Fourth of July

I hope that you all had a great 4th of July. I got to spend it at the fireworks in State College with my wife and her parents. It was a really great time and the fireworks were really cool. Well, the ones that I saw. It had been a really long day and somehow I found a way to fall asleep during some of them, which left my wife in complete bewilderment. Haha, fun times. Anyways, I hope that you all had a great weekend and are having a great summer.

Football On The Beach

For those of you who know me, know that I love to play football. Yet playing football on the beach is even better. For my activities the last couple of days I have been leading football and of course like all good youth workers, got competitive and showed those kids who was boss. Boooya!!! Here are some pictures of our great times on the beach.

Testimony Of God's Power

Sometimes you see things that remind of God's great power and love. Last night at session here at Summer Camp, Jenn was talking about thoughts that we need to throw away. To end the session they did this drama that was a great reminder of God's power through changed lives. It was pretty incredible. Everybody wants proof that God exists. Sometimes there is no greater proof than what God has done in our lives. Check out the video. What would your cardboard say?

Summer Camp Epic Workout

Last night at session Jenn was talking about that is on our mind. Well fortunately for us we had a special workout instructor come in and help us to get our brains warmed up a little bit. This workout was way too good not to share with you. Maybe there is something here you can use :).

More Pics From Summer Camp

Well yesterday was another fun day at Summer Camp here in Ocean City, NJ. It wasn't as warm as Monday was but we still got to spend some good time at the beach and enjoy some pretty good waves. Here are a couple more pictures. The first one is of Austin (One of my Juniata guys) being interrogated by Norm and the other is of the small group that I am helping with. Fun times!

Storming The Beach

Since our theme for Summer Camp this week is The Battlefield of the Mind, this morning we stormed the beach. We had a bunch of games on the beach early this morning to get students up and moving around. Here are a couple of pictures from that. The first is a squad group trying to plug up the holes on a bucket to keep as much water in as possible the second is a group of girls getting ready to do a relay race. It was a lot of fun (at least it was watching! ).

Summer Camp First Night

We are here in Ocean City, NJ for our annual Central PA Youth Ministries Summer Camp. 160 teens at the beach, what a blast. We introduced the rules with a video last night. It was of Norm and I shooting each other (as well as LaVern), with paintballs. Now that was fun!!. Check out the video below. If you request it, I might even put up some of the outtakes. Hahaha!!

Superchick Concert

Sunday Highway 35 Student Ministries proudly presented Superchick, John Reuben, Luminate, and Bread of Stone in concert at East Juniata High School. We were very pleased with how the bands performed and the turnout. We sold out the auditorium (Over 800 Seats) and the place was very electric and I think all who were there had a lot of fun. Thank you very much to all who came out and made the evening a great time. Here is a video of the evening.

To Preach Or Not To Preach

Recently popular Christian evangelist Franklin Graham had a couple of comments that I would like to write a little about. Those comments were:

"I think its coming to this country where we (will) have the freedom to preach inside a church wall, but we will lose the freedom to do it outside. That day will probably come – maybe in my lifetime."

“(In the United States) we see everyday our rights being eroded. Just a little at a time, but its happening. Everyday. So let’s preach while we can. Let’s stand up and holler ‘Jesus Christ! King of Kings, Lord of Lords!’to the top of our voice... The secularists are going to get ticked off, the news media’s going to hate it. I don’t know, maybe the people in the White House are going to be mad. But you know what, I don’t care. Because God has called us to take the Gospel -- His Gospel, the power of God and His Salvation -- unto the ends of the Earth.”

My thoughts are as follows. This is a very interesting topic. I have wondered many times how long we are going to have the freedom to speak about our faith in the public square and really it scares me...a lot. However, I have come to the conclusion that no matter who is in the White House, no matter what bill gets passed God is in control. We can spend so much time worrying about what will be that we do not follow through on what God has called us to do. God is in control in this world and sometimes I wonder what He is up to, but His ways are not my ways nor are his thoughts my thoughts (Isaiah 55:8-9) so I will worry about what I can control and that is following through with God's call on my life.

