RIVER OF LIFE

ROL- Ringgold, GA June 23-27

5 days of no sleep. a lot of sun. and a lot of sweat. a little bit of food. hopefully plenty of water. and maybe some sunscreen.

this is probably going to be interesting.

After our refreshing 3 day break...........we returned to Athens to head out for Ringgold. A little chit chat with Daniel and Katie Simmons helped get the team back on track..and with keeping our goals of staying unified and communicating like shiny new factory machines. although, we are 6 very, very different machines.

but... working with each other's differences actually ties in really well with this weeks theme at the River of Life- Parts and Service
tonight we had this hilarious, "theologian", Irish, Chicago-ian?? guy talk to us about how "There Is A Car"

and this car is the body of christ.

and this car has different parts.

and well...if you didn't know what was coming..we are the different parts.

the week is mainly going to focus on 1 corin 12:12-20..tonight he only took it as far as we must accept that there is a car. it does exist. and unless you do not believe in jesus you are in this car/a part of this car with everyone else that believes in jesus. and we might talk differently. smell differently. take communion in a different way. sing different songs...but. we all do this in the same car. but it's a bumpier ride and a seemingly smaller and cramped car if we aren't flexible with what other parts/people do that aren't like our own kind.

so. this week. each of "The Six", as they call us here, are on a different work site during the day and we lead a different small group at night. this all just started tonight so most of the kids were quiet and very awkward like a normal teenager should be. so i guess all i good. and God is good. and we love you.

Nuclear War Bombs and Glitter

ATTENTION: WE HAVE LEFT WHIGHAM

we no longer live in a trailer on a cow pasture.

as we embark on our short break we can recall the past 3 weeks that has been Crossfire 2010 thus far.

Most recently, Whigham, GA. We led a VBS and youth group at night.
It was kind of difficult because a lot of their youth group was out of town so we only had about 8 or 9 kids per night. We tried to just speak the truth of the gospel to them and then break into small groups for a more comfortable conversation atmosphere. The last night one of the girls really heard God speak to her so it was really encouraging to leave on that note!

The kids destroyed the arts and craft room. Whigham UMC will never be without at least one little speck of glitter for the rest of it's existence. We had them make puppets, name tags, and tshirts and they put glitter on absolutely everything...we should probably apologize to the parents for that. ha.

Yesterday, we got to rent out the local theater in Cairo (about 8 miles from Whigham) and watched The Princess and the Frog with the little kids. They loved it. ....and candy and popcorn and soda they got...It really made me want beignets. ahhhh yum.


Richmond Hill
Well Dagum, We.love.you.
This youth group really gave us so much encouragement in what we're doing this summer. I think this is a place we all can say we really connected with at least one kid on a deeper level. ah, we just miss you so much.

Kolomoki
Blakely, GA. You gave us more bug/spider bites than I could have thought would be possible to live through. But somehow we've managed. We saw things really change for kids there and it was a perfect way to start off our summer. This is also where Kyle got stalked on an hourly basis by my cabin of 9-11 year old girls.


Whigham quotes-

"I'm just thinkin'...'bout nuclear war bombs..just one would blow up all of grady county"- Ian..5th grade
"How am I supposed to be good people if I'm just yellin' at my mama all day?" - 6 yr old Madison
"WELL THAT'S JUST WHAT THEY CALLED 'EM IN THE BIBLE" -John David (the most ridiculous child I've ever met in my life)...referring to "ass" as in a donkey...as the conversation went from talking about the gospel to if the Bible had any cuss words.....

You just go and I'll make you move

Crossfire 2010 boys are learning to dance this summer.

Daniel is a country boy at heart. he says.

