It’s been awhile since I posted a WAIT… so, here’s a classic of Will, I need to know what you think he is thinking… and as an added bonus you can post what you think Elisabeth was thinking when she took this picture!
I’ll post my favorites thoughts from you all in a few days!
Hey, what was I thinking?
Have fun, he certainly did!
Grace,
Brian
All this week I have been doing something I have longed to do for a very long time, about 19 years to be exact.
I am down in Central Oregon at Washington Family Ranch (formerly Wildhorse Canyon), a YoungLife Property. I am down here with several hundred teens from all over the west and many leaders who want to love and support these students well as many hear the Gospel for the first time. Specifically, I am leading with 6 other Kentridge Leaders who are here with 50 KR students.
As I posted just over a week ago, one June 28, 1990 I trusted Christ as Lord and Savior in a very similar setting, at Malibu Club in Canada (another YL property). It is my hope (and prayer) that I will be able to help others in their discovery of Christ this week.
All summer long I will help students who are being sent on Mission trips in an effort to be trained for their mission at home. It was with great hope I left on this trip as I have looked at this as the week I was really be “sent” on my own mission trip. My prayer is the same for myself–I pray this will increase my mission back home!
Appreciate the prayers you can lift for me and for the students here at WFR! I return today so that I can quickly turn around and launch the Gulf Coast teams (would love your prayers for this as well).
Grace,
Brian
… And I am already working on next year!
Over the last few months I’ve been extremely busy with the last-minute details for the 2009 YMV’s. We’re now a little over a week into July and not even half way done (in fact, just a third of the way) with our 2009 YMV’s and I am already fully engaged in the planning of specific details for the 2010 YMV season.
We have tentative dates.
We have camp(s) lined up.
We have some themes.
We have Youth Pastors already committing to doing it again.
We have specific locations lining up.
We have “we” (no, not the game network–I will share more on the “we” part in a later post).
We have the general idea and flow for next years Mission Prep Notebook (Acts 6-13).
I even have a couple of my training talks outlined already, and those aren’t for another 9 months!
I’m pretty excited about next year; there are thousands of details we still need to work on (and discover), but for now, I’ll pray for God to continue to give me new and fresh ideas and that 2009 provides a foundation for future years!
Grace,
Brian
Thought I’d take a minute or two to thank each of my teammates for these first couple weeks of YMV’s… below I have listed the Youth Leader/Team Leader for each of the mission towns and something I appreciate about them and their ministry. These are great folk, take the time to praise God for them!
Jeff Hawkins (Chehalis; led the team to Simms, MT): Jeff and Sarah strike me as a “Mom and Dad” type of Youth Pastor. They have a large family of their own and very much see their youth group as an extension of their own family! Jeff gives freedom to the students where it has been earned and certainly can tell it like it is when he needs to as well. I am very much encouraged by watching his own kids and the way they are following in Mom and Dad’s footsteps!
Ben Lunsford (Avondale Bible; led the team to Plains, MT): Ben and Gloria (and Caleb) are much the same as Jeff and Sarah, only a little (okay quite-a-bit) younger. This young family jumps right into ministry together and though they have a newborn in Caleb, they tackled the ministry in Plains. I have enjoyed getting to know this young family at our Seattle retreat, at a Youth Pastor/wives retreat we got to speak at and on the mission. Ben exhibits strength and grace at the same time.
Jess Champers (Snohomish; led the team to Superior, MT): Jess and his wife Alisha (along with their two daughters) are quickly becoming good family friends. Jess served as my “Lead” for this trip (which means he helped me with the scout and did the Landing). Jess is a family man to the core and cares deeply for the lost. Throughout the trip he would call or text looking for another way to help motivate his students toward getting out of their comfort zone and into the lives of the lost! I love his zeal for the Lord and for the Lost. He is a nurturer at heart!
Brad Hostak (River Ridge of Lacey; led the team to Council, ID): Brad is a former intern of mine, so it is with obvious pride I speak of this young man! I love watching Brad grow as a Pastor–it is so evident he is listening to the Spirit and seeking to obey. On this trip his gift of discernment stood out. He was able to examine a situation and lead accordingly. Visiting Brad in Council brought extra joy to me in that Miki Vercammen and Nate Noble (former leaders for me at Blvd Pk) were both serving with Brad in the town where I led my last trip!
