  This last week is gonna have a lot of interesting turns so im really excited. I'll write soon!!!

Hey Bellvue.....See what had happen was

So we just finished an absolutely 100% amazing week with a group from the Bellvue Church of Christ in Nashville, TN.  This was their first campaign with the Inner City church and they did amazing.  They arrived Sunday evening and me and Rachael and Jared went to see them that evening.  We explained some of the things they would be seeing and doing and what they needed to know.  We got them in early on monday morning.  We got 4 of our boys (charleston, rayshone, walter, steven) and myself leading groups door knocking through RV Taylor.  I had a really cool group which consisted of Sam and Becca and Maggie, and Amy, Jake, Sarah and Kyle.  I threw them pretty much right into knocking and talking to people themselves and they did awesome!! Then after lunch we all went out to RV where we set up a clothing give away and we played games with the kids from the area.  The main game of the week was kickball.  We had some pretty serious games going with it. Monday was their only real "short" day.  Tuesday we did door knocking and a clothing give away again.  We also did another movie night which was amazing because we had twice as many kids as last week and we did it later in the evening so the showing was way better.  I had to implore my emt skills when i had to get a massive splinter out from a underneath a guys fingernail.  It was gross.  Wednesday we did canvassing for VBS which is this week.  Then we did the clothing giveaway and another rousing game of kickball.  My team lost sadly.  But thats ok.  We were very good losers.  Wed. church was good but kinda hard.  me and Rachael teach wed class and trying to teach to like 20 some extra people im not use to and yelling over the fans and talking only worked so well. But the coloring was good. Thursday we had a massive storm.  We had planned to do just a little bit of cleanup around the building and then bible studies in the community.  Well the storm knocked out power at one point and it was crazy wicked raining.  So we just stayed at the church and went and got Catrina and Devon and did a Bible study at the church building.  If you wanna hear something interesting about the bible study let me know. Thursday night me and Charleston went out to Creekwood COC where they were staying and played around for a while.  I learned how to play Mow or Maww or i dunno how you spell it buts its like covert operation Uno.  I finally started to get it.  But we had crazy dodgeball wars and nerf gun wars and wrestling matches through out the week which were pretty awesome and i got a nice rug burn on my knee.  I had so much fun with well as far as the guys go Jake Logan Jonah and Jacob. These were some of the older guys that i talked to and got to know pretty well throughout the week.  They were all really excited and you could just tell they all had a love for God.  They were definitely leaders as they should be.  As far as the girls go Alison, Alyson, and Allyson were awesome. And Sarah and Kelsey and Momma Laura and Becca and Maggie and Mackinzie and Emily the two Amy's!  Me and Charleston got go hang out with them on both thursday and friday night and Jake even cried when we left which was hard for us all.  He was such a cool kid.  Monty and Lee and Bobby did great leading the groups down here.  Sorry if yall read this and i forget to mention your name.  But everyone this week did so well and everyone jumped right into it and we just had so much fun.  But i think i have most everyone's name on the shirt that they all signed for me.  Its so awesome.  I'm just never gonna wash it. Thanks for an amazing week guys.  You all had a passion that many dont and an excitement that many dont and its what the inner city needs.  I hope many of you can come back and maybe one day intern here too!!!  Miss you guys so much already!!!

Now we are getting ready for Hamilton and Highland.  Hopefully they arent as crazy Alabama fans as Bellvue.

Sorry its taking me so long

So i love working out at this gym that we joined.  Its never crowded.  And there is a Smoothie King near by and their smoothies are great for lunch and they just taste amazing.  So we do that after working out.  But on to the good stuff.

So this coming Sunday me and Rachael are gonna be teaching the guys and girls teen class to get them ready for their bible bowl deal at the end of the quarter.  Last Sunday Jared did a background of the book of Luke for both classes and this week me and Rachael are getting our lessons planned so the kids are taught the same stuff.  Sunday night we went to the Azalea Church where both me and Rachael's host family go to and afterwards at Sonic we ran into our first experience of racial hostility.  The interesting part is it wasn't in the projects. The sonic is near the "wealthier side of town".  And i guess you have to almost expect it at some point but well it was just interesting. 