Michael will never run out of Jewish jokes about Judi

Kyle loves singing with other people and learning new things

Stephanie is afraid of the dark

Judi has only told her mom one lie. when she was 7. about hiding candy in her closet and eating it before bed......

kyle, daniel, and i will be starting a country/folk band after the summer. it will be heaven to your ears. just wait.

hi

we love you

i want to take you to the movies. shawty.

cross fi ya

daniel is like an onion of skills. we find out he can do incredibly random things every day. such as beat boxing. the stanky leg. hip hop dancing in general. harmonizing.guitar. shaving his legs the letters of Xfire. disappearing like a ninja. showing up like a ninja.

stephanie knows and can do every type of dance move. except the jerk. but it will be learned and perfected by august.

we decided if john, paul, and peter were trying to learn how to drive a manual car for the first time it would go something like this:

--Peter wouldn't ask for directions. he would just go for it.

--Paul would read the manual. front to back. and would then write a letter to all of those who didn't read the manual..

--John would observe their mistakes and what succeeded and go from there.

we are living in a double wide this week. in the middle of a cow pasture. no, i am not joking.

this double wide has 2ducks. 1deer butt/tail. 5fish. 1 set of bear claws. and 9deer. mounted on the walls. and if you stand in the middle of the living room 5 of the deer are looking at you. creepy? absolutely.

Whigham, Ga....is that even a real place?

Yes, Whigham, GA does exist. sort of near that one little town and by that other little town in south Georgia near that field of cotton. yeah. about there.

Tonight we were introduced to our 3rd adventure. Whigham United Methodist Church.

Our task:
VBS and a Youth Group.

VBS--We decided on the theme for "The Painted Gospel" for VBS..as in imagine a bible. and the words being painted in it.. in the colors gold- for god. black- for our sin red- for the blood of jesus and white- for us being made new.

tonight the kids basically covered the crafts room in glitter..ran around playing freeze tag..and being sassy with Michael during him trying to teach them about God. great success.

The Youth--there is definitely a lot we can give back to this group. We think we're just going to show them the gospel as best as we can. Tell them where everything started and who Jesus is and why He came..etc. A lot of the kids have only been coming to church for a month now. A lot of kids are out of town for the week. Some come because their parents are forcing them and they just see church as this horribly boring place that has nothing for them..thus. we have 8 kids in our youth group this week. 6th-10th grades.

I really feel led to just serve these kids all week. To show them that there is a love so big that doesn't require anything in return from them. They don't have to fix themselves to be worthy of this love...or go to church so many times a week to be saved. I want to encourage them and love them so that they have to ask how we can give them so much and all we can say is because God did the same thing for us.

Please pray for us this week!! There is so much good that God could offer to this town and we have been put in a position of bringing His Spirit here this week. We pray against any distractions like sickness or lack of unity in our team.

Quotes

--"If I had a super power, I would have my belly button talk back to me......because I'm lonely"- Oscar, age 9

--"God is like a daddy...but with hair....on his legs"- Madison, age 6

Purity, Messy Games, Beach

It's been awhile since I've written so this will either be super long or super short because I'll get tired of remembering everything...although, it has all been great.

So Purity talk. Michael gave the message which went great ..some of the younger kids probably didn't really know what was going on, but one day they will so we just went with it. We split the girls and guys up into two groups and then Jack(the youth director) went to the girl group and I went to the boy group. We had met earlier to go over a few questions that each group had written for a person of the opposite sex to answer. A few of the questions I was given to answer were:

"Why are we always wrong?" --because you just are : )
"Why do girls play hard to get?"
"What makes a guy appealing to a girl?"
"What makes a guy repulsive to a girl?"
"What are the leader's views on divorce in Christianity?"

The girls asked the questions:

"What do girls do that distract guys from God?"
"Is it easier for you to focus on God if we dress modestly?"
"Do you notice a girl's physical appearance first or confidence/personality?"
"Do you think the way guy's talk/joke will affect the way they view women?"


These were great questions and we were so glad they took the time to think of them. After the big group meetings, Jack and I returned to our own gender groups and we divided them all into small groups and then went over anonymous questions we had asked them to write down the day before. We answered questions about how to deal with rumors, what is God's definition of a pure relationship, what is the true meaning of purity..etc. We saw an awesome response from the youth that night so that was really encouraging for us as a team.



