Praising the Lord for our first YMV Spring Retreat!  I was so blessed by the students, staff and my volunteers who made the camp what it was!  

We ended up with about 95 total people at Lake Retreat for the 24 hour retreat.  Some of the highlights to me:

The Volunteers:  Ricky, Joe P., Frankie, Nathan F., Alex, the Schlauds, Miki, Fuego, Josh, Aaron, Wescott and my wife did the things behind the scenes and on the platform to make the weekend go so well!

The Youth Leaders: The 20 (or so) youth leaders (pastors and volunteers) came willing to learn and lead.  The enthusiasm they brought to and for their group certainly spilled over into each of the training sessions.  I think each of the leaders came away encouraged!

The Students: This group came ready to worship!  Worship is so much more than singing and I sensed this was something the already knew!  The did, however, come ready to sing too!  Joe and the band led us to the foot of the cross in worship.  

The Camp:  I am so thankful for Eric and his crew at Lake Retreat.  They had the camp ready for us and served us.  

FAITH ON FACEBOOK CHALLENGE

The Challenge:  As some of you may have already seen and hopefully you will see more of in the future, the students were given an FoF challenge.  Briefly, the students/staff have been challenged to donate their “status update” on Facebook for a given period of time (some choose a week, month or all the way until the mission).  For those familiar with Facebook, you know what this means.  For those not, the status update is simply a statement on their Facebook page that many update what they are doing.  For example, mine has said, “Brian Aaby is looking forward to lunch with his wife!” or “Brian Aaby is enjoying a daddy/daughter date with Halle and Audrey.” 

So, in this challenge, students were invited to type, “Ask Me About My FoF.” When the facebook friends do ask about it, the FoF participants are then given the opportunity to ask for prayer requests and to be even more bold in explaining that their FoF challenge is to find out what all of their friends on facebook think of Jesus.  For example:

You read my status update: “Ask me about my FoF”

You write to me: “what is your FoF?”

I reply: “It is a challenge I took (Faith on Facebook) this weekend… I want to know where each of my facebook friends are spiritually… so, friend, what do you think of Jesus?”

The goal is to enter into spiritual conversations with facebook friends, using this platform to introduce our friends to Jesus!

I can’t wait for the training events I have in TX, CA and CO before concluding with the May retreat at Lake Retreat with the other Western WA participants in YMV’s!

Pray for our witness now and in the communities this summer!

Grace,
Brian