Travel Day

Yesterday we finished our time in Chicago by traveling to Lou Malnati’s to try some of their famous deep dish pizza. It was great! Then we went back to pack up and have our last team time together. It was great because we spend time encouraging everyone and it was incredible to see our young people “spur one another toward good deeds.” then we made part of our drive back home and stopped in Toledo, Ohio. We plan to leave for home real soon and be back at the church around 9pm. Here’s some more pics:

Last “full” day in Chicago

Today was our last “full” day in Chicago and it was a hot one! The temperature reached 100 degrees! But again our kids were well hydrated and put on lots of sunscreen. In the morning we went out to finish the roof at a family’s house. It was a huge sense of achievement as they finished what they had started. The family was so grateful and we had the opportunity to pray for them. After that we went to the community of Lawndale to help an organization that helps to get young people off the streets. One of the projects was to remove a tree by using only shovels and hatchets – it was quite a job. Then we had our final day of VBS. It was a little hard because only 5-7 kids were there – it’s hard to rally kids together when it’s so hot outside. But even still our kids gave their all and they shared the gospel message with each kid. It was incredible to see each teen in action intentionally sharing the gospel with everyone around them. Tomorrow we get to sleep in a little bit and then spend some time sightseeing in the city. Here’s some more pictures from our day…

Chicago – Day 5

Well guys it has been an extremely hot and trying day the high temperature was 99°! At one point but you would be unbelievably proud of our youth. They worked hard every single moment along the way and they worked their tails off! We almost completed the roof with exception to a few more shingles and tomorrow we will complete the project. It has been a great testimony to watch our young people interact with the family with whom they’re building the roof for. After that we had the VBS and our kids did an incredible job with that especially in the trying heat! But you be glad to our kids were well hydrated and put on plenty of sun screen – not one of them has complained yet. Another inspirational time has been the devotionals where our kids have encouraged one another and have pushes one another closer to God. You’d be so proud of our kids! Here’s some more pictures from the day!

Chicago – Day 4

Hey everyone! We’re in the middle of our day, but we have enough time to squeeze in a recap from the day. As you might know, the weather here has been pretty hot – but every kid has been drinking water on a consistent basis. For the past 2 days, our youth have been working on a garage/shed. The garage was rotting out – many boards were collapsing, many soffits were broken, and it needed new shingles. Our young people have taken the charge by replacing the boards, cutting wood with an electric saw and more. After that, again we went to the Westside to hold a VBS in a neighborhood block. The first day was fairly challenging because we had to adapt to the outdoors, the heat, and trying to figure things out. But today we stepped in and took charge and did an incredible job. During the bible story time, 8 people raised their hands to give their heart to the Lord! It’s been a great week so far, thanks for your prayers and pray that God continues to use our youth to reach many for Him!

Chicago – Day 3

Today was really our “first day” on our mission trip – well, full day of working and such. Our day started off with 45 minutes of devos, studying from the book of James. Then we went to a man’s house who had a garage that was starting to collapse. You might not believe it, but all of our youth were up on the roof repairing the structure through shingling and fixing all the soffets as well. They all did an incredible job! Then we went over to the Westside of Chicago and held our own VBS there. Our kids interacted with the community through games, songs, crafts, bible stories and more. It really was a great experience. The best of all was that this VBS program was entirely student led! I cant wait for the end of the week to see all the kids’ lives that we’ve impacted throughout the week. Continue to pray that God will use us mightily and that people will come to know him. Here’s some more pictures…

We made it!

Well it was a long journey, but we finally made it to Chicago. We started out the day by attending Willow Creek- the second largest church in America – it was huge! Then we tool some time to do some sightseeing in Chicago – hanging out at Millennium Park and by the river on Michigan Ave. We then made it to our church, First Christian – which has air conditioning – praise God! Tomorrow we begin our VBS program as well as various work projects. Pray that our youth have a serious impact this week! Here’s some more pictures from the day…

Chicago…well not yet

Well it was a long drive but we finally made it to our stopping point at Elkhart, IN. At the close of our drive you could tell that some of our kids were getting restless. But once we checked into our hotel we had a “mini” service – a time of worship and in the word. I challenged our kids with the story in Acts 3 reminding them that our job is to reflect Christ – not ourselves. That’s my prayer for this trip – I hope that you’ll join me. We have a full day tomorrow – finishing our drive to Chicago and attending a megachurch and doing some sightseeing before we start our mission work. Until then, here’s some pictures…enjoy!

Love At Last Sight

I just finished reading this book a few days ago and I highly recommend it! The whole premise of the book is to ask the question: what does it take to have love at last sight? Our culture tries to brand to us to have love at the first sight and the authors of this book suggest that having love at last sight is far more important than love at first sight. They take you on a 30-day challenge to better the relationships around you. They talk about how to let go of pride, setting goals for your marriage and they talk about a lot of other things. It is a great book to read if you want to better your marriage. I don’t want to give away too much, because it’s worth the read.

Baggage

Tonight at AMP’d we kick off a new series: Baggage. My prayer is that it helps us to deal with our personal issues or how to help those we know who may have “issues.” Tonight we kick it off with The Baggage of Circumstances – and we have Fabian Kalapuch (District Youth Director of New Jersey) in to share on this topic. It’s gonna be a great night!

Illuminate – 4.8.11

I’m uber pumped for our youth outreach that’s happening on April 8th. It’s called Illuminate and a group of students have been working hard to help create this event. For all the the info you can click here: http://www.illuminatenj.com. We’re hoping to see many young people in Glassboro come out to our event. We’re having musical guests BlazeTorch and my good friend, Trevor Hall. We’re having three major giveaways on that night: $50 cash, 3 tickets to a Phillies game & a netbook! Crazy stuff going on, but do all you can to bring out friends to AMP’d Youth on Friday, April 8th at 7pm!