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.
Etna, CA
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.
Yep, a second trip!
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
Bill and Ted in French Gulch?
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
Lewiston, CA
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%.
mmmmmm!
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.
Ahhh!
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
I am moving into what I would call “the busy season” of ministry. Though I have felt “busy” in the past, this season is sort of the convergence zone of all things Youthmark. I would greatly appreciate your prayers as each of the following is being done:
Final Sales: I still have the last few teams inquiring about last minute sign-ups. Since it is my first season of missions and because a couple of the regions are not full I really want to see as many teams go out this summer and am willing to let the teams still sign up (though training will need to be done a little more quickly).
Scouting: Gulf Coast and Hawaii have been scouted. I have trips to NorCal, ID and MT which are taking place this month (March). Pray that our connections for these 15+ places are true kindred-spirit places. I love meeting these pastors in rural America!
Training: My spring retreats (April 3-4; May 8-9) are quickly approaching. On top of that, my out of state teams receive a one day training from Youthmark (so this means a little additional travel).
2010: It is time for me to start writing the materials for 2010 so that not only do I have training materials done on time, but the promotional materials as well. I really want to retain clients and see us at the place where we can expand the ministry as well.
Extras: There are many other “little things” which need to be prioritized as well. Fitting some of the smaller tasks into the schedule seems tough when there are so many big-items to do.
Really appreciate your prayers for Youthmark. If you haven’t already, go check out the blogs for individual churches who are joining the YMV’s here:
Grace,
Brian
Aaaahhhhh! Nothing like a solid night of sleep to help you feel better. Though it was only seven hours, it was seven uninterrupted hours. As I previously posted, I’ve been fighting something. On Sunday morning, when I woke up with a 102º+ fever I thought I was going to need to make the phone call to cancel my upcoming speaking engagement.
A couple months ago I was invited to be the keynote speaker for the Baptist Network Northwest Youth Pastor/Wife retreat. This was a unique opportunity because they were essentially asking me to come and share about Youthmark Mission Ventures and my heart to see our students reach their peers in his/her own Jerusalem. I was very much looking forward to this! We made arrangements to have Elisabeth’s Mom come to town to take care of the girls so Elisabeth and Will would be able to be a part of the retreat as well.
So on Sunday after a trip to the doc and spending much of the day in bed, I decided to give it until Monday to see how I was doing before I would cancel. On Sunday I was probably feeling about 30%. By Monday, I was up to a 45%, so it was worth the risk of heading north to Birch Bay for the retreat. The fever was still there, but has subsided to 100.5º to 101.5º throughout the day.
The retreat was really worth it. It was so laid back and afforded me the opportunity to really rest while still being able to fully participate. Ten couples from the NW (WA/OR) joined together at a Time-Share resort community. We did communal meals which led to sharing times. We enjoyed hearing the testimonies from each of the couples.
On Tuesday (feeling about 60% and fever just about 100º), I was able to share about the YMV strategy. I believe many of these churches will join us in the years to come.
By Wednesday I was feeling about 70% (and I believe my fever broke completely that morning).
Today, as I sit in the Community Cup (new coffee shop off Military Road in SeaTac), I would say I am up to 90%, really just the nasty cough that lingers. I’m 100% thankful for the opportunity I had with the BNN and am thankful for those of you who were praying me through these last few days!
Grace,
Brian
This was an incredibly busy, but productive week (mostly at home)… Because I need to get cleaned up for a wedding for our good friends Nathan and Megan, I thought I’d give a quick bulleted list of a few highlights:
Quite certain I missed a couple things, but overall, it was a fantastic week.
Grace,
Brian
Pretty excited that another big step has been taken at Youthmark. Our YMV blogs are now up and running. Today, the churches doing a YMV received the registration to their blogs. On top of that, I have my own Youthmark Blog, so if you REALLY want to get more access to me (ha!), you can check out that blog here (I’ll focus more on the specifics of the ministry at Youthmark on that one). But, more importantly you can read/pray through the blogs of our teams doing missions!
my desktop with youthmark.com open!
