A Pocket Full of Songs: The Pursuit

Well! It's been a little while. Plenty has happened, but I shall contain my need to spew forth every detail of my life because what is exciting to me is not always as exciting to the rest of the world. Crazy, I know.

However, I do want to share about our wonderful week at Centrifuge last week with our youth group. Hang in there with me because there is a lot to share!

First: Gary Morgan, Pastor of Mosaic Church in Nashville, was our camp pastor for the week, and he TOTALLY brought God's word to the 1,100 youth at this camp. (Only 20 of which came from WHFBC)

Night 1: "Pursue"
God longs for us to see the depths of His love for us. In Romans 5:5-11, God wants us to clearly see how he proves*shows*demonstrates this love. In Ephesians 2:1, we realize that we are spiritually dead without God, so HE engages in pursuit after us.

Night 2: "Proclaim"
Acts 8:1-8... After the stoning of Stephen, believers were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria, but suffering strengthens us to become who God desires for us to be. Gary challenged us to "sneeze" the gospel!

God never calls us into a relationship with Him without radically sending us out.
Our greatest fear in life shouldn't be failure, but in succeeding in something that doesn't matter!

Night 3: "Stand"
Romans 12:1-16 Gary challenged us to realize that we need a correct estimation of ourselves. No one is superior to anyone else. In that, we called in a relationship with Christ that is personal, but not individual. Are we involved in the lives of those around us? Are we those around us to be involved in our lives?

Night 4: "Walk"
What's next? Where do we go from here? Is this it? No! We need to seek to know scripture and live life that way. The world's system shouldn't be what dictates the way we live. Take a stand, get uncomfortable, get IN the world, and exude Christ!!!

Next: I was so proud of our youth this week. We had a combination of middle school and high school students. Sometimes this age difference can cause separation. However, I was blessed to watch them come together. These girls (I talk about them the most because they're the ones I spent the most time with) were so great to each other. They also expressed their compassion by celebrating one of the girls on her birthday and secretly covering her door with signs and writing encouraging notes.

We also had an emotional couple of nights in Church Group Devotions where each person shared their biggest struggles and the rest would provide encouragement and love in response. I will say that there wasn't a single person sharing that didn't at least get choked up. Some of us were all out bawling, but it was such a beautiful thing to be real with one another! So many times we are afraid to open up because we don't want anyone to know that we don't really have it all together. But when we are able to share our hurts, that allows for our brothers and sisters in Christ to come alongside and share in the burden. We don't have to do it alone!!!

Then: I got to help a friend surprise the girls. Tiffany Thompson was on her way back home from her training for the Army National Guard. She and I had planned this for awhile, but I had to keep it a secret. Let me just say that I should win an award for that because it was HARD! But I did, and it was a perfect reunion!

On our way to surprise the girls!

The happy girls!!!

Jordan nearly pummeled Tiff to the wall

Oh yeah : I could not finish this post without showing off some of the talents from our track times. Students could go to different tracks each day that were interest based. Since I am not outdoorsy, and I do not take an interest in sports, the tracks I attended were more artistic in nature. Here are some of the moments I captured...