SITS!

Well we just got back from SITS yesterday and it was an incredible week! We took 31 kids and had 8 adults (it was pretty awesome to have that many adult volunteers), so each adult was assigned a certain number of kids to watch over and be like a shepherd for. That ended up being a really awesome experience, and I learned a lot from it. The worship band was phenomenal, as were both speakers. Throughout the week we talked about how everyone is pursuing something, how we've been torn from God, how we've been torn from each other, and also how we can get back to God and back to having great relationships with others. All the kids loved it, and I think all the adults got just as much out of it as any of the kids. One of my favorite things about the week was that they didn't really try to use emotion to get the kids to come forward, when they used emotion it was to show us how we need to change our lives.

Nick also lead a workshop this week on how to develop spiritual habits that last and I helped with powerpoint and all that fun stuff. We did a terrible job of planning for the number of kids coming each day! When we left the church we were ready for about 45 each day and we ended up with an average of about 165+ everyday, but we recovered and it ended up being an awesome workshop.

Today I made the mistake of going to a half price book store to pick up a book, I ended up coming out with six books and spent nearly two hours in the store. Tomorrow I am doing the communion meditation in "big church" so I am trying to finish that up right now.

Next week I have to send in my discussion questions and possibly an outline to the dean of the JR High camp I will be teaching at (July 4-9), and I will also need to get my lesson done for July 11th in The Awakening. So a lot of stuff going on and coming up, but I am learning a ton and am incredibly grateful for all the opportunities I am getting to actually do stuff!

Here is a great thought about programs role in Youth Ministry:

"Programs only exist to build and strengthen relationships with God and with one another"

-Doug Fields