More Dallas

I can't tell enough just how amazing this week was. How random people came up to me to compliment this group of teens because of how they acted in public, how hard they worked, and how they treated each other. This happened over and over again, every place from Babe's Chicken, to the North Texas Food Bank, to Hampton Inn in Little Rock. In fact, the front desk lady at Hampton (she was there both weekends and who had been working in the hotel since 1984), told me she'd never seen a group of teens so well behaved, she even went so far to say that most adult groups weren't as good.

Rest assured, our teens exemplified Jesus where ever they were and they made a diference in people's lives even when they didn't need to. I want to share with you a couple of the thank you cards we received.

"Dear Kentucky Volunteers,

I appreciate the improvements you made on my home. It was a lot of work. In talking to you, seeing your attractive appearance and good southern manners, I was overwhelmed.

As an older man, it was good to see that the good character of America is being carried forward by high quality youth.

You will always be in my thoughts, may God continue to be with you.

Sincerely,

Mike Robinson"

"For all that you are and all that you give, I thank you. I love you all."

Annie Parker

Don't be surprised to see some things change for God in the near future for your teen, and if they do, it's ok. I know it may be drastic and it may seem radical, but the last time I checked our God is the exact opposite of the world we live in. In following Him we look less like everyone else and more like a freak. It's going to be a very fun ride.

Thur, Fri, Sat, FUN

I'm not checking spelling tonight, let's see how it goes. (Did you know that Abraham Lincoln was a horrible speller?)

No way in the world I could have blogged the last 2 nights, I knew it was going to be tough without internet access at the church building. So I'll sum it up as best I can.

Thur: Back to teams 1 and 2 again and everyone worked great. 19,000 lbs of food was packaged by team 2 in 3 hours causing the North Texas Food Bank people to go crazy. They said they've never seen a group like us. Team 1 had a very very hard day. The guys of Team 1 cooked for and served about 300 homeless men. It was very good and effective. The ladies of Team 1 weeded a local playground. Hannah Mountjoy and Lori Harris even weedeated (is that a word?) the entire place!!!

We went out to eat at an awesome chicken place, get this, our students were so well behaved and so into each other that people came to me to compliment them. They have been great and have made a difference every where we've gone.

Thursday night was amazing and very very encouraging to us all, ask your kids to tell you.

Fri: Team 2 completed house number 3 and team 4 completed house number 4. Heath Mountjoy, Ethan Robinson, Hannah Mountjoy and David Roney built a front porch stair railing for an elderly lady. They dug the hole, set the post, mixed the concrete, sawed the wood (with power tools) and built it. Very nice. The rest of the girls (except for Lauren Peyton) painted, while the rest of the guys (and Lauren Peyton) demolished an outbuilding. Christian and Nate D laid a lamenant floor at a doctor's office for the homeless, which was very cool and everyone else straight up worked their rear ends off.

We finished the night at a Texas Rangers baseball game, it was lots of fun. Today before we left Dallas we visited Dealy Plaza and the 6th Floor Museum in the Texas Schoolbook Depository, a very good experience as well.

Every where we went in Dallas, people have pulled me aside to compliment YOUR kids, they have been an example for Christ.

The plan is to be back at the church fellowship hall around 7pm tomorrow night.

Wednesday for your head

Great day today!!! First things first, our student ministry is blessed to have some amazing volunteers. Teresa and Judy are just great, I know they are responsible (somebody has to be) and look out for our girls. I can't tell you how wonderful and caring they are AND how strict they are as well. I'm so thankful for them.

Tim and Tony, I simply don't have the words for them. Tony has been a volunteer in the student ministry for 6 years now and Tim for 5 and let me tell you, they love our students as much as I do and they don't get paid to do it. They are unreal and I love them deeply and am just so thankful to God for them.

Because of these 4, I am not blogging from Stupidbucks tonight, they made me blog from Bdubs, alone. And I know the kids are getting bedded down for the night as I'm typing this and they are taken care of.

There's always a point where everything comes together if it's going to, and today, it did. We tore our groups completely up so I'm not even going to try to explain that. But 20 of them came with me, Teresa, Judy, and CIY Brittney to the North Texas Food Bank where we packaged a bags for kids like the backpack program in Danville. We packaged 8 pallets of bags that feed children who get nothing during the weekend when they're not in school to feed some 6,000 kids...IN ONE SHIFT OF 3 HOURS. We were told normal groups package 10 pallets in 2 SHIFTS!!!

All the kids have gone to the food bank and they were so impressed by your kids, their work ethic, behavior, and demeanor has left a mark. In fact, CIY already received an email from the NTFB of compliments, be very very proud.

A group went with Tim, Tony, and CIY Ben to finish Mike's house and the rest went with CIY Matt to finish Annie's house. Both gave us thank you cards, I'll try to remember to post them tomorrow.

But get this, Mike's house had a broken mailbox and so our students wanted to buy him a new one, so we asked for donations, right at $200 was given. So we bought Mike a new mailbox and put it in and then used the rest to buy flowers for Annie (a WONDERFUL 82 year old lady) and planted them for her where ever she wanted. I wasn't there, but it was a very touching scene.

