CIY Move: Day 4

YAWN!!! (What day is it?) I know its 6:30am as I am typing this, but it feels like, like... its way too early to be up and the Holy Spirit wants us to all go back to bed for a while. We are having so much fun that there is absolutely no way we have been able to get enough sleep. It's hard to believe its a Wednesday.

Thanks to everyone who is praying for our group and all of the rest of the students, leaders, speakers, musicians, and workers here at CIY. Yesterday was a great day. Like I mentioned yesterday the theme was Godliness and the thing we heard over and over is that you don't TRY to be Godly, you TRAIN to be Godly. The more you train the better you are prepared to reflect God's character in any situation.

In our evening session the way they showed this to everyone was by having us right down a quality of God we wanted to be more apparent in our lives on a small hand mirror. We kept these mirrors with us all day to keep that in the forefront of our mind. Then in the evening session we took all of our mirrors to the front, and at the very end they had put all of the mirrors together into a giant Disco Mirror Ball that was reflecting light all over the room. It was a pretty cool example!

Another thing that I truly believe was an answer to prayer last night was some of the discipleship that I saw happening within our group. God tells us over and over again in the Bible, that we are supposed to love others because He has loved us. That love motivates us to do a lot of things. Mentoring others and helping them train to become more like Christ is one of those pivotal things that every Christ follower needs to get busy doing if they aren't already. I was so blessed to see our group doing that and talking about it yesterday.

The exceptional thing about that is that true mentoring and discipleship doesn't happen in a afternoon. It is something that honestly is pretty time consuming if you are committed to it. CIY yesterday challenged us to find somebody who could be our spiritual mentor and someone else we could mentor spiritually. Aaron, one of our adult leaders asked the group what they thought of that during our group time. Students said they felt challenged and excited. What happened next though rocked my socks off. One of our girls started talking about discipleship and mentoring with someone else who was already there! Our whole group got to take a front row seat to hear about all the lessons both the girls had learned from their time they had been in a mentor/mentoree friendship. The rest of the group got to see the evidence of growth and strength in these girls' faith (and it was evident). Please be praying that the students walk away from that moment and seek out a spiritual mentor, and also look back to students in our middle school who they can begin to pour into and help grow closer to Christ.

A couple of other awesome things. Last night our group also decided to dress up like superheroes. We had a blast and got some really good pictures too. We had a Smurf, a Tattoo Man (Sorry, but this student did use a sharpie), Batmans, a Jedi, Superwoman, Wonder Woman, Wolverine, GI Joe, and a few more that I'm forgetting. We had a great time and got some crazy looks.

The guys vs. the girls contest is still neck and neck 3.5-3 with the guys in the lead by a half point.

Please be praying for us today as I bet the tiredness really starts to kick in today. The conversations will really start to shift as well. We will all start talking about how we can continue to train ourselves to be Godly once we head home. Its really easy to focus in on God at a conference like this. Its once we get back in the swing of things with School, Work, Family, and Friends that it gets difficult. We start forgetting things we were truly passionate about, and we start making the bad mistake of trying to course correct on our own. Pray that our students would take steps today to put mentors and friends in their lives that are going to help them keep growing after CIY. Parents be praying and thinking too about how you can help support your son or daughter as they try and grow into the kingdom worker God wants them to be.

CIY Move: Day 3

It's 6:14 this morning. Our group is getting to sleep in a little bit longer today, because our breakfast time is not until 7:40 as opposed to it being 7am like yesterday. Thanks everybody for your prayers yesterday. We not only had an absolute blast throughout the day, we also had some pretty neat stuff happen.

Here is a random list of some of the notable things that have been going on:

*Last night I got word about one of the guys in my small group that Alicia and I have at our house. His name is Tyler and he is with the group from our church that is currently serving in Haiti on a mission trip building homes. His sister wanted us to know that he had just gotten baptized. Tyler is a great guy who has grown a lot spiritually the past few years, and we have all been praying for him and encouraging him a long the way. It was definitely something we passed on to the students and celebrated as a group. How awesome is our God!

*The focus yesterday was about truth, and the message last night was given by a guy named Mark Moore by video from an MMA fighting ring. It was pretty cool. He talked about how we need to be willing to get off the mat time and time again to share the truth about Jesus.

*Our group is having a good time with the Vuvuzuelas that we brought with us, although a few people have let us know that the World Cup is over and the horns are simply not cool anymore.

*Speaking of cool, yesterday afternoon we had a thunderstorm go through for a couple of hours and it was really nice because everything cooled off. The forecast today looks like we will be back in the hot weather though, which I think will be good because our group wants to get outside and play some games.

*The worship time continues to be good and challenging. The group really enjoys the worship leader here. His name is Aaron Pelsue if you wanna youtube him and check some of his music out.

*Our challenge last night coming out of the final session was to come up with one name of someone we were going to share the truth of Jesus with in the next week. The students really stepped up to the challenge and wrestled with that decision. From our group time last night I can tell you that they aren't taking the challenge lightly. Be sure to talk about it with them when they get home. Parents especially, be sure to be praying for them and encouraging them in this Kingdom Challenge.

*In the guys vs girls contests after our group time last night, the girls rallied and won the contest to tie our overall record at 1-1. I am also going to try to upload some pictures soon, but I keep forgetting to grab the camera to get the memory card to the computer. I'll try and remember, but seriously I mean the Sun hasn't even come up yet...

Please Be Praying:

As the week goes on, students will start to wear down and get tired. Pray that it doesn't keep them from meeting God every opportunity they get.

The them for today is Godliness and how our lives should reflect God's Kingdom in the world around us. Pray that the students hear from God and are open and honest throughout today. I can tell you that our adult leaders have been having some great conversations with our students, and we hope that continues to be the case.

CIY Move: Day 2

Well its 5:40am right now and day 2 of CIY is just beginning. Last night was an incredible time for everybody. The theme for the night was grace, and it was clear to see that our group was being lifted up in prayer. Everyone was involved during the worship time lead by Aaron Pelsue, and the speaker Tim Grey did a great job of sharing what Jesus' grace is all about.

At this point I have no clue what time the girls went to bed, but the guys ended up all in their beds with the lights out just at 12:30am. In just a few minutes I'll pop my head back in the room and make sure everyone is getting up, because we have an early 7am breakfast today. You didn't realize your kids were capable of getting up this early during the summer did you?

My prayer for this week hear, is that our group would be authentic before God and each other. As we all try and do that I also hope and pray that His Spirit moves in our lives in a life-changing way that causes us to know Him in new ways, and to join others in His kingdom work. You can be praying for us today as we talk about Truth and how Jesus and the Bible should be our source for truth. It looks likes its going to be a great day, and we appreciate all of your prayers.

Here are a couple of highlights from last night:

*Guys vs. Girls: Each night we are having a contest that pits are guys and girls in a friendly competition. Last night our group faced off with each other by having a twinkie eating contest. The twist to the contest though was each round a guy and a girl were blindfolded and had to find their twinkie to eat it. Their group helped them find it, but their other clue was each twinkie either had ketchup or mustard. They guys had the ketchup ones and the girls had mustard. The guys came from behind to win 3-2. It was pretty gross to watch.

*I really loved watching how the group interacted on the ride and here at Lee yesterday. They trust each other and enjoy hanging out with each other. I think that will add to the impact God can have on them this week. Thanks for praying!