This last weekend I was able to do three wonderful things!

First I was able to have lunch with the Murrell family in Pine Valley, CA.

Second I was able to have a slice of Apple Pie at the Julian Pie Co. with Pastor Rick Hill in Julian, CA.

And last, I was able to have dinner with my best friend (outside of Jesus and my wife of course) in Escondido, CA.

Pretty sweet day if you ask me.

I was down in the San Diego area over the weekend to train the students of Emmanuel Faith.  Since my flight got in on Saturday morning and the training wasn’t until Sunday morning (and all day on Sunday), I decided to take a quick road trip from SD to PV to Julian to Escondio (all of these drives were less than an hour).  

I had such a great time catching up with Pastor Joe, Jenny, Joshua and Caleb.  I wish we would have had more time to share stories and catch-up.  Pray for the church in Pine Valley, some great things are happening.  By the way, both Pine Valley and Julian were towns I have been to previously on one of these mission trips.  

In Julian, Pastor Rick gave me his new book But YOU, When You Pray.  This is a first for him and I’m excited he has been published!  We had a fantastic time hanging out for nearly two hours!  Again, pray for the church in Julian!

When I arrived in Escondido, I was treated to some great home-cooking from Jerusha Clark (Jeramy’s wife).  We were able to hang out on both Saturday night and a little on Sunday night before I flew out on Monday morning!  I wish I had more time with the Clarks as well.

The training on Sunday was very successful.  I thought the students responded so well.  This is a team which will be heading into the Gulf Coast.  They are doing something unique, the first part of their two week mission will be done in the inner city of New Orleans (working with Urban Impact).  Then, after that experience, they will head to a Rural community to do the Youthmark Mission Venture!  I can’t wait to hear the reports!  If their training is ANY indication of what their mission is going to look like, we should hear some great things!

The students responded really well to both the FoF and the call for awareness for Charity:Water!  God is using these things to bring others to Himself!  Praise God!

Now, off to do more of my favorite things!

Grace,
Brian

I just returned from a brief scouting trip to Idaho.  Though our last trip was intended to be a Montana and Idaho scout trip the specific needs of some of our sending towns could not be met by the places we looked at in northern Idaho.  So, I booked a flight to Boise and took a two day whirlwind tour. I started on Tuesday by heading north to the Garden Valley area. From Crouch to Cascade, through McCall, north to Riggins, south to Council and Cambridge I returned to Boise in time on Wednesday to have dinner with my friend Cory and his family.  

The trip, once again, was a great blessing.  Though all the churches need to confirm with boards it looks like we have our last three Idaho towns booked.  Very exciting!

Now, I’m home for a good stretch and look forward to good times with my family (and extended family coming to town).  Of course, I will catch and M’s game or two in their opening home stand!

You can pray for a few upcoming speaking opportunities I have and a meeting with a church to talk about doing some consulting!  Appreciate your faithful prayers!

Grace,
Brian

A week ago Monday I had the opportunity to share the Gospel with my YoungLife students at Kentridge… My Montant Lead, Jess was able to hang out with us at club.  He and I then traversed to the traditional DQ after-party (great contact work done over some cool treats).  It was here that Katie, another YL leader (and Sbux barista), volunteered to get us a Java-To-Go box from Sbux.

We needed it!  At 10:00 PM, Jess and I jumped into my 4Runner and began the trek to Drummond, MT.  Jess (bless him) stayed up for most of the night keeping me company.  We had great discussions; he eventually nodded off for the last 2.5 hours.  It was in the last 2.5 hours I could have used him the most.  The snow was falling, the road was a solid sheet of ice and the coffee was now cold–oh, and I hadn’t slept for nearly 24 hours.

We arrived in Drummond at 6:30 (Mountain time) and we were able to rest for an hour or so before our breakfast meeting.  I wasn’t able to sleep, but at least the eyes being shut helped.

Tuesday was a day of creating contacts.  We were able to meet with the head of the Rocky Mountain Bible Mission (an affiliation of Churches serving in rural communities in MT and ID).  He (Dave) gave us plenty of contacts (though many were very spread out).  Jess and I began our tour with three appointment we quickly lined up for that day in Phillipsburg, Anaconda, and Potomac.  These towns were all many miles apart and through the mountains, so that was about all we could do on this first day (especially on little/no sleep).  

I met another Aaby… only this Pastor spelled his name incorrectly (Abbey).  Great family in Phillipsburg, it may/may not be a connection for this year, the town has another group coming in from the Spokane area to lead VBS.  Then to Deer Lodge/Anaconda where we met the most unique guy of our trip (Pastor Bill).  Once again, this town has a group from Federal Way already coming (through Tom Horton and RCYM, so this was a big blessing to hear that).