Be very proud of your kids parents, be very proud of your kids Indian Hills, there's something going on. Please encourage your kid to continue this when they get home. SPORTS do not matter, God isn't going to ask us if we got an A in Geometry, but today we helped those in need, we helped a widow in her distress, these are the things that God will ask. And these 34 students and us 5 adults can honestly say yes.

Tomorrow, the Homeless shelter and feeding program for my group, the rest are back to the food bank and to a 3rd house we started today that another elderly widow owns.

Keep praying, your kids are doing great and they are so awesome and I love them dearly.

Tues news and views

Tonight at Starbucks...iced lemon pound cake...good grief, I feel like my basketball career pts total just went down 10%.

I'm going to keep it quick, I'm at starbucks while the kids are playing volleyball...UN COOL.

Team 1 went to the foodbank first, worked very very hard. We were challenged to get 21 pallets of food because it was unattainable and we ended up with 19 in 2 hours, and they made us stop. We packed 19,500 meals in 2 hours that will feed over 6,000 people for one day. That's cool. We later went to Ms. Parker's house and are almost finished there, will close up tomorrow. I even did electrical work :), don't tell Aimee though.

Team 2: Half went back to Mike's house and half went to the homeless feeding program in the inner city.

Tomorrow we're going to get after it more, it's supposed to rain so we'll see where we go.

Ok...I'm not a fan of starbucks, did I mention that?

MONDAY

This is going against everything inside of me and against all of my being to blog tonight, and I guess it'll be that way all week. We can't get wireless at the church building so I'm sitting at the *GASP* Starbucks up the street. AND since I felt guilty about coming in and using their wireless I was compelled to buy something, but since I HATEHATEHATEHATE anything coffee, the only thing I could really stomach was a strawberry smoothie...OH so masculine....now on to the news of the day.

We made it in last night about 6pm local time after a great night in Little Rock and an excellent Easter service in the hotel. However we did have a tremendous situation that occurred that may be one of the funniest things I've ever heard in my entire life. Just ask Kaitlin Snapp, it had to do with the alphabet game, she'll know what you mean.

We got up bright and early and split into 2 teams today.

Team 1:Lauren Peyton, Christian Barker, Kaitlin Snapp, David Roney, Franny Reimler, Ethan Robinson, Hannah Mountjoy, Lauren Bailes, Lori Harris, Kaitie Wood, Tab Evans, Justin Wilson, Nate Deaton, Gavin Mahan, Ty Short, Tyler Crowe and Heath Mountjoy came with me, Teresa, and CIY Brittney (all CIY adults will be described as CIY and then their name, that's just the way it's going to be. We had 2 jobs today.

1) We went across Dallas to the North Texas Food Bank and folks, this is an amazing operation. The basics of what we did today was sort foods that were donated by grocery stores because they were damaged and couldn't be sold. All of this food went to feed families in need in the area surrounding Dallas. We worked from 9:30-11:30 and sorted and boxed over 14,000 lbs of food, for over 12,000 meals, which feeds 4,000 people for a day. That's cool.

2) We went to a super friendly and really cool elderly lady to paint her house and clean up her yard. Everyone worked well and we were able to accomplish quite a bit through the afternoon.

Team 2: Kaile Short, Hunter Mountjoy, Paige Anderson, Caitlin Camic, Whitney Baker, Emma Ditto, Alexa Burks, Alex Grigsby, Nate Crowe, Rachel Ditto, Wes Salyers, Josh Lyons, Austin Reid, Cody Cooper, Julie Higginbotham, and Kenzie Wood went with Tim, Tony, Judy, and CIY Ben.

They spent the entire day clearing a jungle (not exagerating) that had grown in an elderly man's yard. This man had been waiting on the People Helping People list for help for 5 years for someone to help him clean his yard. Well...if all goes to plan, it will be finished tomorrow, this group worked outrageously hard.

Keep praying for us, especially Judy Short, she has a brutal sinus infection right now.

I will blog about more when I get a chance.

Sat Night....and so it begins...

Pretty much all I can say IIIIIiissss....and so it begins.

Everything is just fine, we got into the hotel at Little Rock about 9:30, some swam and some did homework. Yes parents, your kids did homework, I won't disclose who did what on this one, but just assume your kid did they're homework and all is well.

But what began was connection and conversation. Just spend and hour in the hotel lobby with 15 students talking Bible and answering Bible questions. It's going to be a good week and we are all excited.

Tomorrow...on to Dallas.

We leave for Dallas in about an hour...hopefully.

Last night I was thinking about just how many trips I have gone on as either a youth minister or a youth ministry volunteer. So I went back in the deep recesses of my brain, which for some reason found a lot of empty space, and to the best of my knowledge, this will be the 53rd trip in 11 years. That's a whole lot of teen, let me tell you. Not only that, I have a WONDERFUL and SUPPORTIVE wife who gives up her time with me to be with teenagers. That's awesome, and you should tell her that too.

And there's always a point for every trip, and I'm in it right now, where I'm just like, uh oh and little bit overwhelmed by it all. Ranging from being responsible for kids safety to asking questions like, did the luggage trailer door get shut at the last pee stop?

But one thing I can say, is 52 out of 52 times, God has shown up, as if He was gone anyway. He's protected, He's taught, He's disciplined, He's given wisdom, and over all, He's loved.

I'm very excited to spend time with these kids, and above all, I'm excited to spend more time with our Creator.

Be praying about all this, and check back with how it's going.