Our Summer - The Short Version

How to get started after a summer break?  It's been a wonderful, crazy, amazing, exhausting and energizing summer - somehow it all makes sense.  First off, I'm so thankful to be part of an amazing church family and student ministry.  Justin, Silas and I have gotten to be a part of so many great moments over the last couple of months, moments that we will cherish for a long time.  We hosted our annual VBA (vacation bible awesomeness) to start our summer off and focused on Walking Boldly in the name of Christ.  It was probably our most favorite VBA yet.

The next week we were able to be a part of a mission project with our church and host a VBS for a group of kids in a community nearby that we are trying to connect with. After that, we were off to Camp Caswell - always our favorite week of the year.  This year we were led by one of favorite people (who also happens to be a really great speaker/communicator) EJ Swanson.  He challenged us that week to be real, get focused and live a life worth of our calling - even when no one was looking (Colossians 3:17).  It was truly an amazing week at camp.

A week later we headed out for our high school mission trip to Nashville, TN.  We connected with a smaller local church who needed help establishing a relationship within a community they were trying to reach and were able to help them make connections through hosting a vbs onsite.  We made such great relationships with the children, teenagers and adults we met there (it was hard to say goodbye!)

We also got to serve with several local non-profits including, Feed our Children, The Bridge Ministry, Second Harvest Food Bank, Operation Stand-Down and The Baptist Children's Home of TN.  One of our favorite times was participating in feeding the homeless under the bridge in downtown Nashville with The Bridge Ministry.  This is an amazing organization that goes the extra mile to offer hospitality, hope and love to the homeless of Nashville.  They not only serve them a hot meal but have someone there to make their plate, carry their tray and provide a chair to sit.  They have children's church, a huge worship time (with the most amazing musicians ever, it is Nashville after all) and also provide clothing.  They serve over 1,000 people every Tuesday night there.  The presence of God was overwhelming there and I don't think any of us will ever forget that night.

That brought us into August where we had to say goodbye to our new college students.  We are going to miss them so much but we are so excited to see how God will lead and guide them over the next few years.  We have an amazing group of young people ready to step up, serve and lead our church.  We are so thankful for the time we had to spend with them.  Justin and I have been working hard on the coming up student ministry year and are excited at what God has in store for us.  Thanks so much for taking the  time to stop by today and catch up with me.  We have a lot more to share, somehow in between all of that we painted our house (mostly) - don't even ask me how that happened (hint - a lot of awesome people helped) and went on vacation.  Can't wait to share more!  Love you guys!!