We made a few calls along the way to and from these locations to try to line up other appointments on our way back toward Missoula (only got answering machines and/or no answers).  When we arrived back to Missoula we lined up a hotel (with a hot tub of course).  Our dinner was set with another pastor for the early evening, but we were able to grab a quick nap before dinner (which made me feel worse, as it was only 45 minutes).

Dinner was a great burger at Fuddruckers (one of the best burgers I’ve ever had).  We made a great contact with the Pastor from Potomac (though the town may be too small).  It was at Fuddruckers where I had the KEY idea of the trip…

To be continued.

Grace,

Brian

As I have shared here before, I am leading YoungLife at Kentridge High School. It has been a blessing. I love interacting with these students who are seeking truth (whether they know it or not).  On Monday night I had the opportunity to share the story of the Cross.  It is such a blessing to share the Good News!  I don’t ever want to take for granted the privilege it is to share the Gospel.  

So, with that in mind, I didn’t schedule my Montana and Idaho scout trip to start until after I was done sharing on Monday night.  My Montana Lead, Jess, and I loaded up the 4Runner and we took off for an all night drive.  Fortunately, Jess was awake enough that he did not need to sleep until about 4:00 AM.  I drove the entire way from Seattle to Drummond (about an hour east of Missoula).  The last two hours were in a solid sheet of ice on I-90.  Praise the Lord for keeping us safe on the road. 

Over a few of my next posts I’ll bring you up to speed on blessings of this scout trip. But first I want to speak simply about the relationship I have with my three leads and what it has been like taking these scout trips.  These men are a total blessing to me and I am so thankful I have had an extended time with each of them on these scout trips.

It’s been so great to see the strengths of Jess, Aaron and Nathan on these trips.  Each has been so different, though each has a couple key things in common.  

Similarities: They all have a great sense of humor.  When spending hours on the road, you need to be able to laugh.  Believe me, we all laughed!  Jess, Aaron and Nathan all have a passion to see their own students thrive in their relationships with Jesus.  This has been the thing that has made the scouts so easy–they don’t have to speak on behalf of Youthmark–they can speak on their own behalf and why they want to come and serve with their students.   Last, each of these guys have  unending love for their families and our Lord.  Being on a trip with guys who love the Lord and have their priorities straight has encouraged my own passionate pursuit in wonderful ways.

Differences: It was so great to discover the different strengths each of these guys bring to Youthmark.  Nathan is the only one (besides me) who has done a Rural mission trip.  He has been able to bring his past experiences to the table as we shared with Pastors.  Aaron was the first to really bless me by listening to him talk (make phone calls) to other pastors (as we tried to line up appointments).  Hearing him say, “this is Aaron and I’m with Youthmark…” was such a blessing.This really made the “team” a reality to me.  With Aaron and Jess I found myself letting go of so much more and trusting these guys in representing the ministry.  As I’ll share later, we had so much territory to cover in MT and ID that I actually rented a second vehicle and sent Jess off in a different direction so we could cover more space in less time.  This was a wonderful blessing to trust another with the ministry.  I am thankful that God has equipped Jess with an ability to speak with passion about his ministry while accurately communicating what Youthmark is doing to team with the local church.

These guys are a blessing to me!  Please lift these guys and their families up in prayer!

Back with more MT/ID soon!

Grace,
Brian

Sorry for the brief non-postings!  It has been a crazy busy week of scouting.

I am just returning from the Montana and Idaho scout and look forward to sharing all the blessings of this scout for the 13 places we needed to identify!

Be back soon.

Grace,

Brian

Don’t hesitate to check out my “Youthmark” blog here.

My previous two blog entries were both about the NorCal scout trip, if you want to catch up on those two first, scroll down and start with 36,000 Foot Blog Post.

 

On Thursday, our last day of the scout trip, we got up a little earlier to get out of the hotel to drive two hours north to Yreka and a half hour SW to Fort Jones/Etna.  We had set up a meeting with a couple Youth Pastors in the area.  We got up north in plenty of time to drive through both Fort Jones and Etna (20 minute further south) and still get back in time for our 11:00 AM lunch in Ft. Jones.

 

The lunch with Phillip and Brett was very exciting.  Aaron and I both were able to share our vision for what we thought could take place.  These guys were both on board and began to dream out loud.  The tri-tip sandwiches at the deli were great too!

