My son on a wall.

I took a walk with my son a few weeks ago and he decided to take a break by sitting on the wall outside of the developement that we live in. I clicked a picture with my phone camera and we had a nice talk on our walk home. It was a good day and I realize how important it is to spend time with my family. I pray I am able to be a Godly example to him as he grows into a young man. Until you read again...

Mission Possible One is now officially over for this year and I have to say it was an incredible experience to lead the group of teens this summer for six weeks. There were 3 girls and 6 boys and Christine Barrington was my co-leader for the girls. It seems like the six weeks went by really quickly as I look back at it now but, the memories of how God moved throughout this mission trip will last a lifetime. Now I have the task of seeking God's will for me in the future of Mission Possible. I know how ever or in whatever capacity I am used in Mission Possible in the upcoming year it will be a blessing and it will be worth while because I will have the privilege of sharing and sowing into the lives of our future Christian leaders. To update all of you on some of the events and things MP1 did this over the last six weeks I would like to begin with a brief overview of our schedule.

The first week we helped with VBS at Forcey Bible church.
The second week we helped out by volunteering at Camp Bennett.
The third week we preached to children at "Christ on the Mall" in DC.
The fourth week we conducted a childrens program in Langely Park.
The fifth week we went to Boston, MA and worked with the OAC branch.
The sixth week we went to Ocean City and preached on the boardwalk every night.

Now, I will get into some more details of each week. One of the highlights of the first week at VBS happened on Thursday because we were able to preach the gospel to over 240 children and many of the children made professions of faith in Jesus as their Savior that day! What a way to start the mission trip. In the second week at Camp Bennett it started out slow because they were not aware we were going to be there the week we were so not much was prepared for us to do. Although because of having more free time than expected we were able to spend a lot of time getting to know each other and coming closer as a team. Then again on Thursday we were asked to present the gospel and Chris, one of the teens, gave the message to over 60 children. Chris did a great job and the children were very attentive throughout the entire message. It appears that Thursday may have been significant during these first two weeks. Let's see if this pattern continues. The third week on July 4th, which happened to be a Monday (sorry no Thursday pattern here) God showed us how He works all things together for His good purpose. After a long day of preaching on the mall we went to a restaurant to get dinner prior to watching the fireworks and Jianna, one of the girls on the team, got sick from the food. She had a headache and stomach ache and some of the boys decided to ask some people if they had Tylenol. They asked this one young guy and he said " I may have some under the six pack of beer in my backpack." We this encounter turned into a really long and meaningful conversation and it turns out that this guy had previously went to church at the same church as one of the girls on the team. She was able to talk to him and encourage him to stop leading a life of sin and turn back to the Lord. He said he would go back to church and try to change how he had been living his life since he had compromised his faith. Praise the Lord for headaches. The fourth week was an incredible week throughout. We had great days of preaching the gospel to the children of Langley Park and I feel it had a lasting impact on many of the children's lives. Week five in Boston was incredible and words can't describe some of the powerful things God did in the lives of some of the team. Friday night we all went to Dunkin Donuts for our devotionals and by the end of the night two of the teens had re-dedicated there lives to Christ. It was such an awesome experience to see how God broke down walls in some of the teens hearts. Like I said I can not ever begin to describe the night except to say "God your are amazing." The final week in Ocean City was the pinnacle of the trip because we were able to share the gospel on the boardwalk every night and over 1000 people heard the message of Jesus Christ and Him crucified throughout the week. Also, one of the teens that re-dedicated her life to Christ got baptized in the ocean and Christine and I had the privilege of baptizing her while the rest of the team stood around us in a circle holding hands. So now I am home from Mission Possible One and looking towards the ministry God has for me here in Maryland but, I will be praying and seeking God's will for me as to how He will use me next year in Mission Possible. Until you read again....

Mission Possible update...

I mentioned a few post ago that I will be leading a Mission trip this summer and I wanted to update you and request pray for myself and the team members. We have met three times as a group to do some training in preparation for the summer and all of these trainings went well. Last week we had a meeting with the parents of the teens who are going on the trip and it was very productive. I am looking forward to leading this team of youth this summer along with Christine Barrington. Christine will be leading the girls on the team and I will be leading the boys although we will be working together Christine will primarily mentor, direct and supervise the girls and I likewise will do the same for the boys. We have 9 teens on the team and this is a relatively big team so your prayers are appreciated. I would ask that you pray that we have unity as a team and that every aspect of the trip from the traveling time on the highways to the meal preparation to the daily devotionals as a team to the ministry on the streets and boardwalk would glorify God and accomplish His purpose in our lives and the lives of the people we come in contact with and minister too.

