Wednesday was another great day for our team at Challenge. So many things I’d love to share with you, but some you will have to ask the team about since I cannot share them all here since the pillow is calling my name.
Technically, this happened Tuesday, but I was especially proud of one of our students who saw a homeless guy on the street and asked if there was something we could do for him. We gathered together some food and went to give it to him. His name is Rodney. We were able to visit briefly with him and pray for him. As a youth pastor, it brings great joy to my heart when students notice people with needs and respond with great compassion.
Matthew 25:35-36 “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.”
One of the things we have been very intentional about for this trip is scheduling time for the youth to work on developing a devotional habit. Michelle created a devotional for our trip that we are all doing each morning.
Wednesday morning while we were all doing our individual devotions, a young man came into our hotel and found his way to the room where we were at asking to use a phone to make a call. One of our leaders loaned her phone to him and as we overheard him talking we learned that he had made some poor decisions the night before involving too much alcohol and ended up losing his phone, car keys, glasses, and money. He got ahold of a family member to come help him out and in the mean time we were able to explain to him why we were in town and pray for him. His name is Robert. Another opportunity to show God’s love and compassion to someone.
Great teaching times in the morning and evening. Some fun recreation. Great discussions as a group during our Huddles after the teaching times involving some tears and hugs and even some contagious laughter as a entire group that was beautiful to share together as we watch the team bonding through sharing life together this week.
You can ask the youth what were the highlights for them, but one highlight from Wednesday was our Apex Experience where we got to enter a large area set up as though it were some countries in the Middle East. We learned about Lebanese culture and life and then we became refugees and had to flee and find water, shelter, and food for our individual families. It was a very meaningful and thought-provoking experience for our group and we were challenged to take some particular action steps in response when we go home. If you want to learn more about Apex Missions, check out their website HERE.
Happy Independence Day! We praise God for the freedoms we enjoy in this country because of the sacrifices many men and women have made. As we celebrate Independence Day we also remember that we are entirely dependent upon God as the source of life.
THE SOUL GARAGE 
Looks like you are all having a great time! We are praying on this end and can’t wait to here all the details about how God impacted your lives during the week 🙂