Missing the Melon

Each year on the last weekend of July I get a little homesick. My Mom and Dad's hometown, Naples, Texas (pop. 1908) has an annual bash better known as the Watermelon Festival. This yearly festival celebrates the harvest of the local watermelon crops in the area. The festival is complete with a small town rodeo, classic car show, a parade with local floats, horse riders, kids in gocarts and ATV's, etc, and all the FREE ICE COLD WATERMELON YOU CAN EAT! It's a great time to be had. Usually on this weekend, Mom and Dad's families get together also for a good time.

This year, Dad was able to attend his 40th High School reunion during the festival. He graduated with 31 other students and 18 showed up for the reunion 40 years later. Here are a few pics including my nephew Andy getting ready to devour some ice cold watermelon and Dad's high school reunion.

Exponential Conference Podcasts

Most if not all of the sessions from the National New Church Conference we attended in April are now available via podcast. You can download them by going to exponentialconference.com. (For some reason, since I switched to a Mac, my blogger toolbar is missing a few vital elements, including the link button. If anyone can help me out that would be fabulous.)

Sports Camp Is Over

Today we finished an awesome week of Sports Camp. We had 48 campers this week and 4 kids accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior! Today was highlighted by our end of the week scrimmage games. The red team in flag football ran back a kickoff that was reminiscent of the "Music City Miracle" made famous during the Tennessee Titans playoff game a few years ago. Today I filled in for Greg Thompson coaching softball and I played the role of the unpopular umpire having to call a few close ones at first base. Nobody can rival the 4th and 5th grade girls when it comes to competitive fire.

One of yesterday's highlights was having Dorrell Jalloh and Erza Tilaye, wide receivers for the Mountaineers, and Josh from FCA come and speak to the kids, sign some autographs, and spend time playing with the kids. They totally rocked and the kids had a great time hanging out with them.

South Union Baptist Church turned out to be one of the best groups we've ever had in Morgantown. They were ready and willing to serve, and they bonded with the kids this week. Several received "Thank You" cards from parents of the kids they were coaching. The same can be said for the fellows from Green Valley and The Heights -- we couldn't had an excellent camp without these groups.

Time will tell what fruit God sends our way from this camp, but I know that good seeds of the gospel have been sown all week!

Weekend Camping Recap

Our family had a great time camping this past weekend with Nikki, an old friend from Texas. We gave her a grand tour of the Blackwater Falls/Canaan Mountain/Dolly Sods area. God blessed us with great weather: beautiful skies, sunny days, and cool weather. Friday night, the temp got down to 43 on Canaan Mountain, which made for good sleeping weather.

Sports Camp Day 1

We're off to a great start for our Sports Camp. Today we had 47 1st-5th graders in camp and are expecting about 10 more tomorrow. All of our coaches did a fantastic job today and we didn't lose any kids on the PRT. Again, special thanks goes out to South Union, FBCGV, and FBCDH for making this camp a huge success. I can't wait for tomorrow.

We ended the day by having a cookout at Coopers Rock this evening. One of the highlights was finding a cave below the lookout. There were about 15 of us crammed in there at one time at one point. Major props goes out to our cooking crew for the evening: Manny, Dan, Adam, and Matt. Great work!

Sports Camp Spree

We had arranged for one of our friends to bring his sportings goods and equipment up from Arkansas to use for our Sports Camp next week, but when we found out he couldn't come this week, we shifted to Plan B. We decided to make an investment and go in halves with LifePoint Church in Washington on purchasing the necessary equipment.

So today Aaron Johnson and family brought their brand new cargo trailer down to Morgantown to hold the equipment for the week. Between trips to Walmart and Dicks Sporting Goods, who both gave us great deals, we had fun loading up about $1400 worth of balls and equipment for our Sports Camp. Can't wait for next week!

Chick-Fil-A Family Night

A good time was had by all at Family Night at Chick-Fil-A this evening. Our team did a good job of providing fun activities for the kids, and we had a chance to connect with new people tonight. Kim, the marketing director at Chick-Fil-A, said our church does the best job at Family Night, which made my evening. Yeah! She said we were the only church to ever utilize the green space outside the restaurant, which was cool.

I am thankful that we have such a good partnership with Chick-Fil-A as we continue to take the gospel to the streets of Morgantown.

Sports Camp Coming Together

We are one week away from our All Day Sports Camp for 1st-5th graders and I am getting pumped! Along with StoneBridgers being involved, 15 students and adults from South Union Baptist Church in Daingerfield Texas are coming up for a mission trip to help staff our Sports Camp. Pastor Mke Yoho and several others are also coming from FBC Green Valley to help out. Last but no least good friends Nikki and Christi are coming up from Texas to help out.

Things are coming together in the logistics and planning area. Several area restaurants are coming through big time for us with donations and discounts. Thanks Chick-Fil-A and Cici's Pizza! Also, WVU is donating cross campus transportation on the PRT for the week.

We are expecting between 80-100 elementary aged kids for the week. Pray for God to do mighty things during the week!

Kids Day Looking Back

Kids Day was a huge success! We handed out information about our church and upcoming Sports Camp to hundreds of people, gave away 576 bottles of water, provided crazy balloons to kids everywhere, did face painting, and other fun stuff. StoneBridgers were out in force to make this event happen! John and Ynita Swomley drove 2 1/2 hours over from Inwood to do balloon tricks and provide face painting, and worked nonstop for four hours, and wouldn't even take any money for their services. Unbelievable. Thanks to all who made Kids Day a rip roaring success!