Thursday-- MESSY GAME DAY
soooooo wonderful. and disgusting. and i'm still getting clean from this epic day.

we had:

Peanut butter face- cover a team members face with a jar of peanut butter and the rest of the team must eat it off with pieces of bread

Cheeto toss- a team member must cover their face with shaving cream while another spits cheetos out of their mouth.
Condiment twister- ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, chocolate syrup
BBQ shirt- the team line up in a straight line and must put an XTRA large tshirt covered in bbq sauce on each member of the team.
Over/Under- Beach ball covered in maple syrup must go over and under each person's head in the line
Banana Panty hose- a member of each team puts panty hose over their face and must push a chewed up banana through the panty hose (this was my lovely job of the day)
Bob for Hotdogs- A kiddie pool of soggy cornflakes in water. whoever could dip their head in the pool and find 4 hotdogs with their mouth first, wins. ...for the record. one of the kids threw up in the pool while attempting this. it was truly disgusting.
Messy Kickball- 3 bases and home plate.
1 base- oatmeal, water, peeps.
2. base- mashed potatoes, cream of mushroom soup, flour kool aid
3. base-soggy bread, red koolaid, flour
home plate- soggy cornflakes, pork and beans

you had to sit --butt completely IN-- the pool to be counted safe. and the ball was greased down in cooking oil and choloate syrup.


Thursday night theme-- Life and Faith
Jack was a new youth director at Richmond Hill UMC so we thought it was a good idea to ask him to be a part of this Youth Week and so he gave the message that night. We also wanted to give the kids a prayer/ministry night. The kids LOVED this. We got them to spread out throughout the sanctuary and Jack led them through prayer about their lives. It was so great and we saw them really connect with God and they were also able to get prayer from the Crossfire team.


Friday- BEACH DAYYYYY- 8 hours at the beach. ninja slap in the water- botchi ball- sand couches- and hour long question and answer get to know you game- priceless day.

we loved this church so much and pretty much all had tears in our eyes leaving.....aww

Up!

Richmond Hill.

Yesterday was a typical crossfire day. Evolution game, Cherado, Amoeba tag....the usual.

Judi gave a talk and used the metaphor of " you can have the W in the Win column in sports but it doesn't show how you played the game. So don't just check it off your list if you are saved because there is so much more to it than that"

We all pretty much passed out last night. Yet again, sleep is hard to come by. Last night we had our video scavenger hunt Which was crazy. Parents drove us all around Richmond Hill and we had to do things from buying and shoving and entire Butterfinger in our mouthes and say "No one better lay a finger on my Butterfinger" to acting out a scene from Finding Nemo at the Amphitheater....we sang happy birthday to a few people in some McDonald's....said our Pledge of Allegiance at the War Memorial Park...my team lost. Stephanie's won. go figure.

This morning Kyle, Judi, and I lead some worship and Stephanie did a killer monologue. It..was just amazing.

Right now, I sit in the youth room with my little Shannon and Braden beside me and we are watching Up! (which is a favorite among us)..the rest of the youth is also here...i should probably say that. Braden can kill some Lecrae raps and dance.

Soooooo yes. I suppose that is all. Tonight is our purity talk and we've had anonymous questions written for us to answer with our separate girl and guy groups. We also have questions for the opposite sex leaders to answer. Should be an interesting night...




Quotes

"Hey Judi, if your husband ate a ton of shrimp, would you still kiss him?"- Michael. (Judi is Jewish)

" Hunter, I'm going to light your ginger head on fire"- Michael

A Kolomoki left over- "Are you going to be in the talent show?"- Me " Yeah, I'm going to get my mom to bring my camouflage cat, Sandy"- Andrew, maybe age 8. "Oh, is it a stuffed camouflage cat?"- Me "No, it's Sandy! My camouflage cat..."- Andrew

Romans 15

Romans 15:5 May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, 6 so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ

Bacon is good for me

Richmond Hill, GA....

very similar to Cordele, GA but with a Publix AND a Kroger, what???

