What a Sunday!

Sunday was a crazy day for me! I'll start off with getting everyone practicing for the El Salvador recap before service. Then we found out that the recording was really poor for the songs we were using. I was able to download the training videos and use the sound off of the laptop to play over the load speakers in service.
As I was figuring that out, my wife was grabbed out of service to tend to our oldest son, Elisha, due to him having an asthma attack. So as I am preparing the tech team for what is needed for the laptop to work, I am also faced with the fact that my oldest son may have to be rushed to the ER. All of this is going on DURING the service.
The students get up on stage and do an amazing job with both of the ministry dances, as well as, the tech team keeping up with the many hurdles that we had to deal with that morning. I gave a little bit of testimony about El Salvador, and then interviewed Elissa, one of our amazing students that went on the missions trip, on how God had stretched her and allowed her to really minister in ways she never thought possible. What a great response from the adults in our congregation.
The moment I get off stage my wife lets me know that she needs to bring Elisha to the ER. I hang out until the end of service and then get a ride over to the hospital (thanks Matt and Julie for being such awesome friends). I get there and Elisha is still struggling, but they soon get his asthma under control and we are on our way home (steroids and all).
All this is happening and there is still a service to prepare for in a couple of hours and the speaker, my wife, now needs to stay home with our boys. This is really where it gets cool.
I just was praying that God would do His thing. We had fellowship, then worship, and finally we went into a time of discussion about El Salvador and the testimonies of the students that went down. I talked very little about anything outside of the trip itself, but as I went to close in prayer I really felt like God wanted me to give an invitation to those who hadn't recieved Christ yet to do so.
WOW!! I am so glad that I listened! Four students raised their hands to recieve Christ!!! I asked these students to meet me after the service so I could talk to them about their decision, and I also wanted to give them some FREE stuff. Many times I have to go searching for individuals because they become shy or unsure about how people will view them if they see that they had made a decision. Not this night. I had one student immediately come to me and share with me where they were at and how they felt about taking it one day at a time. Another asked for prayer and some guidance on their home life and the difference between the God that she is getting to know and the view that she had of Him through her family. And yet another student was willing to wait for me as I was getting done talking to another student, even though her dad was waiting for her (thanks to good dads everywhere).
It is amazing how God can take what we think is unsatisfactory and make it extraordinary as long as we give it as much as we can and then trust Him for the rest.
What a great Sunday!!!!!

Worship !!!!

Well its about 9:46 and I just got home from youth group where our youth worship band ( WideOpen ) played without our normal worship leaders . Let me tell you this it was Awseome !!!!! What was so awesome is that even though we might not have sounded the greatest to some people but to me it still sounded awesome and we even learned one of the songs just this afternoon!!!!! But its all because we gave it up to God !! Also our Youth Pastor, Pastor Chris brought on an awesome message on prayer and boy did he preach it !!!! He taught us that prayer is so so so important in communication with god and that you need to belive that he will answer ur prayers !! It was an awesome message !! So in ending let me ask you something " How's your prayer life ?"

Long's Park

On Sunday evening, we canceled our normal youth night and we met out at Long's Park. It was a phenomenal evening filled with family, friends, cannons, and fireworks. How cool is that? Cannons! The fireworks hadn't started yet, and the orchestra was playing. All of a sudden, BOOM! Then it was one after the other.
The fireworks were also done amazingly well. It was definitely the best fireworks I've seen here in Lancaster. I kept hearing person after person say that it was the best fireworks display they had ever seen. I wouldn't go that far, but they were pretty cool.
Even with the amazing fireworks and the awesome cannons, the best part for me was the great fellowship we had with such a diverse group. A couple of young adults from our Mosaic ministry at Victory were there, as well as, a few parents of our teens at Unite. I have to tell you, here at Unite, we have the best parents around. When I talk to other youth pastors or read articles about the relationship between youth ministry and the parents in their churches I realize how blessed I am to be at Victory Church. Our parents support what God is doing in our ministry rather than try to control it. I know that God will continue to bless these parents for their willingness to support and love not only their own teenager but all of the teens in our youth ministry.
Needless to say, it was a great night!!