Wow, what a great weekend. Our new leaders (and returning vets) were absolutely amazing, and the middle school students had a blast camping, playing together, jumping in worship, getting totally sloppy, and hanging out at Lakemont Park. We’re off to a good start. I got to talk with a couple of young men about their commitment to follow Jesus, and his offer of forgiveness and new life. Now that’s cool!

The downside of camping in the rain and shouting over the din of a herd/bevy of middle schoolers is that my voice was nearly shot for leading worship Sunday morning. The upside is that once we got started, the folks at the TOTALLY JAMMED 11:00 service barely needed me to sing. They were SO LOUD!

Kim and I (with some help from Levi!) set up 8 of the tents from the weekend in our front yard Sunday afternoon. It’s a bad idea to put tents away wet, so we let them dry out, then took them all down and stored them.

Sunday night was our night to meet the parents of our high schoolers, and introduce them to the small group leaders, which I forgot to do…oh well. We did little Cell Phone Shootout–a text-off, which was won handily by a high school girl. Kim and I have to get with the program and get a text package.

One of the coolest things for this year is that our high school worship team will be comprised of students for the most part. Jake, APons, Maryn, and Ronnie did a great job of leading worship, and I am jacked about them learning and leading this year.

Today Kim and I met with Theresa, one of the leaders in our church. She came over to the house to talk about a sabbatical proposal for me for some time next year. I think God has something special planned for me!

I also finished reading The Shack today. I know that I’m a little late to the party, but it is a great read.  It made me want to hug my kids a little tighter today!

I’m pumped about this year!