Anticipation

Good Friday morning to everyone, I pray that you have had a fantastic week and are looking forward to a weekend full of family fun, working outside, or whatever you may have scheduled.  All week long I have been anticipating today, looking forward to it like it's my birthday or another special occasion.  Some of you may wrinkle your nose at this but my excitement was that I was going to be able to see a young man that is currently in the Juvenile Detention Center.  Earlier this week I contacted his PO and requested that I be added to the visitation list and she said YES!!  I arrived this morning to the detention center walked through security into a world that I am somewhat familiar with. No I have never been locked up but had plenty of jail tours with my dad growing up (he is a Deputy Sheriff).  When I got to the desk to check in she came back and said that my name was not on the list and my heart sank.  I went from total excitement to disappointment in seconds, walking out of the building I wanted to shake my fist at the PO, yell at God, etc.  The exact opposite happened, I got to the truck sat down and said "God I know that you are in control and that in your time I will get to see the young man, until then I will pray and ask you to be near to him."  On the drive home I just spent time worshiping and crying out to God to intercede and take control of this situation and the peace that came over me was a peace like none other.  At this point I am anticipating the appointment that God has set up for me and this young man.

Tonight I am going to be talking about "Our Purpose" during Teen Night and how there is an invisible war going on around us to keep us from living in the Will and Purpose God has laid out for us.  This morning was a reminder that there are evil forces out there trying to keep us from fully following after God and fulfilling the tasks He has called us to do.  Ephesians 6:12 says For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 

If I would of given into frustration this morning that would of opened a door for the evil one to attack me and cause me to become bitter and angered.  It is not always easy to respond by praising God but when we do there is a power that comes over us to push back satan and his attack on us.  In Ephesians 6 Paul tells us to put on the full armor of God, not just some of it all of it.  We need to align our lives with Jesus at the center and equip ourselves with the armor, then we will be able to successfully push back the attacks of satan.  David also tells us in the Psalms to Meditate on the Word day and night, not just Sunday mornings or once a week but daily. 

My prayer today is that this is an encouragement to whoever reads this and that it will challenge us to always go to God in the good times and bad times.  I am including a link to a song that helped me out this morning "No Other Name" by Hillsong Worship.  Please take the time to listen to it and allow the truth of the song to speak to you.  

Thanks for your time and have a super duper weekend.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wku9OphQ7JE 

First Time for Everything

Well I can honestly say that I thought having a blog was going to be great and that I would be super excited about posting every week.  The truth is that I have put this off day after day and here we are a couple months since starting this blog.  

I want to just take a couple minutes here and get you up to speed on what has been going on the past couple of weeks.  Upon arriving back home we took a family camping trip up to Flagstaff where we had a great couple of days just relaxing and regrouping as a family.  The weeks to follow consisted of prepping for our upcoming programs as well as reconnecting with the youth, our friends, and Church family.  We had so much fun camping in Flagstaff that we decided to join some friends and do it again, that trip was cut short by rain and ended with a leaky tent, colds, ear aches, and memories.  I look back over that weekend and the week to follow and could easily get frustrated, upset, and so on but we did create some great memories.  You can check out Stephanie's FB page for pictures.  

Last week marked our kick-off week for most of our programs, and it was a great week.  We had a good turnout to all of our events and definitely had opportunities to share the LOVE of Jesus with many young people.  Our current Bible Study series is covering Spiritual Disciplines, at Kids Klub we are talking about Jonah, and the theme for Teen Night is Experiencing God.  Please shower these events with your prayers as we definitely need them.  

In closing I would ask that you would pray for the health of our family, we have been dealing with colds etc, also that we would continue to passionately follow God's call he has placed on us.  Thanks and have a great week!!

 Enjoy a few pictures from our recent mobile pantry.