Go to youthmark.com and click on blogs to see any/all of them. Of course, they did just get the registrations today, so it will most likely be a few days before anyone (besides me) gets them up and running!
We prioritized the blog as something that came with the mission because in all my years of student ministry I was always most aware of prayer support when on a mission trip. Each year we would begin our trips by soliciting prayer supporters (through mail, email, bulletin announcements, newsletters, etc.). Throughout the training we would update these supporters with prayer requests for the training and the towns we would serve. Then, when on the trip we would send out updates as well. In the early years we would literally have our secretary make a print out of the requests and put it on the church doors and folk would drive by just to see the requests. As email became more prevalent the requests would be sent out to the masses and now that blogs exist it makes it all that much more accessible.
Last year, while in Idaho, we had one day in which we had over 800 views of our blog for our specific team. On that very day we saw the most incredible answers to prayer take place. I am forever convinced this technology is something we must continue to tap into so we can continue to raise the awareness of how the Lord is at work!
So, join me in praying for each of these teams listed on the site and take the time to read about their training and their trips! You in for the adventure?
Grace,
Brian
P.S. If you know of people who see prayer as one of their primary ministries, please pass on this blog and the youthmark.com blogs as a possible ministry to commit to praying for! Thanks!
A brief respite from the Gulf Coast Scout Report to give you some current prayer requests/praises for the overall Youthmark Mission Venture happenings…
I appreciate the many who have kept Youthmark and the Aaby family in your prayers. As I have stated before, we are doing Youthmark as a “tent making” ministry, meaning, we are trying to support ourselves through our product/strategy and not as traditional financial support raising missionaries (we count it a privilege to support friends who are missionaries in this realm too). It has been a fun adventure thus far and God has certainly been providing through many avenues.
YMV Status Report:
Right now I am managing the 20 churches we have signed up for a Youthmark Mission Ventures this summer. These 20 churches represent an approximate 26-28 rural communities (depending upon how many students actually sign up and complete the training).
Teams may still sign up over the next two weeks, as long as groups have started the process by early March (getting students into move: Mission Prep Workbook) they will have the opportunity to complete the training in time (especially if they aren’t doing going on their actual trip until July/August). So, please pray for a few more churches/teams.
Here is how it breaks down by region, the numbers are very loose because some are still making decisions, everything will be nailed down by early April and our spring retreats:
BC
For whatever reason we didn’t have any church sign up for British Columbia. This turned out to be a huge blessing to me personally because I needed to step into the Lead Role for both ends of the Idaho week (the Lead I recruited ended up not being able to serve in this capacity because the Lord blessed them with a baby due right around the time of the mission).
Kauai
Hawaii will have one or two rural communities being served by Youthmark (outside possibility of a third team joining).
Northern California
The rural communities in NorCal will have anywhere from four to eight teams serving in the region. A larger church is still considering which trip to join (between NorCal and the Gulf)
Idaho
We will be serving in 5-7 Rural communities in Idaho this summer.
The Gulf Coast
Though I thought we were scouting for three communities in the Gulf, we have been blessed by a couple more churches joining late in the game. So, it looks like I’ll be scouting the region again and will need another 3-6 towns (again, depending upon one church choosing NorCal or Gulf) and adding those new churches team(s).
Western Montana
Montana will have 6-8 rural communities being served by Youthmark.
I have scouted Hawaii and The Gulf Coast (once) already, I have upcoming scouts to NorCal and MT/ID on the calendar. I’d appreciate your prayers for these upcoming scout trips and for the teams training.
Within the next couple weeks you should check in at www.youthmark.com and click on blogs (if not an option, it will be soon). Each church will have its own blog for the mission training and trip! Here you’ll be able to get specific prayer requests for these teams.
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.
months after the hurricanes
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
BRIANAABY.COM 