Prayer Requests
- More volunteer leaders for Student Ministries
- Continued unity for the body in student ministries under the leadership of our new student ministries director, Chris Wilson
- That God would provide for our financial needs.
- Time management (personal devotional time/family/ministry/ school)
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Upcoming Events
- 7th Grade Kick Off Swim Party 8/24
- Parent Coffee to discuss the vision and changes for the coming year 9/7
- Jr. High Fall Retreat 10/17-10/19
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Support Update
- Mo. Support Goal - $1,540
- Committed - $770
- Needed - $770
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Make Tax Deductible Contributions:
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Thank you for your partnership through prayers and financial gifts to SMI.
Student Ministries, Inc.
300 W. Davis, Suite 530
Conroe, TX 77301
SMI ID# 21498
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| S.A.L.T. Service Trip |
“Who wants to volunteer to clean out this old hot, stuffy, disarrayed shed?” I asked our junior high students on our SALT (Service and Leadership Training) Service Trip in July as we stood peering into the skit closet at Kanakuk K7 Christian sports camp in Lampe, MO. Matt cleverly asked, “What will we be doing if we don’t volunteer for this?” I answered, “We’ll have to wait and see what else they have for us to do.” Matt chose to risk it and passed on the stuffy skit closet.
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The alternative assignment we received (to our horror) was to scrub 3 boys’ bath houses of 10 toilets and showers each. Matt cried, “I wanna go clean the skit closet!”
We all learned a lot on this service trip about Christ’s example to lead by serving. The 10 of us spent two days serving with Habitat for Humanity in Springfield and two days with the grounds maintenance crew at Kanakuk Kamp in Lampe. In our evening devotional times I taught inductive |
Bible study methods (observation, interpretation, application) and they practiced it each day in service-oriented passages in their own personalized booklet. I was so impressed by these students’ ability to grasp Bible study methods and to really dig in deep and internalize what Scripture says. (Download their Bible study booklet for the week here.) We continue to challenge these students on what it means to serve like they did that week here at home, serving their family, friends, etc.
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| Other Summer Stuff |
Sports World: Our summer kicked of with Sports World, a one week community outreach sports camp at DBC for elementary students hosted by Denton Bible Student Ministries. hundreds of students, came, were ministered to and heard the gospel. I had the privilege of getting a mohawk and serving as the blue team’s mascot, The Blue Cheese!
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Great Adventure:
35 of us spent an adventurous week near Chattanooga, TN, camping, caving, climbing and rafting. It was great to see some students who were reserved at the beginning of the week really come out of their shells by the end of the week and to see relationships deepened amongst leaders and students. This was my first out of state trip to lead by myself. I learned a ton! |
Splash Bash: We taught through the book of Jonah at this weekly summer swim party and challenged students show compassion to their neighbors as God challenged Jonah to show to the Ninevites.
Teaching: I had the privilege of teaching a 3 week series on the water parting miracles at Fusion, our Sun. morning service for 7-12th grade. You can download the audio from the itunes podcast or my personal archive.
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| Personal Update |
It was a summer of adjustments for my family. Our 3rd boy, Tysen was born April 21 (man to man coverage doesn’t cut it any more). I was gone for two week long trips with junior high students this summer, which left Kristin home with the 3 boys (one newborn) by herself.
Figuring out how to be a husband, a father of 3, a Junior High Pastor and a |
student hasn’t been easy. But Kristin has been so amazing and Tysen is now old enough that we’ve got our date night back up and running again. Yahoo!
I took a one week class this summer in Soteriology (the doctrine of salvation) and I made a B+. That was a tough, demanding, yet fruitful week in that it yielded for me a much greater appreciation of the depth of what Jesus Christ did for us on the cross.
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Logan starts soccer next Tuesday. He’s SO excited! Ian keeps begging us to play beginners basketball. We’ll see. Ian is now potty-trained and loves strutting around the house in his big boy underwear. Tysen is so happy and laughs at us all the time and rolled over for the first time last week. Kristin never ceases to amaze me with how incredible she is at raising three boys and loving me in spite of my shortcomings. God has truly been too good to me!
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