I just got back from the third night of our presentation called “Shocked with the Truth: a journey toward healthy choices.”  At the end of the presentation about drugs and alcohol abuse by Junior, we watched the following video.  Powerful stuff.

I got to go back to the home church and lead worship at First Assembly yesterday for the morning and evening services, and it was a blast. Not much in this world infuses me with passion like leading others in the worship of Christ, and to get to do it with a great team of musicians and singers makes it that much more life-giving. Pastor Chris has done a great job building a team of worshipers and that made it easy to step in for him while he’s getting started on the dad journey after the birth of little Raegan Marie.

Some of the things that I experienced for the first time during my week at the Appalachian District Youth Ministry Junior High Camp in Ghent, West Virginia were:

1) Noodle Hockey. That’s a picture from one of the games and it is, without a doubt, a surprisingly intense game. It’s the kind of game that guys think up when they have a bunch of water noodles, a round nerf ball, and some free time. Knee injuries, scratches, blood. Yeah, it’s the perfect youth camp game.
2) Carpet Ball. If you don’t know what it is, here’s a long, cheesy video that at least shows how it’s played. I’m happy to say that I at least won about as much as I lost.
3) Speed stacking. Check out this segment from a recent Early Show on CBS to see the “sport” if you haven’t before. I’m happy to say that my best time was 0.84. Of course, I only moved a stack of cups from one side of the mat to the other. There was actually no stacking involved.

I also got to spend a week with some of the best students in the Appalachians. A number of salvations, rededications, Holy Spirit baptisms, and genuine calls to ministry. God did amazing things.