Then Monday we had a meeting with the Housing Board for RV Taylor to make sure we could show a movie there.  And then the three of us got Charleston, Antonio, and Keyana and we canvassed RV Taylor telling people about the Tuesday night movie night.  We also went around and visited some people.  We went and purchased the movie to show for Tuesday and did some other work. 

Tuesday was movie day!!! we took Tuesday morning off from the gym.  We came in the building did work, ate lunch then we went to buy popcorn and a sheet to show the movie on.  Then we went and visited a few more people before we went to pick up Charleston from basketball practice and then we went back to the church to start making the popcorn.  We had a fun time doing it even though we made a few small fires, the building is still standing. 

Then i drove Jared's truck out to RV while he picked up kids and me and Big Tony and Charleston set everything up.  We had the movie ready, the popcorn ready, and the sound set up. Only one problem.  And this problem was ok since this was our test run, but when we started it was way to bright outside so you could barely see the picture. So we had to keep about 20-30 kids entertained which is not an easy task.  Thank God for Catrina because she got them rounded up and playing games while we waited for it to get a bit darker. We finally got to watch the movie which was......VEGGIE TALES!!!! Daniel and the Lions Den... oh yAAAA.  Some of the older kids weren't as interested but the younger ones loved it. 

After the movie and we got everything back to the church and unloaded, me and Rachael and Charleston and Jared along with Ben Big Tony and Tina went to dinner.  Literally one of the funniest nights of my life.  It was absolute hilarious being with them all.  All of us were dying laughing before the night was over.  They are great!!This picture is Rachael with Ben (left) and Charleston (right).

Wednesday me and Rachael brainstormed for class that night.  Christina, the secretary had just finished teaching the week before on creation so we picked up from there talking about how woman was made from man and what the purpose of it was.  It was so cool cuz we got operation which was ridiculous because no place that had operation came with any bones.  All of them were random objects. So Rachael made ribs and we had the kids try to get them out. Eventually they all got it without being buzzed.  All in all the class went really well.  I can't wait for this weekend!!!

Gods an interesting guy

So i think me and Rachael and Jared are in love with this lady named Catrina.  She is an amazing lady.  I have talked about her in my earlier blogs and every time i meet her she just amazes me even more.  So i truly and fully believe God sent the three of us to her because she told us that she has been praying to God for weeks that she needed someone to explain the bible to her because her church that she attends now was not helping her in the way she needed.  I think of Phillip and the eunuch and how he said to Phillip "how can i understand unless someone explains it to me?"  the only difference is, is we haven't baptized Catrina yet but i doubt it will be long.  She said she wanted to pray about it and so as much as we would have loved to baptized her Thursday when we met with her it of course has to be her decision we just encouraged her not to put it off too long.  But what me and Rachael told her the funny part of it all was, is that God didn't just send us to her.  He sent us to her from Colorado and from Virginia. Guess he really wanted her to hear his word. She is so on fire that she read Proverbs and John and Ruth and Ester end to end because she just couldn't stop reading.  We also got to meet her boyfriend Devin for the first time Thursday.  He is a very devoted man not only to Catrina but to following what God wants for them both.  That relationship will be a successful one which is scarce in the inner city. 

Wednesday was a good day.  We did a lot of in house work like doing camp lesson plans and such.  But church was really good.  I learned the sign language sign for "froggy" like feeling froggy.  It may have just been the sign for frog but either way i learned it.  After church we took 5 kids out with us to get ice cream at this awesome place called the Cammie's Old Dutch Ice Cream.  It is soooooooooo good.   So that was an awesome day

Also on Thursday morning one of the local churches hosted a grocery give away and i got to teach the lesson we do afterwards.  It was pretty awesome.  I spoke about Ruth and the purpose of of kinsmen redeemer and how Jesus is our kinsman redeemer.  I am still assimilating to how you teach to this culture so i saw some points where i could have done a bit better but all in all it went really well i think. I get to teach the boys class with Jared in the coming Sundays so I am really excited about that.

Friday was our day off so me and Rachael joined this awesome gym that Jared is a part of that they let you pay month to month and its only $10!!! So we have all been working out and running these past few days.  I feel great because of it too.  Then we killed the whole work out with BWW. Well not the whole thing but a good part of it. 

Also one last thing.  I got a web cam so if anyone who reads this wants to Skype me or something let me know.  My hours are crazy but i'll try to find time to make it work.  Thanks for the prayers!!!