So, first things first, 5,000 postcards.
This month has been the month of recruiting volunteers. Actually we recruit volunteers year round however, in our Early Childhood and Preschool departments we are very short in volunteers and in order to get above water we needed 200 more volunteers. I know, 200. It's a crazy number for me to comprehend as well. With that being said there was one weekend where we were supposed to have an announcement given from the stage about the upcoming trainings we had. Due to some unforeseeable circumstances the announcement didn't happen. The result. Print, copy, and cut 5,000 postcards to pass out at the doors for Sunday morning services. Then this resulted...
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Yes, that's 5,000 postcards. But one cool story of this whole happening. The following weekend while working in kiosk, a big burly man with a mohawk comes up to us holding a postcard from the previous week and tells us that a woman dove out of her way to hand him this postcard. He then said that this must be God giving him sort of sign to attend training and get involved in Summit at church. We then directed him to the leader training room. We ended up getting 110 people at our training. Not the number we were looking for but we are incredibly thankful for the people who have committed to showing Christ's love to the kids of Summit.
Now onto the 90s dance party.
This past weekend I had the opportunity to go CO3, a conference for Young Adults, up the mountain in Estes Park at the YMCA. To say that this weekend was awesome would be an understatement. It was filled with laughter, tears, food, bad coffee, good coffee, little sleep, and deep real conversations with people I just met on Friday. Each session was powerful and convicting. I left each session having learned something new. However, there was one in particular that really resonated with me. It was Sunday morning and the young adult pastor from a church in Boulder was speaking. He gave a talk on the prodigal son but with more emphasis on the older son than is usually given when this parable is preached. As I listened to the sermon I found myself relating more to this story than I ever have before. Typically, I hear about the younger son who asked for his inheritance, basically saying, "Dad, I wish you were dead so I can have your money." The he runs off, screws his life up, spends all his inheritance, then comes back home and is welcomed with open arms and grace. Meanwhile the older son has lived at home and has obeyed his parents and wonders why his parents would throw a party for his runaway brother rather than reward him for obeying his parents and not running way. This is what got me. I was the good kid growing up. Don't get me wrong though, I did plenty of bad stuff in my life too. But I was the kid who followed the rules because I didn't like getting into trouble with my parents. Then just today while reading One Way Love by Tullian Tchividjian I read this, "I was building my own identity, my own righteousness, but this time it was a religious "Christian" righteousness, an identity of being the good son." WOW! Talk about a great tie in to the session from yesterday morning. This is what I have done in my own life from time to time. I created this persona of I'm a good Christian because I follow the rules making it seem like I have it all together when I reality I have created righteous identity that says I follow the rules so you should too. This is not the person I want to be. Then I read in One Way Love a few pages later about having to be able to balance out grace with law. If we have too much grace we need more law, if we have too much law we need more grace. The downfall is that when we are perfectly balancing the two it keeps us from experiencing the Gospel of grace. Now, I bet you are wondering what 90's Dance Party has to do with any of this. Well, to close out Saturday night we danced the night away with 90's music and 90's jumpsuits.
Last but not least, Ravencrest.
9 years ago, the summer between 8th grade and my freshman year of high school, I went on a trip with my youth group to Ravencrest Chalet in Estes Park, CO. This trip was very influential in the person I am today. Actually, had I not gone in this trip I probably wouldn't have gone to Taylor, wouldn't have gotten involved in ministry, and wouldn't be living in Colorado today. You see, it was at Ravencrest that I recommitted my life to the Lord after one of the toughest years of my life. I decided during my 8th grade year that I was too cool for my friends at school resulting in having no friends at school. Then I badly twisted my ankle resulting in no more softball for the season. Then to put the icing on the cake my grandfather passed away two days before my graduation from middle school thus taking me into the darkest point of my life when I wanted to nothing to do with God because I was putting the blame on him for taking my friends, softball, and my grandfather away from me. Then I went to Ravencrest. I remember there was one night in which I sat on a rock outside to have a quiet time. It was in that moment when I realized the brokenness that I was living in and how I needed Jesus to be the center of my life again. I can't even begin to imagine what my life would look like had I not gone to Ravencrest. While driving to Estes Park I just so happened to pass Ravencrest for the first time in 9 years. So I couldn't help but take a picture.
And for funsies I'm gonna post a throwback to when I was at Ravencrest 9 years ago.
Yes, I am wearing a drive the bus t-shirt and Vote for Pedro baseball hat and that was my I'm not gonna smile for pictures phase. That phase ended shortly after this picture was taken.
With all that being said, life is good. I'm feeling incredibly blessed to have the job that I have here in Colorado and to have built up some new friendships this past weekend up in the mountains.
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