Wow, God is so good to me!

Since the last time I wrote, so many things have happened.  Caleb (my action group leader) and I got to lead a 14 year old to Christ, one of my co-workers accepted Christ, and I'm experiencing a joy from knowing and getting to know Christ that I haven't experienced for quite some time.

This last weekend, we had our mid-summer  camping trip (WHAT, MID SUMMER?!?!!?).  Although it rained all weekend, it was still amazing.  I got to see a big waterfall (running water is one of my favorite things), got to see other guys step up and be leaders of the trip, and got to see a 50 pound halibut that Matt Meschke caught. (A few of you might know him.  He's another action group leader.)

I've been praying for you all at camp assurance, that you will be bold in sharing your faith with these kids that look up to you.  Keep using that short and precious time that you have with the kids to show them what it is to live a life of a Spirit filled believer.  Thank you so much for the message that you all sent to me.  It really meant a lot.  I plan on putting it up on my wall whenever I find something to do it with :)

I can't say enough to describe how much of a blessing that so many people have been to me since I've been here.

I pray that this post finds people living their lives to the fullest, with God's perspective:  knowing that the people who we interact with each day have souls, and that we have an eternal impact on them.

Wow, it's been 3 and a half months!  It's now June, and I'm in Alaska!  I've been thinking about, and praying for, all of my brothers and sisters at Camp Assurance!  It was wonderful as usual, I'm sure.

So I drove up with 5 other guys on the trip to Alaska.  It was about 50 hours of actual driving, but I am so glad we did it!  The Alaskan Highway was so beautiful!  I took a lot of pictures. 

We've already done a lot of things on project.  We did street evangelism using surveys, where some amazing things happened.  We also did a service project for a Bible camp that does camps for Native American kids.  There are so many other things, I have to just stop now.

I got a job as a waiter at the Timberline Bar and Grill as a server.  God pretty much squeezed me into that job, because there were so many things going against me in getting that job:

1. I'm under 21 and can't serve drinks, and they don't hire people under 21, except for me.

2. I'm only here for 2.5 months to work.  Not very long for a job that needs training like that.

3. I can only work from 6 to 5, but it starts at 11:00 and ends at 10:00.

I knew that God had something pretty cool planned since He pulled that many strings to get me into that job.  And I was right.  I've only worked three days, and have already built some great relationships with my co-workers, and have been able to show the love of Christ with them.  Next step--- the Gospel!

This weekend, we're going to a native island called Hoonah.  This island has a 95% alcoholism rate for adults, as well as a drug problem in kids, and incest is around 70%.  It's going to be a time of intense spritual warfare, so your prayers are much appreciated!!!!!  But I'm really excited to do this.  I have lately felt drawn to the Native American people.  I'm not sure why, but God has a plan for that too.

Well, that doesn't cover 3.5 months, but it does cover almost 2 weeks.  Good enough, huh?

Well, last entry said "Happy Thanksgiving" and this one says "Merry Christmas."

It's been a wonderful semester full of growth, community, and learning to trust God more and more.

Over the past few weeks, God started asking me if grades were more important than He was.  The interesting thing is that I didn't know how to answer Him.  So God made a way to test me. 

Up until last week, I was riding the fence with both of my science classes (the most important ones for my major) between the GPA that I wanted and a less desirable GPA.  So I knew I'd have to study hard this last week in order to do well on the tests.  Well, it came to Monday and I got to hang out with Sam and Vicky.  While they were around, someone called and sounded distressed and needed someone to talk to.  So I went to talk to her.  Well, if I hadn't, this person might not be around anymore, so it was definitely a God thing that I went.  So we talked for prolly 3-4 hours.  This didn't leave me much time to study, but I said, "OK, God, You knew that this was what I was supposed to do, so You're in control of my grades, too."  So I studied for quite a while, but not as much as if I hadn't done this.  And it turns out that God was, of course, in control of everything.  He gave me the GPA I wanted without depending on my study habits.

I know it sounds kinda insignificant, but it was really important to me because grades have always been really important to me.  So much so that I wasn't sure if I was putting them ahead of God.  Now I know more than ever that I can just follow His calling and trust Him to carry through.

Happy Thanksgiving!

For all of the C.A. people, I'm sorry that I couldn't come to Super Saturday last weekend.  I wish i could have been there.I was in Minnesota with the Cru worship band.  We led worship at a church up there.  It was a really good weekend.  It was very stress-free and the church's heart for God was amazing.  They've only been around for 2 years, so they have church in the gym of an elementary school.

Yesterday I got to work outside all day (a huge change from school).  Then I got to help with AWANA! I had forgotten how great it is to build into these kids' lives.  My favorite time was handbook time, because I got to go one-on -one with a few kids and help them understand the stuff that they were learning.

Today was very relaxed.  We pretty much ate and hung out as a family all day.  We had the grandparents over, so that was very cool.

I hope you all have a great weekend!