AZ - 2005 to 2010

I started this blog in 2004 to document what we were doing with students. It was unclear who, if anyone, would be reading and at worst, it could take me down memory lane. Instead, Ben Cloud kept reading. And commenting. And emailing.

Ben was already doing what I had envisioned - engaging students in global realities; mentoring and equipping them; partnering with people he trusted to launch them both close and far. In the spring of 2005, he invited me - sight unseen - to work with him and his students on a multi-faceted community outreach week.

Without ever meeting him face to face, or talking to him on the phone, I flew out and served with him for 4 days. We partner again this summer.

Post AZ

The Sun beat yellow down my face and lit the asphalt like some charcoal paste - and I stood on the top of the quarter pipe, afraid to drop in. Afraid of the fall. Afraid of what it meant to leave the safety of the horizontal. I had no problem going down the gentle incline of faith - few appreciate being forced to swallow a steep change in altitude while standing on four wheels, or the four pillars of house, school, employment & play.

Our God is an extreme God. A God that drops in on people he loves. Instead of sitting up on high, he leans forward and flows into our lives. An extreme God rids himself of his kingly estate and drops into our ordinary. An extreme God feels the awkwardness of the moment and starts to wash the other people's feet. An extreme God plays outside in the heat demanding that we do not hinder the little children from coming.

An extreme God loves his people more then the law and death- finds a way out, pays the price with his own life. An extreme God not only lives in human form for us, but dies to set us free. He came for:

an extreme reason:
in an extreme way,
and left in an extreme manner.

and this was all for you.
So, drop in,
as he dropped in for you.

Read more about the after effects of the Drop In outreach from PM. Watch this community of students become men and women that change the world because they are out of their mind...

My time in Gilbert, AZ

Quick short post about AZ, much of it already posted... but wanted to lay it out organized and neat. ha.
I flew in on Sunday from Savannah/Hilton Head after being on vacation. Flew into Atlanta right in the midst of Hurricane Dennis. Threw up on that flight. Didn't want to get on another plane. Especially to visit someone I had never really met. Landed in Phoenix at 1.30am PST, 4.30am EST.

Overall Picture
A combination of community outreach utilizing the Drop In Center (a ministry including homework tutoring, food and free skateboarding held every week during the school year at Gilbert Vineyard) and a kids VBS.
M and T were used to prime for W, TH and F - passing out flyers in the community and serving skaters at a local skatepark by handing out water, inviting them to W, TH, and F.
The team included students and leaders (some of the ones I met included Obie, Susie, Bill, Keith, Patty, Allyson, Courtney, Cela) from Gilbert Vineyard, three guys from Northern Ireland, a pastor/church planter from India, the Sportreach Extreme team and myself.
(PM and Gilbert Vineyard have made long term relationships with people in both Northern Ireland and India, which is how these guys came over for this.)

Monday and Tuesday
Team time in the am - praise and worship, devotions, hanging out, etc. I gave a few short talks here and there during M and T. Afternoon spent about an hour or so splitting into groups and passing out flyers around the community to invite them to the events later in the week. It was about 110 degrees F. Also prepped coolers, ice and water bottles for the skate park. Dinner was provided every night for us and anyone wanting to come to VBS, so we did odd jobs to assist for that. Evenings the team was split between helping out at VBS and outreach at the local skate park - about 10 minutes away from the church. Skate park outreach consisted of giving out free water, hanging out and making relationships and demos from the Sportreach Extreme team. M night I went to the skate park. Very wild. Talk about a subculture. T night I helped with VBS. They gave the adults free iced coffee. The first night had 150 kids show up - Gilbert Vineyard is a church of about 500-600.
I flew out on W right after lunch...The agenda W, TH and F included skate, BMX, and climbing wall demos at 3pm and 6pm, slip and slides, a free BBQ dinner, as well as skate time for kids that showed up.

The SportReach team
A cool bunch of guys and girls, mostly college aged and younger, that drove around the US with commitments to help out churches by doing an extreme sport clinic, show, type of thing. These guys and gals worked extremely hard, and were loads of fun to be around. Best story about them was 'The Blessed Burb (a GMC Suburban).' Talk about God providing... Two engines replaced for free, breaking down next to a wallet and being able to return it when they were towed to the town it was from...