Every since Jesus left this earth his command has been to preach the Gospel. Franklin Graham is right that we need to preach the Gospel, but it is needed whether our freedoms are eroding or not. This is what we are all called to do. My problem with him lies purely in his methodology. Does standing up and hollering really do any good? Sure Paul tells us that the Gospel is foolishness to those who do not believe (1 Corinthians 1:22-24), but still our approach is increasingly important to those who are increasingly skeptical about what we claim. It seems to me that it is in the context of relationships that we are able to convey to others what it is we believe and how that has made a difference in our own lives. Jesus did some preaching to the crowds, but a lot of his calls to repentance were in conversation with others. Some of it took place around the wells, in eating with the sinners in their homes, or at a person's place of work.

There is absolutely no doubt that one of the founding principles of this nation was freedom of religion. However, I find it interesting that so many who fight so hard for that seem to ONLY want freedom of Christianity. They get so upset when other religions exercise their freedoms, but cry out when it seems like Christianity isn't allowed the voice they want it to have. If we truly want freedom of religion (A good thing) then we must be prepared for those who do not subscribe to the Christian religion to talk about what they believe. Really one of the beauties of freedom of religion is the conversations that can happen when many from different beliefs can stand up and converse about they believe in an open dialogue. As Christians we have the truth and we should be open to discussing that with even those who are in opposition to what we believe. Unfortunately many cries for freedom of religion really only mean freedom for Christianity.

To Run Or Not To Run

I was e-mailed an article yesterday and I thought I would respond to it a little bit. The article can be found here: http://mondaymorninginsight.com/blog/post/you_are_going_to_hell_and_taking_someone_with_you/.

I encourage to read the article, but basically Todd, the author of Monday morning insights, was responding to another article in which a certain Dr. Thompson was saying that we should all encourage other to get our students out of public schools because they are evil and promote things that are in opposition to Christianity. Todd doesn't quite agree and points out, "Whatever happened to being a light in the darkness?"

As a young adult who does not have any children of my own perhaps my view on this is somewhat skewed and maybe when I do have children my viewpoint will change I don't know. I read the original press release and Dr. Thompson used a couple of Scripture references WAY out of context and basically said public schools are evil and private schools are perfect and you hate your neighbor if you do not tell them to get their children out of public schools and since this is "obviously" the good thing to do you are sinning if you don't do it.

Do public schools promote things that are opposite of Christianity? Sure. However, that does not make private schools perfect either. As someone who went to both a Christian and a private school, there were a lot of things that were Anti-Christian at the private school as well. Also, in talking with a Principal at a Christian school, there are many there who question whether Jesus really is the only way to God. Private schools are not necessarily some safe-haven that we can run to in order to escape all of the evils of this world. Also, I think the level of education that I received was greater at the public school that I went to. That is not something to be taken flippantly either.

Greater than that, though, Todd makes a great point in saying, "Whatever happened to being a light in the darkness?" This I think is the crux of the issue. In Matthew 5:13 Jesus calls his disciples to the salt of the earth and goes on to also call them to be a light on a hill. This applies to us as well. In the OT God compared Israel to olive trees. Olive oil was mainly used to light lamps. God is calling Israel his light to the rest of the world. Paul tells us that we have been grafted into that olive tree and so we also are to be God's light to the world.

In my opinion is much more loving to be a light in the public school than to run away and hide from it. Jesus never ran away and hid. Rather he engaged the culture around him with the truth of Scripture in a loving manner. I think that Dr. Thompson has his definition of love screwed up a little. Just my opinion, though. What are some of your thoughts.

Superchick

Last year a group of Youth Pastors got together and decided that we wanted to work together and do some big events to reach out to the youth here in Juniata County. We have done a couple of events so far that have gone really well. Here in May we have decided to have Superchick in concert. The date is May 16th at East Juniata High School. Also, playing are John Reuben, Bread of Stone and Luminate. If you would like more information about this event you can check out www.highway35.weebly.com. Tickets are $6 (a great price for the amount of music that you will hear). Ticket information can be found at the website. This should be a great event.

To Save A Life

The movie "To Save A Life" has been in the Selinsgrove Cinema Center for almost a week now and opening weekend went incredibly well. The movie opened in 440 theaters across the United States and out of the 44o the Selinsgrove Cinema Center ranked number 39 in ticket sales, which is really incredible for our area. Not only that but the movie was around 15 in total box office sales among all movies for the past weekend and is rated #1 on the fan ratings on fandango.com.

This is a really great movie and if you have not seen it I would encourage you to do so. It is showing for the rest of this week and at least for next week as well. If you have seen this movie and enjoyed it take some of your friends to see it. This can be a great way to reach out to some of your friends.

You can also check out what some other people are saying about this movie:

The Source
Fandango