We will be starting this mission trip on June 20th and it will run through the entire month of July. Many of the weeks I will be away from my family so, this also is something I would ask you to pray about. Laurie will be taking care of our new baby girl on her own as well as our 3 year old and our two older children. Please keep her in your prayers.

The mission possible team will have a blog post also if you would like to follow it you can do so by going to www.mp1summeractivitylog.blogspot.com. Your prayers are appreciated until you read again....

Staying connected...

It has been a few months since I last posted anything on this blog so I thought to myself I better post something to let all of those who follow this blog that it is still an active site. I am in the process of teaching my third evangelism class at Cornerstone Assembly of God, which is the church I attend. It has been a blessing to be able to share the gift of evangelism that God has given me with others. This third class is small in size but, I know with God it is not about numbers it is about obedience and I feel each person that is in this class is there because God has called them to come. We are going to be going out witnessing again at the end of the six weeks and I am praying that God will use this outing at the end of the class to excite and motivate the students to continue to use the things they have been taught in class. As I am going to be half way through this six week class next Wednesday I pray that I will continue to allow the Holy Spirit to work in me and through me to light a fire for evangelism in the hearts of many. To God be the glory for the great things He has done! Until you read again....

Praise God for the opportunity...

Hello all,

I just wanted to share some exciting news with you and ask for your prayers for me as I have been given an opportunity to be a leader of Mission Possible One. Mission Possible is a 6 week local missions trip for youth and I received an email today offering me the position to be a co-leader this year. I am looking forward to being able to encourage, equip, mentor, and help the teens develop a deeper walk with the Lord this summer. I am posting this so that many of you can pray that God gives me the wisdom and ability to lead these young people in a mission that will impact their lives in a way that will effect how they live after this mission. I will begin to prepare for this mission in the next week and continue to fine tune these plans throughout the next few months leading up to "Mission Possible One". Mission Possible One, MP1, will begin on June 20th and continue through the month of July. The responsibility that goes along with this position humbles me and encourages me because God has granted me favor with those whom chose the leaders and they saw something in me that caused them to chose me. The thing they saw was Christ, not me, because if they would have seen me I do not believe I would have been chosen for this position. It is only because they saw Christ through me that I have this privilege to lead and mentor these youth for the summer. I ask as I close this post that many of you please pray that I am able to lead this team in a manner pleasing and glorifying to God and that I continue to allow Christ to shine through me in all I do for the glory of the Him who sits on the throne and unto the Lamb. Until you read again....

Evangelism class outing...

As some of you may or may not know. I have been leading/teaching and Evangelism class at Cornerstone Assembly, which is my home church. The name of the class is Fishers of Men and it was held for 6 weeks. We learned and looked at many different ways to share your faith. We talked about the use of tracts, one 2 one evangelism, and using the "Way of the Master" techniques and many other ways to engage people in conversations about their faith or lack there of. We learned much in a short amount of time and my goal was to just give each person a taste, if I may, for the different ways to witness to individuals. So, last night was the final week the class was meeting and I decided to take them out onto the streets at local shopping plaza to let them practice some of the things they had learned in class. I feel practical application is very important, after all if you learn something and never use it what good is it.