PM
A great sense of humor, easy-going, great family, the right kinds of priorities, he loves students, passionate about students reaching the community. He's built students that care about God and the world because thats the kind of person he is. A great community that he is a part of, he 'speaks life.'
That's him in the orange shirt. A few minutes before this picture was taken, he grabbed a set of new skateboard wheels he had in the church van, got a bunch of skaters together and did some funny competition to give away the wheels. It was so cool to watch him connect with these skaters. They are playing a game of 'skate.' (I have very little idea.)
For me, taking the risk of:
- flying to AZ
- puking my guts out on one of the flights
- sacrificing some time with the fam
was totally worth it to work, minister and hang out with him. God has tied our hearts together somehow.

So What?
- skate culture is a cool youth subculture. does it exist in MD? if not, is there another unique subculture?
- drop in center
reminds me of the concept of proxmity places in TSOTTC - very very cool idea
- long term partnerships
PM is totally into long term partnerships. They have been back and forth to N Ireland and India a few times. I have this feeling we are going to do things in partnership in the future - its a totally fun feeling...

Oh. and the first time this has ever happended to me - Susie said her knee was hurting, about an 8 on a scale of 1-10, 10 being the worst. PM, Obie and I prayed over it. And she said right away, it went to a 0. And stayed there.

Az heat

It makes no difference that its a dry heat

AZ tues a

my laptop died i think.  not good.
having a great time here.
prayingmantis is money.
definitely more posting once I get home on Thurs.

youth subculture - skating
once you are youth worker, you are always one - PM
long term partnerships
God ordained team - sport reach, Ben from Nepal, N Ireland guys, me

AZ tues

A snippet...

so far we have done:
- am worship and prayer
- hangout time
- lunch
- pass out flyers to neighborhoods
- rest
- pack water bottles in coolers
- dinner
- split between team going to skate park and helping for church VBS
- the sport reach team (thats the extreme sports guys) go to skate park too
monday and tuesday are just setup, outreach days
w, th and fri the sport team does clinics, competitions and shows
with fri being the big competition for prizes and stuff

Az mon

These az guys are the real deal flyers in comm this aft skate park tonigt

My Missions Support Letter

Here is my personal support letter. The original is written up and printed out of Word. I tried to use the same kind of text wrapping around photos like you can do in a blog post. The easiest way to do that was to create transparent tables and then have text or a photo in alternating cells along the same row. Yeah. What can I say, I can be lazy. Actually though, I'm pretty happy with the way they turned out. First time I've ever put graphics in a support letter.

Up to now, I've not really worried at all about the finances. But as I thought about some of the numbers, I'm getting a bit worried now. I have 25 people on my list. Each team member costs about $2K. Realistically, we have about 6 weeks. Hmm.... Anyway, we will see what happens. On the flip side, I've never heard of anyone cancelling because they didn't have enough money. Is that because in many churches, anything to do with missions is believed to be inherently good? The teams go whether they raise enough or not? That's probably a topic for another post.

Here is the letter, pretty much as it would look if you got it in the mail. And, if you feel like making a contribution, get in touch via email or comment.


Thanks so much for your ongoing support of my involvement with students over the many years. I'm exhilarated to continue to report to you that this generation of students is excited to be on mission and working with them is one of the thrills of life.
SPACE (Students Prepared to Act for Christ's Empire), the missional component of GCC's youth ministries continues to gain momentum. This summer has us overseeing three student teams, all three of which are going to serve GCC missionaries – two overseas and one in PA. We also have an entry level series of day missional excursions into Washington DC.

For my role, I will be actively taking part in three experiences this summer:
- July 10-13 - Working and serving with a youth pastor friend in AZ. I will be leading some devotionals for his students and staff and working alongside them as they execute a community outreach program. The long range potential could be a missional partnership between our two student ministries.
- July 15-17 - Leading a team of middle school students to serve and encourage at CMTS ministries, a GCC supported ministry near Lancaster, PA, which provides automobile and other technical services to missionaries all around the globe.

- July 29-Aug 8 - Leading a team of 10 high school students and leaders to serve and encourage a GCC family living in Londrina, Brazil, working with college students. Our primary goal is to participate in a culture exchange, helping the McM's jump start some of their college ministry and relationships. Reading the McM's write about 'how deeply honored' they feel to be hosting a team helps to clarify one of our goals – sending students to serve with GCC families already placed strategically around the world.

Your prayer and financial support is crucial for these summer projects to be a success. My estimated costs for this summer are around $2000 per person, mostly to fund the Brazil trip. If the Lord leads, your support would be greatly appreciated and can be made to Grace Community Church. Thanks for being a partner in this ministry and for joining with me to shape a movement of students that long for a world to know Jesus.

Images: graduating GCC Seniors on a weekend missions trip to NYC, Londrina Brazil, K(7) and E(4)

Related: Historical Mission Support Letters [2007, 2006, 2005]