We were playing Mission Impossible at youth group. A little back ground on the game: You turn off all the lights and whoever is it stays in the front of the room "guarding whistles" which is extremely hard when it's dark with your back turned. At sporadic times whoever is it can turn around and turn on their flash light and call out names of who they see. Meanwhile the rest of the group is crawling over couches and under tables trying to be the first to the whistle to blow it and win the round. While trying to dodge the flashlight (if you get caught you have to start over).

So hopefully that makes sense...

Anyway as I lay in bed tossing and turning trying to sleep (God revels cool things at odd times) God showed me that, that game represents the race of life. The people who kept winning were the ones who were less concerned about getting caught and more concerned about getting the prize. Just like Christians. There are some who are to concerned about getting caught being a Christian and they miss the big picture... Others just run the race and know that ever when they get caught they can always get back up and run again and still get the prize of heaven...

Hebrews 12:1 ... Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.

I wanted to share a Thank You letter that one of the kids wrote to God. It was put in the prayer box and it was so encouraging to read so I thought I would share it with you all and I pray that this is where all of our hearts are.



Dear Jesus,
I Thank you SO much for everything I have that you gave me: My friends, family, & people who will be in my life in the future. I don't deserve any of this...
Thank you for my ability to worship you at youth & church, & in my own house. For everything you've provided for. My house, my home, & the new home - heaven - you've made for us. Thank you for you. Saving us. Bringing us home with you. I can't thanks you enough.
Amen

Baptism

http://www.calvarymiramesa.org/21.html

Rick did his first baptism less then a month ago. I couldn't have been more proud of him. He baptized one of our students (who had been baptized as a Catholic) It was really neat to see him step up and be there for her. She had been thinking about it and Rick spoke to her, I spoke to her a little bit and a few others spoke to her. She knew it was time to take a step of faith and follow God's example.

Blogs are so popular I thought I would join the trend.

I just figured that it would be a good way for people to see what God is doing in our lives. And to see the things we are up to. Im not really a writter so we will see how this goes. :)

Rick and I have been married since Dec 06. We moved to California to go to HSE (Horizon School of Evangelism) one year ago and it was incredible. HSE changed our lives. Showed us a lot about who Jesus really is, and what He wants for our lives. After HSE Rick became a youth pastor (about 9 months ago). We both still love it. Sometimes I wonder if we are learning more or if the kids are. When Rick first got the job he said "I know we don't have any kids of our own yet but I feel like we just adopted 50". We think of this kids as our own, so its hard sometimes when we see mistakes being made. But we continue to show love to them and pray for them.