Derek Edwards (Lake Sawyer; led the teams to Cambridge and Cascade, ID): Gotta love those admin-gifted Youth Pastors! I thought I was pretty administrative, then I met Derek! This guy is quickly becoming one of my favorite guys to partner with in ministry! He has his own secular full-time job, yet finds time (or makes time) to be a great family man and part-time Youth Pastor at a large church! LSCC did the right thing in hiring Derek. His teams were well trained and executed so well! I loved seeing him in action and it was evident his leaders serving with him were in tuned with all that was happening!
Joe Monto and Mike Gerspach (Calvary South; led the team to Crouch, ID): Joe and Mike are so different, yet their gifts work so well together. This team from Calvary exceeded all expectations and I believe are coming home with a new heart for their community. My prayer is that Joe and Mike will have the “trust factor” needed with the teens now (they are both relatively new to their positions). They did a fantastic job in Crouch! Mike is one of the hardest working guys I have ever been around and Joe’s gift with music almost matches his heart of compassion!
Rob Holster (NW Bible of Spring, TX; led the team to Riggins, ID): I wish Rob and Michelle lived in the Seattle area; I know the Aabys and Holsters would be kickin’-it quite-a-bit. They are a fun couple who have stepped-it-up in their ministry just north of Houston. They obeyed the Lord on this trip and in preparation for this trip. Their group was so well prepared and in-step with the Holy Spirit the entire time. Southern hospitality was delivered to Riggins, and I know God was glorified through Rob’s leadership of this team!
Wow, I am blessed to have served with this bunch, not to mention the number of volunteer leaders these teams brought with them. I am glad God chose these teams to go to these towns!
Grace,
Brian
While on my Montana and Idaho tour last week I had the opportunity to share some of my observations with a couple different teams at Family Time. As you go back and read the blogs over on the youthmark.com site (click on blogs), you can read the great success stories we have in students sharing their faith, however, sometimes this came after a painful learning process (or trap) we often fall in.
Numbers vs. Souls.
Here’s what I mean… when you look at a picture like the one below, what do you see?
Besides the beautiful scenery and some of the obvious other things we can point out, we see a good number of teens, correct? On these trips, or even, any given Sunday at church, this is what we see… numbers. We see a gathering of folk. We talk about “how many people” we had in church, at youth group, or in Bible Study.
There is and was nothing wrong with our teams being excited about the 4, 15, 35, 67 or 9 people they had at the park or the school. God honored our prayers by bringing people to these local fields. However, the trap happens when we simply see numbers and not souls.
You see, in this crowd we needed to see the following:
Can you see them? These are the individuals that make up those “numbers.” We need to see each of these faces as souls we want to introduce to Jesus or encourage in Christ ( if already saved).
We can get caught in counting heads rather than seeing the faces. These faces sometimes tell and sometimes try desperately to hide their stories. What happens in these mission towns is often similar to what is happening in our own towns.
When you go to work tomorrow, the park on Wednesday or Church on Sunday, will you see the soul of another, or will you just see a number?
Grace,
Brian
I was not supposed to be there… but for whatever reason the Aaby family decided on a great adventure yesterday and drove to Spokane to greet the teams coming back from Idaho and Montana for the Landing! Youthmark has assigned “Leads” for each of the regions. So, where I do the launch at each place I also have one of my Leads doing it with me. This Youth Pastor is one of the guys going on one of the trips in this region; then, on the back end this Lead does the Landing (because I am normally off to the next launch). So, we were covered in terms of leadership, but this was going to be my only chance at a “Group” debrief besides the very last one this summer (last week I landed the Chehalis group, but that was just one team, whereas this week there were seven).
Late Friday night I was feeling very excited about the teams and I just lob-tossed it out to Elisabeth, “feel like a road trip to Spokane tomorrow?” We discussed it at length and decided to sleep on it. There were many positives about doing it and a few potential negatives.
In the morning we still uncertain about doing it or not (that’s a long trip for the kids). And ultimately at 9:15 AM decided to do it. We were out by 10:00 AM and in Spokane Valley by 3:00 PM (including a couple short stops)–teams arrived at about 3:30.
Our kids were fantastic and were rewarded by watching some great fireworks on the way back through Ritzville, Moses Lake and Vantage!
Below are some pics of the Landing, I’m sure I’ll post more about it later and probably at my Youthmark.com blog.
Grace,
Brian
I have uploaded more photos from the second part of my trip this week. The first set of pics (two posts ago) were from Plains and Superior, MT and also from Cambridge and Council, ID. These next pics incorporate Council, Riggins, Cascade and Crouch, ID.
