125,600 minutes x 2

I have been hear for two years. I am currently entering my third summer and just finished my second winter. I was thinking about people that I have met since I've been here and how they have moved and gone to better neighborhoods (most of them) or bigger houses and then I started thinking about all the people that have come and gone to do ministry here in Charlotte and it's been much like the people in this hood. A lot of people have come in to do ministry, stayed for some time and then left somewhere else. Some people didn't have a choice in leaving, summer assignments don't last forever but even beside TWC students this has been a very transient neighborhood with very transient 614 leaders. The people that we ministered to when I first arrived are not at all the same people now. The first leaders of 614 (Rob and Heather) Charlotte are not the same leaders that now (Travis and Leo) and could be changing again after several months. That seems very peculiar to me. Your thoughts? Anyone...anyone...Beuller anyone...

I'm back...again

I’m back after a prolonged break but I have good reason for taking a break…actually it was a terrible reason but anyway the reason I haven’t blogged in over a month…again is because for some odd reason I couldn’t access my Google account and therefore couldn’t access my blog. I have wanted to comment on blogs and there has been things that have happened that I have wanted to blog about (but I probably don’t remember anymore) I just haven’t been able to. Obviously though on Thursday I had a breakthrough after a couple hours of going through all these different channels I got through.

The last thing I remember being on my mind to blog about was Youth Councils. That was fantastic. Youth Councils is always fun for everyone but I think the kids form our hood were definitely affected more than the others. I can’t say that as a fact but I do know that these kids left with more than just a T-shirt and a few memories of a fun weekend. At cell group that following Tuesday I asked them for their highs and low’s of Youth Councils. I thought I would hear the guys talk about how many girls numbers they got or who they were hollarin at or maybe they would say they liked dancing with Agape (or special guest rap artist) but they all really surprised me. Most of the kids remembered something from one of the speakers that affected them emotionally; it was something where they felt like it had a real meaning in their life. One of the kids told us (I was a witness to it) when Agape sang the song be my dad he just started to cry. He said it was awesome for him to realize that God is his father because he doesn’t know his biological dad and at Youth Councils he couldn’t say anything he just cried. I am still amazed when God can break down walls in a matter of seconds with one simple song that I hadn’t been able to get through for months. I had kids ask me to pray for them about issues in their home issues in their personal life and we had one guy who is a Muslim but at youth councils told Leo he wanted to be a Christian. That is supernatural to me. With everything happening like it was I couldn’t keep my composure anymore, after praying with a few of the guys I went back to my seat and I just started crying for them. After hearing their struggles and the things they were worried or scared of I couldn’t not cry; it was almost too much to handle, but God is bigger than that. Praise the Lord.