The “Problem” we encountered was when we discovered that this area ought to have two teams and not just one. 

 

After the meeting we had to get back in the rental van and make the trek back to San Francisco (about 6 hours, not including traffic).  The good news: we made good time and were able to get our In-N-Out treat (yep, the same two burger meal).

 

So, we traveled to NorCal needing 5 communities and we had zero contacts.  We left having 5 meetings, but 6 communities.  So, we were 6 for 5, we’ll leave it to the Lord to work out the details!

Thanks for your prayers along the way.  Praise the Lord for the fantastic contacts and pray for these details to be worked out!

Grace,
Brian

 

I started the NorCal Scouting report in my last post, if you haven’t read that, you may want to scroll down to that post first.

One-for-one on Tuesday with a few appointments set up for Wednesday.  We woke up, grabbed a quick bite-to-eat and departed for French Gulch for our 9:30 appointment with Pastor Ted.  Ted is a great man, serving as Senior Pastor for the Village Missions church in French Gulch (just outside of Whiskeytown).  We fell in love with the community and could easily

see a team here.  Before we left, we got to meet an older man, Bill, in the church/community who came by to take Pastor Ted out for lunch.   We couldn’t help but laugh when we realized we were hanging out with “Bill and Ted.”  Excellent!

After French Gulch we drove another half hour west to a beautiful valley.  At the bottom of this valley is a town, Lewiston.  Pastor Joe greeted us outside his church.  Joe is probably in his 30’s, so this was one of the younger Rural Pastors I’ve had the pleasure of meeting.  Joe had told me that when he heard my messages he just assumed it was some sales call.  But after he read an email and could see I was rather persistent he checked out the website and instantly emailed and

 invited us to lunch. Within minutes of sharing with Joe, Aaron and I could tell that this was going to be a connect.  We stuck around for lunch with a few of the church families (some great Fajita Tacos), they gather each Wednesday at lunch after a ladies ministry thing, many of the men take their lunch hour at the church; great to meet some of the folk. 

We were very impressed by the landscape in the entire area, by the time we got back to the hotel in the afternoon (and returning to cell coverage) we had a few voicemail messages from other contacts.  We set up an appointment for Shasta for that night and another for Fort Jones and Etna on Thursday (2.5 hours north).

During our brief afternoon break we were able to grab about 20 minutes with my good friend, Wescott, as well.  Wes is moving back to the NW from Bakersfield right now.  He just happened to be driving thru Redding at the same time as our little break!  Fun times.

Aaron and I got to Shasta Community Church about an hour before Youth Group was to begin.  Here is this rural community just a few minutes outside of Redding, yet it still feels completely rural.  Shasta Bible College is very close by, so this church as been blessed with youth leaders from the college.  Therefore, they have had an active youth ministry for many years.  Here, we got to meet Josh and his wife, Lisa (and their six week old daughter).  Great young couple serving this community.  Again, we felt it was a fit and it looks like we’ll be serving in Shasta as well.

We came down looking for five communities.  As of Wednesday night we had seen four communities and all four were ready to go!  Not a bad percentage, 100%.

We were beat, time for some food, hot tub and sleep.

Steak Dinner:  Great

Hot Tub:  Cold, still broken.

Sleep: AHHHHHH!

 

 

More on NorCal in my next post!

Grace,
Brian

 

I once had a blog post entitled, “35,000 foot blog post.”  Well, the pilot was just on the PA on my flight from San Francisco to Seattle and said, “we’ve now reached our cruising altitude of 36,000 feet;” thus, I now can post a 36,000 foot post.  

I am returning from a three day scouting adventure with my friend, Aaron.  Aaron is the Youth Pastor at Faith Baptist in Kent and is serving as my Lead for the NorCal mission.  This two night excursion can be described as a 100% success.  We came down, again, with no leads, early Tuesday morning.  Upon arrival in San Fran. we jumped into our rental mini-van for the 4 hour drive to Redding.  Our priorities were set, we knew we had to quickly do some research for the five rural communities we plan to serve this summer, but first, the larger priority: In-N-Out Burger.  

Side Note:  Aaron has always been a Double Double guy, which, in my opinion, is a mistake. I turned him on to the real way to do In-N-Out.  Two singles beats a Double Double.  You simply get more and get to enjoy eating the same two patties but you also get double the onion, double the tomato, double the bun, etc.  Aaron is converted.