Yesterday afternoon we set off to meet the youth of Richmond Hill United Methodist and travel an hour-ish away to Epworth by the Sea ( my favorite little place in Georgia from high school) for the Main Event with the Gathering Place. We worshiped together with a few hundred other youth and got a message from the Georgia Tech Chaplain..I think his name is Ernie?..not so sure

So today. at a bright an early 8am we woke up to get prepared for our first official day with the youth. We played some random game Judi remembered from her temple at home so we enjoyed that..

We also gave the youth a chunk of time we called "The Hot Seat" where they could call us up one by one and ask us any question they wanted to get to know us better. The results were Michael(Pez) answering a question in his British Pirate-ish accent. Kyle avoiding doing his Jamaican accent. Me being given a big mouthed "NO" from the youth director when I answered that I my favorite jokes were about Helen Keller. Daniel beatboxing. 4 of the Crossfire members discovered 2 in 1 shampoo/conditioners are bad for your hair. and lastly...Daniel performing the stanky leg. yes.that really happened.

So after that fun little adventure I had the first talk this morning. I spoke on "The Secret Place". I have been doing the summer intern reading for Wesley and one of the books is "Secrets of the Secret Place" and I realized it was a topic that I had never heard about in high school or middle school...or if I did I for sure didn't remember it. So with Matthew 6:6 I just went through what Jesus says about it and that God promises us that He waits for us there...and that He is worthy of us taking the time to sit with Him and shut out distractions. Sooooo yes. then we sang wonderful songs played by Kyle.

Round 2 tonight.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2T_obaO46Bo

Savannah gets healed

To preface this we all went out to eat at Doc Chey's the night before we left for Kolomoki. As you know everyone gets a fortune cookie. Most were silly but Daniel's said "God will give you everything you want."

Leaving Kolomoki Daniel had a horrible wrist infection. Terrible back and neck problems and areas of discoloration on his leg. The nurse told him he needed to go to an immediate care facility and get medicine for the infection because it could be staff (I mentioned this is a previous blog). We prayed a few times at the camp for it but didn't see any change in the infection so we figured we'd get him to the doctor once we got to Savannah.

This morning we decide to just keep praying for it before we left to get it looked at. no change. we prayed for a new skin to just be given in the place of this infection..etc. We also prayed for his legs to be made the same length again because that causes a lot the back pain that he has...so.we take him to the doctor and was told it looked like staff but they couldn't be sure unless they cut into it and they didn't want to do that but he was given steroids and an antibiotic for all of his ailments.

So later in the day the 3 of us girls hear the boys screaming outside and running around like complete crazy people in the street and we of course go see what ridiculous thing they have come up with to be entertained by...

it turns out, Daniel's legs have been made the same length. then. Michael's legs were also made the same length. then kyle's legs were made the same length. so we gave it a go on Judi and her legs were made the same length.

so the boys left to go on a journey/walk around this sketchy neighborhood. they were just elated in their healings/bone growth. then, they see these 3 people and as they walk by

kyle says "Hey"

and one of the 3 says "Do I know you from somewhere?"

and then Daniel just bursts out "Do you have any back pain?"

the guy says "no" but had a strange expression.

So Kyle asked if he had any other problems and he says "Heart murmurs, bad dreams, and depression, ADHD"

They prayed for him and he asked if they were missionaries and they said no we're just ordinary people.

he said he had gotten a txt from his pastor that day about repentance and he's been pushing the lord away. so they kept praying for him for peace and his heart and parents, all of that.

Kyle received a word about his parents and they talked about that and eventually it all led to the guys praying for him to receive God in his life/maybe rededicated his life to Christ. The guys said he was just glowing and said thanks and they left each other after exchanging numbers.

so then the boys come home and tell us all about what happened and just how crazy it was. so we started praying for Daniel's wrist again. and we prayed for awhile and we just felt led to keep going with it. it was such a bad infection and it seemed like the redness was kind of going away a little bit. so about 30 minutes of that we decided to pray for his back again too. so all of our hands and his back just got flaming hot and Daniel gets up and can move and bend all of the ways he couldn't before. it was insane. he bent over and just put his hands on the floor with no pain.

