Week 2 & 3

First of all sorry for the longer time period between the two posts, but I was mostly lazy when I had some down time. Another excuse is that we were pretty busy. you choose the one you believe. But on another note these past two weeks have been super awesome! The kids were not super amazing in either week, although there were definitely a bunch of awesome kids there each week, but just as a leader group we had a great time hanging out with each other.

So week two is typically referred to as Moody week because it's generally when the Moody Bible Institute tries to bring it's staff here to teach and everything. And much like last year, this week was pretty rough for each everyone. Not so much because the kids were coming from a hard background or that they were constantly struggling with anything, but because typically they were pretty quite. To give an example, Sarah Williams, another one of the teen leaders from UC, said that in one question that she counted to 30 after asking the question and no one had even made a sound to answer. Not even a cough, or hiccup.

So needless to say it was a frustrating week for everyone, and my week was no different from theirs. I had the 11 and 12 year olds that week and I was pleasantly surprised that they talked a fair amount, but it was super evident that we were so far apart and I couldn't relate to them at all in their lives. But I definitely feel like it was a week full of planting seeds in those kids life, so for that I was thankful. But outside of the teens there was a lot of tension between the staff which made it hard to keep focused on the kids constantly, but we were able to come together by God's grace and we were blessed to see the fruit of it all in the end of the week at the prayer tower.

So after that week we took a trip to Chicago and had an awesome day spent there trying our best to capture the Chicago experience, and I think we came pretty close. We started the day by doing visiting Millennium Park and the Bean before going to the Chicago Art something or the other. It's not the Chicago Museum, but it's something close to that. We then ate at a small bar called Rudy's by Millennium park, and did the Magnificent Mile for pretty much the whole afternoon. We managed to get some Chicago styled pizza from the best place ever, Giordanos, and finished out the day at Navy Pier. So overall a solid day in the Windy City.

The week after was another really special week as we had a guest speaker, Greg Speck, who is a really awesome speaker who focuses on speaking first and foremost to teens, but doesn't dumb things down so much that they are unrelatable to the adults. So would definitely call him a family speaker. And man he is AWESOME!! He was such an awesome blessing for myself, the other leaders, but most importantly for the kids this week. he was funny, charming, and serious enough to get across his important message when he needed, and it definitely changed my life. So for a long time I had been struggling to find out having a pure heart instead of a heart of stone and he spoke on Monday night and he was able to pray over me to help me replace my heart of stone. And for that I am so blessed and thankful that he was here. And he was truly amazing for the rest of the week as well. So if anyone wants to figure out who he is look him up on youtube, he is really really awesome.

And so this past weekend we had some of our friends from UC come up here and visit us and it was so much fun. Two of the people, Shelbye and Hannah, were teen staff members with me last year and it was so amazing to see the joy and wonder that they had on their faces when they got here and just through the whole weekend. And you know it was really refreshing, and also a huge reminder as to what our duty is for us here, to be awesome. Now that kind of sounds cocky and all, but that's what it's all about. For some people this is their favorite place to come every year, and we should try and do our very best to be able to make it as much for them. So for those of you reading this, I would love so much for you guys to keep all of us in your prayers. For us to be encouraged and reminded constantly that God loves us more than we can bear and that we should be turning that love back out to the kids and other guests. Thanks always.
Jon

The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still.

                Exodus 14:14

Week 1

Hey all, or whoever ends up reading this, but I wanted to be able to stay in contact with everyone and allow you guys to be able stay in "contact" with me. My schedule is kind of crazy, so it's hard for me to stay in contact with everyone, and I just figured that this would be one of the easiest ways to keep you all in the loop.

So this past week was the first week we had with the kids, and it was hectic to say the least. But I mean that is kind of expected seeing as only two of us are returning teen staff, but I definitely think that God worked in some awesome ways here this week. I know for me that my guys, I had 13-14 year old guys this week, were often hesitant to open up about what they were being asked, but to be fair, they are 13 and 14. People really aren't asking questions of them to explain why they feel a certain way or explain their answers, at least I don't think...., and so it would make sense that they would be hesitant. But I could definitely tell that god was working in the conversations that we had through out the week. And although I felt like I didn't see a whole lot of fruit coming from the week, I could tell that my role was definitely to be a see sower in these guys lives.

And I was also blessed to able to be put in a place be a mentor to another one of the guys that came this week. As always the Prayer Walk and Prayer Tower ceased to amaze me in the power that God worked in them, and he really laid it on the guys heart about some stuff, so I was able to talk with him briefly and he let me know that he was in a really low spot in his life. And so after praying with him I was able to sit down with him for another three hours and talk about it and just kind of talk about some of the things that were mutually going on in our lives. And so I was incredibly blessed to be able to do that with him, and if he reads this; man I am definitely praying for you about everything, and I just hope that God works so incredibly in your life and especially in the upcoming month.

But this week is Moody week, which means in a new group of kids, so I would just ask that you would pray for the staff and the kids, especially the girls, because last year was really hard for the girls. But I would also like some prayer because on Wednesday, hopefully, or Thursday I will be speaking and I would love for it to be very evident that God is speaking and not myself. But yeah, welcome to a little in sight into my life.

          Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed.
          1 Peter 1:13

Also thanks to Ryan Chimney for the awesome picture for the background of this!!