Back to the scout.  I was quite impressed with the way Aaron jumped into the scouting mindset.  We were looking up towns on the internet, followed by specific churches in these rural towns and then we began the cold calls (Aaron listened to me do one, and then quickly made several of the next calls).  We typically would receive voicemail greetings or answering machine messages.  

After several calls, some we research and a drink at Starbucks (we wanted to pay rent for our temporary office) we received the call from Lakehead, CA.  Pastor Jim is a man i have worked with in the past.  Lakehead sits about 20 miles north of Redding and serves as one of the houseboat launching areas for Lake Shasta.  I had sent a team of students to Lakehead back in 2001.  Jim agreed to meet us at his church and we jumped on I-5 north from Redding.

We had a great meeting with Jim (he made a nice fire in the wood stove in the fellowship hall).  We shared memories of the 2001 mission and dreamed about what it could look like this summer once again.  After praying and touring the area we left feeling confident we were one-for-one on our scouting endeavor.  It was now time to check in to our hotel in Redding and gear up for dinner, the hotel hot tub and 24 (neither of us had watched Monday nights episodes).

Along the way to and from Lakehead we received a couple calls with appointments set up for Wednesday.

Dinner: Great (Chevy’s)

Hot Tub: Aaron dropped his leg in about up to his knee and quickly discovered the hotel hot tub was a hotel iced-tub.  We reported the problem to the front desk, Peter (the employee and our new friend) assured us it’d be fixed for tomorrow night.

24: Wow!

A great first day of scouting NorCal.  The NorCal report will continue…

Grace,
Brian

 

Last weekend I began a brief series on my scout trip to the Gulf Coast.  You may want to read these previous posts to get caught up before you read todays.

Ahh, 12 hours of sleep did a world of good for my body.  Tuesday had been such a blessing and we were in store for a long, but productive day on Wednesday.  We began the day by driving north of Vinton to a small town, Starks.  Here we toured the town, but the pastor was not at the church.  Pastor Rob, from Vinton, had suggested we check out Starks as a possible fourth town in case we had the need.  I’m glad we did, because we now do need more towns to serve in, so at least I am familiar with the look/feel of Starks.

 

After Starks we drove to Hackberry, LA.  You can see some of the pictures from Hackberry here.  It is a town that was devastated by the storm surge of the Hurricanes.  The water had no place to go so it settled about 3-4 feet deep in Hackberry.  The church was essentially totaled.  Though the outside walls remain, the entire inside has been gutted and is nearing completion.  The Pastor of the church in Hackberry is bi-vocational, so we knew we would not see him at the church, but we had arranged a noon lunch appointment with him in Lake Charles, LA. 

Pastor Jason, is also Officer Jason,  A county Sheriff (do you call them deputy instead of     Officer?).  After touring Hackberry we headed east on I-10 for our lunch appointment with Jason.  We met him at the courthouse (which was more of an office building).  As we waited we were approached two or three times by people asking if we were there for workman’s comp?  I was VERY tempted to say, “yes” just to see what would happen next.  I avoided the temptation in the fear of being arrested later by the very same Pastor/Cop we were trying to serve with.

Jason arrived and we headed for our first of three straight Mexican restaurant meals.  Jason was very fun to meet with and within minutes he was jumping on the Hackberry/Youthmark train.  

When we were done in Lake Charles were were quickly on our way back west to Texas.  Pastor Rob from Vinton joined us and led the way to Bridge City, TX where we were meeting with Brandon, the Youth Pastor in Bridge City.  

Bridge City is a city with a population base of 6000.  This is much larger than towns I would normally partner with.  However, because we are teaming with Samaritan’s Purse in the recovery efforts in small towns, it seems to be a perfect fit.  I believe I heard this statistic a couple times, we heard that only 16 homes total were spared from the flooding caused by the hurricanes this last summer.  Brandon was a great guy.  He was at the gutted out church doing some finish work to prepare for their first gathering in this building in months.  He was trying to get it ready for a Superbowl party taking place on Sunday.  The building looks nowhere near ready to host anything.  Cement and drywall… that is it.  But, the spirit of the people is incredible in Bridge City.  The church is going to be a great one to partner with.

After our Bridge City encounter it was now time to go further west back toward Houston where I was to meet another Pastor Rob, the Youth Pastor at a church in Spring, Texas.  We had dinner with Rob and one of his interns.  It is our hope that Spring may serve as “Hub Host” for our Gulf Coast mission (the first night to launch all of the teams, and the last night for celebration and debriefing).  As it turns out, not only did we get to connect and talk about being hub host, but Rob has since called and signed up for a Montana Mission trip with us!

Grace,

Brian