glorious riches

we're back from younglife camp & we are overwhelmed.  God is good & He has great plans, big plans for us & for our friends at lafayette.  if you've never experienced a week at a younglife camp, i'm not  sure that i can put it into words for you.  we take friends from the high school that we lead at hours & miles away from home to a gorgeous property filled with adventure, laughter & Truth.  it is a fun, exciting, stretching & challenging week.

{lafayette}

it's hard because you want so desperately for your friends to hear the gospel, your heart aches for them to hear the truth about the Lord & about His huge love for them, your attempting to pour yourself out as an offering in hopes that these high school girls & guys will see sacrificial love lived out for them...but in the end we have to know that we're just planting seeds & God is the one that makes things grow.  our students have to turn & desire to run to their Father, we just hope to point the way.  there is no greater joy than seeing someone you love want to chase after real Life.

{our cabin & the pretty little ladies that live in it}

{ben & andy.  they love each other}

i can't give too many of the details away from our week just in case there is some high schooler out there reading this {i can't spoil all the surprises} but lets just say, it was a blast.  it was physically, emotionally & spiritually exhausting {as a leader} but could not be more worth it.  we sang out hearts out, danced, ran, competed, played, swam, swung, climbed, twirled, ate & grew.  some highlights were: watching grown men two-step & jerk, watch my girls dress up & be silly, see my discipleship girls lead well & really catch a vision for ministry & community, sunshine, deepening relationships with girls & seeing  h.s. friends really desire a walk with the Lord.

{my teenage mutant ninja turtles}

{the fellas}

{the ladies}

one other 'woo-hoo worthy' note is that we got to go to camp with two other schools where our friends lead.  simon kenton brought our dear friends kevin & kayla and my bro-in-law, chris.  SO FUN.  we also came with henry clay who brought a ba-jillion students with them so they brought about 11 more friends to lead those kids {all who are awesome}.  it was really a blessing to see so many of our friends living out their ministry in front of us.

{lafayette team}

{me & the hubs}

{TEAM!}

{baby silas who was such an angel baby all week.  he loved rockbridge}

{brother & hubby...so awesome}

{lil girls}

one final shout out...there is nearly nothing as encouraging as seeing my husband lay down his life for guys to see Christ.  it is such a great blessing to have benny as my partner in ministry.  what a gift.

it was one fantastic week but now it really begins...loving kids where they are at, encouraging our new brothers & sisters in Christ, discipling our friends & pointing them toward Jesus will hopefully be our lives daily.

for our friends:

"I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe."

-ephesians 1: 17-19