Courageous Journey

Wow!  What a trip!  Driving up on June 18 took, what seemed like, forever!  Of course, it didn’t help that we had two tires blow out.  The first tire blew out and we were fortunately very close to a tire store.  So, we put the spare time on and got a brand new tire which we stowed away as the spare.  However, within 20 minutes the spare that we just put on blew out!  Never fear, we had a brand new tire to use.

Well, that put us way behind schedule and we only had about an hour of daylight to unpack, set up tents and get ready for bed!  Maria and I were so tired and we were so thankful we packed our full size futon bed with a 3 inch padding on top!  This bed felt like a luxory hotel bed to us.  Absolutely amazing!

Today, we transform the landscape dramatically by building the kitchen area into the most incredible outdoor camping eating world ever.  I’ll post pictures of what it looks but trust me – the eats will be wonderful!

The scenary around us at Lake Tulloch is georgeous and a reminder of God’s beauty and love for his creation.  Maria and I read 1 Peter this morning and prayed for God to do amazing things in the lives of all the kids coming this year.

Prayer requests:

1.  Pray against the spiritual forces that would want to destroy what God wants to do.

2.  Pray for great unity among the staff and volunteers.

3.  Pray for God moments to happen in conversations, devotions, evening messages and worship.

4.  Pray for safety!  No accidents, no injuries!

That’s it for now.  Wish I could blog everyday but I’m not sure I’ll be able to get to McDonald’s for free Internet each day.  But we’ll see.  God bless!

Why is it that no matter how much time you have to prepare for Fryathon that it never fails that the day before is just a bunch of crazy running around and packing?

This morning I have just a few moments to ask for your prayers for safety.  Maria and I are traveling up early to Lake Tulloch to set up camp, help get all the food ready and hopefully have some time to relax before over 120 high school students arrive on Sunday afternoon!

I’m still working on my message for Tuesday night but the focus is on Revelation 2-3 where Jesus writes the sever letters to the sever churches.  For some reason, more than ever, I’m really sensing the need to pray for God’s Spirit to prepare these kid’s hearts and to protect us from spiritual battles that will exists behind the scenes.

All right…go to go…get my coffee…pack and we’re out of here!This is a picture of a synagogue in Sardis.  This is one of the churches mentioned in Revelation 2-3.  Jesus was talking to a church with real people just like you and me.

Welcome Friends,

I thought it would be good to see if it is possible to blog Fryathon 2010.  As I think about Fryathon and 120 kids that will be there all I know is that we will need prayer and plenty of it!!

The theme for Fryathon 2010 is Revelation.  Each night a different speaker will be teaching out of the New Testament book of Revelation.  Pastor Bryan Smith from Camarillo Community Church is extremely bold and gutsy to choose this as a theme and I’m excited to see how God will work in the kid’s hearts thorugh it.

At this point, here are a few prayer requests:

1.  Please pray for safety as we travel up to Lake Tulloch.  A team of people, including my wife, Maria, and I are going up two days early to set up camp – specifically, the kitchen and food prep.

2.  Pray for God to work through the teaching of His word and the times the kids will be challenged to spend time with God.

3.  Pray for God to build significant relationships that honor Him and transform lives – especially that kids would surrender their lives to Christ.  But we know that God want to work through all the relationships that will be forming at Fryathon.

Keep updated and follow this blog – BUT if I’m unable to get Internet access up at Lake Tulloch – well, you’ll just have to pray and hear about when we get back.  Hey, pray we’ll have Internet access!  God bless!

Oh, and here’s a cool picture of the cross in Ventura just to remind us to keep our eyes on Jesus!