The stories I am reading and praying about posted on these blogs here are far better and tell a better story than these pictures, but to give you a little glimpse of what was taking place, enjoy these pictures below!
Grace,
Brian
Okay, normally I would just link you to this post, but it is too good to trust anyone to click here (see, I did give you the option, ha).
This, from Stephanie, one of the leaders at Lake Sawyer Christian Church, their team is in Cascade, ID right now. Check this out:
Hi all!
We had a very exciting night last night! There are a lot of hurting kids here in Cascade, and we were able to reach some of them last night, so it really encouraged our team.
After lunch, we had nap time and many of us did our laundry. We left early to prepare for the barbecue at the park. Everyone had hotdogs and chips, followed by a few games of kickball. Matt and Kaylee did an awesome job of sharing their stories!
When we returned to the church, we joined together in worship and in hearing Andy’s testimony. (He is the youth/associate pastor here at CCC.) He told his story in such a way that many of the Cascade teens were touched and cried during his message. Immediately after he finished, Merissa had the opportunity to talk with a girl she has been connected with who had identified herself as an atheist. She was so touched by his message that she was sobbing by the end. Merissa was able to lead her into a relationship with Christ! After they prayed, Andy and Derek prayed with them and talked more with her about the next steps. It was incredible! Her name is Patty, so she could definitely use your prayers as she begins this new life.
In the meantime, one of the other girls had been talking with Jordan, who came and told me that she wanted to accept Christ. So, since Amanda had also been talking with her, I joined her and asked her (Tori) if she understood what Jesus did for her. She said she kinda got it, so Amanda jumped in and said that she would love to share the bridge of faith with her. She led her through that with a white board and when she was done, I asked her if she was ready to take the step of committing her life to Jesus. She said yes and we prayed together, followed by a prayer that she repeated after me. Then, we joined with Andy and Derek and all prayed together. She is a girl that Andy has been working with and praying for for quite some time, so this was very exciting for him. Please keep Tori in your prayers as well!
We got to bed fairly late again and half of our team got up this morning at 5:00am to participate in a “Clean Up Cascade” community project with others from the community. They returned and got back in bed just as the rest of us got up to have breakfast and get started on other projects. The students that have been working on the house are almost done and it looks great. The siding project is now done as well. We are going to hold a free car wash this afternoon after lunch, so we’re hoping for a lot of people to come through and be invited to outreach tonight.
One of the really cool things that has happened is the way the boys from California have connected with our team. Jordan and Braydan are here early in the morning until after our family time at night. Braydan is a baptized believer already and has been hopeful about his brother, so when Jordan decided yesterday that he wants to be baptized before we leave, it was very exciting for him! Derek met their father today and talked about the specifics, so he will be baptized this afternoon right after our car wash. Very exciting stuff!!
We miss everyone, but realize that we only have 1-1/2 days with the people of Cascade. We want to make the most of it and can’t wait to see what else God has planned for the rest of our time here. Thank you for your prayers and support! More to come after outreach tonight!
Stephanie
Read this and all the other incredible stories (many other salvation stories) on the youthmark.com blog pages.
Grace,
Brian
I am so excited about this second week of YMV’s, I am getting home today from a tour around to each of the seven towns Youthmark served this week and the debrief (landing) of the Chehalis team which served in Simms, MT last week…
I greatly missed my family and am so appreciative of their support of the ministry. I was able to get pics and video this week for promotional stuff for next years YMV’s.
Here are a bunch of pics from the tour, more to come later (haven’t uploaded all of them yet)!
I know I sound like a broken record (though I don’t know what a broken record sounds like), but we NEED your prayers and we are seeing God answer these prayers, so please go here and read through/pray through the blogs. I have been posting on my youthmark blog as well.
Grace,
Brian
Thanks for your prayers for my friend Byron…
He is doing better, the recovery from such a major surgery will be a long road (he’s got a nice scar to show off!). I am looking forward to spending some time with him soon, Elisabeth was able to go to the hospital today to visit with him, his wife Shannon and his mom, Michele.
His spirits are high and is encouraged to have the surgery behind him. Please do pray for his recovery!
I was able to perform their wedding almost a year ago now, and Elisabeth told me that Shannon joked today, “I wish Brian would have left the whole ‘sickness and in health’ part out of our vows.” Touche, Shannon!
Keep up the prayers for my friends Byron and Shannon!
Grace,
Brian
BRIANAABY.COM 