Before I get to how the night actually went let me give you some background leading up to last night. I looked at the weather report on Tuesday in preparation for our witnessing outing and it was calling for rain Wednesday night. I had asked everyone the prior week to pray for good weather for Wednesday night so that we could have a good witnessing experience. Some of the individuals had never done anything like this before so I was honored to be able to help get them into the field to start planting seeds of the gospel into the lives of others. Hold on I am getting ahead of myself. So after I saw the weather report I began to think of a contingency plan in the event that we got rained out. The next day as I was driving into the office to meet with Tom, a friend and associate evangelist of mine, I hear on the radio that it is to start raining in the late afternoon and not stop until Thursday night. By the way as I type this it is now 5:34pm on Thursday night and it is still raining. By this time I am almost convinced that we are going to have to go witnessing another night and I have no other resources to share with the class and I do not want to just sit in class and stare at each other for an hour. I begin to think of some different things I can go over again so the night is productive class time spent. It is now 5:00 on Wednesday and it has been cloudy all day but, it still has not rained so I think maybe we still have a chance. 6:00 and it is time to drive to church. My son and I get in the car to drive to church and it is still very cloudy and overcast, I think those are basically the same thing, oh well. I hear other people say that all of the time. Cloudy and overcast, never really understood why it can not just be overcast or cloudy. Sorry, went on a tangent there. Ok, where was I, oh yes. We drove to church and it still did not rain. I am beginning to see why God allowed it to be cloudy for so long. Now trying to not belabor the point as if I haven't already. We arrived at church and I went to class after a few songs of praise in the sanctuary. (for anyone who is reading this who is not a Christian, sanctuary is the large room where everyone meets on Sunday for church service) I probably did not need to put that in but, you never know. We prayed as a group and I offered a few words of encouragement and then we got into our vehicles and headed over to Bowie Town Center. Abbey, another person in the class, had to drop his son off at the library so he told us he would meet us there. After we arrived our teams broke up and we headed off in groups of three to share with those that God brought into our paths. I walked with Jonas because, Abbey was not their yet. Jonas and I were able to hand out about 20 tracts between the two of us and had a good conversation with a young man named Cameron. Jonas was also able to have a conversation with a well dressed gentleman about his spiritual condition and asked him if he knew Jesus Christ as his Savior. The man stated he was Catholic and we could tell he had to go because he kept backing away as Jonas talked although, I know that God can use that conversation to stir this man's heart. We were limited on time due to the classes being over at 8:30 so we headed back to the church at 8:15 and just as we began walking to our cars to go back to the church it began to sprinkle on us. Praise the Lord! He held off the rain and everyone was able to experience the joy of sharing their faith with lost souls. As we arrived back at class everyone was excited and glad that they were able to go out and hand out tracts and share their faith. I told them all that I would be organizing another outing and would be sending an email to each of them if they wanted to go along. Everyone seemed interested and I just want to praise God for giving me the opportunity to teach and equip others through this class. One final note of praise is that I have the privilege of teaching this class again in two weeks to a new group of students. God is good and greatly to be praised. To Him be all honor and glory. Until you read again...

Saturday night reflections

So today was an eventful day to say the least. I went to my daughter's TBQ, Teen Bible Quiz, match and our 2 year old went along because we did not have any one to keep him. Usually my parents are able to watch him but, as circumstances would have it, ok not circumstances, as God would have it, my parents were still in PA. They have gone to visit my sister and have not returned yet. They are planning on coming back next week. Well, enough about my parents and on to what today really was about. So Zoran, our energetic, to say the least, 2 year old, soon to be three, went with us to Virginia for Zana's match. For those of you who do not know or have not figured it out, Zana, is my 14 year old daughter. Did I just say 14. Wow, how time flies and your children grow up. I can remember when she was just 5 and heading off to school for the first time and now she will be starting high school next year. Now where was I, sorry for digressing about time flying and the sort. Oh, yes. So we are going to the match and I realize that Zoran is not going to be able to sit in the rooms during the quizzing. My wife, Laurie, already thinking ahead has prepared a bag of things to keep Zoran occupied while I watch him in the main room, which happens to be the sanctuary for the children. Ethan, my 10 year old, is also going to help keep Zoran entertained during this day. We arrive at 8:55 and get out and go into the sanctuary. Don't worry, I am not going to take you step by step through the entire day, I will get to the main point soon so hang in there. The coordinator for the TBQ match has some brief announcements and introductory comments and after praying for the day all of the children, coaches, assistants, quiz masters, and officials head off to their rooms. So it begins, Zoran, Ethan and I are left in the sanctuary and only two other people are in this room with us. Time to start entertaining a very busy, active, energetic, almost three year old. I decide to break out the crayons and coloring book. This makes him content for almost 30 minutes. Now, only 5 and 1/2 hours to go. I think you can see where this is going? So, to bring the main point to light. The rest of the day did not go quite as well. I would have to say that I am not the most patient person and I sometimes over-react, or that is what Laurie says. So Zoran is being a typical, curious, energetic, active, almost three year old and I can't handle it. Most of my day is spent running after him, feeding him, making sure he does not break anything and then as I put him in the car at the end of the day and he is screaming because he dose not want to leave the fun of the playground that we discovered outside of the church. At that moment it is as if God shows up and clearly ask me. Does this remind you of anything? I had to ask myself how many times have you been having fun doing what makes you happy and then your heavenly Father has to come and take you away because He has a schedule and knows what is best for you at the time. Then you scream and cry because you don't want to listen and need I say more.....I think this day can show us all how we sometimes can be viewed as a almost three year old in God's eyes. Just something to think about, God bless until you read again.