Oh YEAH!!!

Friend day went amazing we had 560 people within our 3 services! Many people got saved and rededicated their lives to Christ and it was great! Then we had party at pastors which had about the same amount of people! We had multiple inflatables, food, music, hayrides, pony rides, 4-wheelers, mechanical bull (which really hurt by the way), horseshoes, chili cook off, and more! It was great to get everyone together within all the services and just hang out! Everyone did an amazing job rallying together and working all the events and making Sunday morning services be all they are! As pastor Jeff says it takes great people, serving a great God to make a great church, so true and we have GREAT people here @ Journey!!!

Tonight we had a blast at our 6th - 8th grade service. We are in between starting a new series so we had a fun night of team challenge and just having a good time! Tomorrow is Operation Overnight and we have like 50 students coming already! We are staying the night at the church from 6pm tomorrow until 6pm on Friday. We are going to have a blast hanging out, playing games, video scavenger hunt and tons of other stuff!!! It takes many events outside of normal weekly services to make youth ministry really powerful. You can't just rely on services to impact teenagers it takes so much more to get into their world! They have to really build trust and respect for leaders in order to really open up their hearts. Sometimes students have been so hurt from family and friends that they tend to keep high walls up between others. Events really tear down walls and build great relationships and memories for the students. It makes the weekly services that much easier and better to speak into their lives. It was super busy last week and yet super duper busy this week for the youth ministry too, so I will be sleeping like a baby on Saturday to say the least!!! God is awesome and doing great things. It is so great to hear parents come to me and say, "My son/daughter NEVER would come to church or youth and now they beg me to bring them out on Wednesday/Sunday for youth!" We are hearing praise reports and changes of attitudes and other things all the time from parents. That makes everything so much more rewarding when you see the seeds sprouting right before your eyes!!! What a great church, great pastor, and most importantly GREAT GOD we serve!!!