Loving Every Minute

For the past 4 or 5 months, Tim has been making the 4 hour trip from the Capital District to Wayne County and back. He’s been learning about the area, recruiting prayer partners and volunteers and doing all he can to raise financial support.

[If you're like "um, who the heck is Tim?" - check out his blog and get the facts]

Now it’s time for him to officially relocate and start his ministry. He’s moving to the area on Saturday and will begin his work at the Walworth Youth Center next week.

I’m excited for him to get here. Partially just for the selfish reason that I’m looking forward to having him around. But also because of what I see every day in my own ministry here. On his blog he talks about the challenges we face in this area. We struggle with an incredibly high teen pregnancy rate, poverty, neglect, witch craft and alcohol/drug use.  I can’t remember who summed it up this way but it’s true … we are a rural community with the struggles of an urban area. Our students desperately need hope, they need someone to look them in the eye and tell them they have value and most of all they need Jesus.

Over the past few years things have gotten a lot better. There are more of us in the field and more opportunities for youth to hear the gospel. However, there’s still a lot of work to do – and WE NEED MORE YOUTH WORKERS.

So as excited as I am to have Tim in town just because I’m president of his fan club, I’m also SO excited to have him serving in ministry here. With his energy, vision, passion for youth and love of our Savior, I’m confident the Lord will accomplish great things through him.

I can’t wait to watch his ministry take root and grow here!

If you have a second, swing by his blog and leave him a note. He’d love to hear from you!

Hey guys. Just wanted to fill you in on something that has me pretty concerned. Hoping you’ll pray for me and maybe you’ll have some ideas on a solution.

I have a spot on my face that really needs to be seen by a dermatologist. It started out as a brown spot (like a large freckle) sometime this winter and it hasn’t changed at all so I haven’t worried about it – but after being in the sun all day Saturday it became very dark and inflamed (even though I was wearing sunscreen). Today it has become more of an open sore and it’s somewhat painful.

There is a history of basal cell carcinoma in my family so it is cause for concern.

The catch is that I don’t have insurance.

Soooooo, in addition to your prayers, if you have any information about assistance programs or free screening programs for this sort of thing, I’d greatly appreciate it.

THANKS!!

Youth Impact: Wayne County – a group made up of youth and leaders from several churches in the area participated in Kingdom Day 2009 on Saturday. We called our project “ONE DAY” to tie it in with our summer workcamp “ONE WEEK.”   We worked in the village of Newark clearing an area that will be a park showcasing three historic locks on the Erie Canal.  I’ll write more about the day when I have a chance but for now, here are a bunch of pics.  As usual, we were more blessed than the community we were serving.

Between finishing up the work for the college course I’m taking, getting ready for ONE DAY (our Kingdom Day project) this Saturday, another county wide event next Saturday and all the other stuff that’s going on, the blog will be pretty quiet for the next few days.

BUT DON’T WORRY

I have new posts up on the YS Blog and YouthMinBlog today. You can read my ramblings there.

Happy Spring, everyone!