Also, in the middle of praying for Daniel's wrist Stephanie's MASSIVE spider bite starts burning on her leg like crazy and after we got done and looked at it and the swelling had gone COMPLETELY down and was just a tiny little red dot instead of a huge swollen bite with gross stuff all in it.

So after all of the praying for the new skin for Daniel's wrist and such and his back being healed he goes "I'm just going to peel this infected skin off." which is what the doctor didn't want to do because if it was staff it could spread more. So he goes into the bathroom and starts pealing and sure enough...completely new, uninfected skin underneath it. How insane. It was the craziest thing I've ever seen.

Then after that.......Stephanie's dad and mom come to bring us pizza and her dad has been suffering for 20 years with degenerative back disease and is constantly in pain. So we decided we were just going to pray for that too. And for real. his pain left. this just added to this already spirit filled/awesome night.

we all grew so much yesterday, individually and as a group.

so today, we went to the beach. got burnt. the end.

also, this post might need editing for more details later so yeah...just FYI

randomly at dinner---"songs about the heart are always beautiful and artistic....but if someone wrote a song about your liver whats the first thing you think of?"-Michael. " drinking"-Erica "exactly"-Michael

Narwhals

IMAGINE: you are sitting down. a precious little 5 year old girl comes running up to you. lips shivering with a completely distressed look and she starts crying and says " I asked my teacher if I could go to the bathroom but she said no, so now I'm peeing in my pants"

I look down and sure enough...a puddle starts to form on the floor.

so anyways. we are leaving Kolomoki Youth Camp today. I have realized 9-12 year old girls will scare you, aggravate you, surprise you, embarrass the crap out of you, and bless you in more ways you'll ever think.

We had the camp talent show last night and got a poem/song about Narwhals, a karate match, a 8 year girl, Carol, WROTE her own for real song named "Jesus By My Side" and sang it, many variations of a comedy act, a hotdog eating contest, leaps through the chapel onto the stage, and my very own cabin 1 did a reenactment of Jesus rising from the tomb to "Eye of the Tiger".

Also, for anyone who knows me, I MET MY ELLIOT. I always said if I decide to have my own kid/s I want a boy who has reddish curly hair, freckles, and he will love insects and science and all sorts of stuff like that and I will name him Elliot. Well.. there is a little 7 year old boy named Michael James Smith who has reddish curly hair, freckles, and he is the smartest kid I've ever met. We dug in the mud together yesterday and found some worms....then chased down a lizard he named Tied and we carried him to lunch with us. It's pretty much perfect.

Quotes-- "I don't have a talent...unless you count playing video games" -"elliot"

"LET'S DO IT"- Daniel Robinson

salvation is here and it lives in me

today kind of started out like yesterday. us. a lot of time to plan for. and even more little kids with so much energy our heads kind of spin.

we did our usual devotional, water recreation, and craft time. then went for a nature walk through the woods and learned about the fascinating wildlife in the kolomoki campground. our group of girls just loved hearing about which leaves you can't touch and how to look for fat lighter on a dead pine tree.........yep. that hour was super fun.

however, tonight was something none of us could have planned for.

because of the amount of stuff we are having to do here we figured we would utilize the junior counselors and ask one of them to give a message to the older campers. i randomly asked one of the girls, abby, to do it and she agreed happily..

so she starts off with the lyrics "salvation is here and it lives in me" and the importance of living that out in our lives...in understanding that being saved leads us to be examples for other people..and that we aren't worthy of even having salvation so how wrong is it to not speak about our faith that we have so graciously been given when we have opportunities to.

she just really hit home and god spoke through her words in such a powerful way..we honestly did not see this coming. the usual "emotional" night is the light night and here comes abby with this awesome message and we really saw the kids come into a greater understanding of god.

our team has done some reevaluating of sorts and we know that to finish out the next two days and to serve the kids the way they deserve we have to go to god in prayer for all of the things we give to them. in planning devotionals, skits, games, spending time being weird with them. we just have to be doing this all out of an overflow of our fellowship and fulfillment with god.

so yeah. it was a great night. and we just thank god for all that he's doing in this camp.

favorite quote of the day-- " is hair actually a real part of your body?"- carly miles, age 6