Family Night at Chick-Fil-A is next on our agenda Tuesday night. Here are a few pics from Kids Day.

Tripleheader

Over the next two weeks at StoneBridge, we've got a tripleheader of community events on the calendar: Kids Day in downtown, Family Night at Chick-Fil-A, and our All Day Sports Camp July 23-26 on the campus of WVU. I am pumped about the opportunities we're going to have to connect with people in our city. I'll try to post pics after each event.

Camp Rewind

Enjoyed last week at Summit Lake Camp in Maryland. We essentially run two camps in one: preteens and teens with separate programming for each group. For the past three years I have been in charge of preteen recreation. The highlight of rec for the week (in my opinion) was playing Ultimate Dodgeball on Thursday afternoon where 4 teams of 20 kids each square off against each other at once. They rush in from four corners to several large trash cans filled with giant kickballs, kickballs, pool noodles, and tennis balls. It was crazy fun, except for the complaints about the ferocity of the tennis balls (oops).

My 7 year old son Ryan make his rookie debut at camp. Twenty minutes into the week, he wanted to run off and play. When I went to look for him, he was playing in a 5 on 5 game of hoops with about 9 guys over 6 foot tall. He had a blast all week. I guess I'm getting old, because I set a personal record for my earliest bedtimes ever at a church camp. I was in bed by 10:45 just about every night.

There were several professions of faith for the week which was encouraging. Jason's messages were in the pocket and David brought a good energy to lead our evening worship sessions throughout the week.

Mac

I got tired of waiting 10 minutes for my 4 year old Dell laptop to boot up and it freezing up when I run video backgrounds in MediaShout, so I broke down and ordered a new MacBook last Monday. It came in on Friday just as I got home from camp. Saturday morning I ordered the much heralded ProPresenter worship presentation software. Can't wait for it to come in and use it next Sunday.

Now if I can get past the learning curve...How do you copy and paste?

Sunday Night Not So Deep Thoughts

Today was a great day at StoneBridge, with several first timers...July is off to a good start, and was a banner month in 2006..

God is sending us people who are hurting...and our people are up to the task of loving them and serving them...

John Mellancamp is doing a concert at Walter Reed Medical Center on HDNet. It's not a 4th of July in Morgantown without watching fireworks at the river and listening to "Small Town"..

A quality church website is a must...the vast majority of our guests who aren't invited by a StoneBridger are connected to us via the web...can't wait for our new site to hit the web shortly

I'm getting too old to run recreation at church camp...

Scored points today with Belinda helping her pick out new clothes at the mall and running clothes from the rack to the dressing room...

Kids Day

On Saturday, July 14th, StoneBridge will be sponsoring a booth at Kids Day, a Main Street Morgantown sponsored event. We're going to do some cool stuff for kids such as crafts, face painting, inflatables, etc. We're also going to have the chance to promote our Sports Camp coming in late July.

If you have any good ideas that we can implement at Kids Day, let me know.

Inwood

Traveled to Inwood WV with Jason and David to visit our sending church Sunday night. These trips are always a shot in the arm for us because the people there are so encouraging. Trips to Inwood are nostalgic for me since I lived there from 1975-88.

Seen on the trip...on a billboard in front of an Independent Baptist Church in Martinsburg..."One of America's Most Exciting Churches". Wow. Don't get me started on that one.

New Website Almost Ready!

David is putting the final touches on the new stonebridgebaptist.com, which should be up and running by July 1st! I am pumped about our new look, which I think will more accurately portray who we are and why we are doing what we do in Morgantown.

Check out the progress here and let me know what you think.

Pray for Calvary Baptist in Jonesboro

Just found out that the group from Calvary in Jonesboro had a tire blow out 20 miles from home coming back from CityReach. Their van and trailer flipped several times on the interstate. There were no deaths, but I know of one lady who has a broken pelvic bone and there are other injuries. Please lift them up in your prayer time.

CityReach is Over

We had a fantastic week at CR07! Got home last night at 8:00 pm after a full day of travel. Remind me never to fly in and out of Baltimore again. The traffic is horrible. Jason and I left BWI at 3:15 pm and had stop and go traffic until we got through Hagerstown, MD. Aarrgh! I think I would rather jump off of Seneca Rocks than fight that DC/Baltimore/No. Virginia traffic every day.

CR07 was a huge success, despite some technical and logistical difficulties earlier in the week. 198 students and adults converged on Loveland, CO from 17 churches across the country. Over 6,000 contacts were made in Loveland and Fort Collins through these ministry tracks: COPS (Christian Opinion Polls), Sports Camp, VBS, PIT (Project Impact Teams), RAK (Random Acts of Kindness), and Absolutely Free Car Wash.

We know of 51 people who became Christ-followers through the efforts of CityReachers. Six students answered the call to ministry. People all over the city talked about all of the "people in the green shirts". The key to the success of CityReach each year is combining the gospel message with good works. When people experience the love of Christ through good works, they are more open and receptive to hear the good news of Jesus Christ! Too often, Christian people want to cram the message Jesus down people's throats without sharing the love of Christ through good works or acts of kindness.

Most likely CR08 will take place in Loveland, CO again and there is a slight possibility that a 2nd location could be added in the Eastern US. For more detailed recaps of CityReach, check out these blogs: Jason Sheffstall, Jonathan Johnson, John Yoho, and Kevin McCauley.

Colorado or Bust

Tonight I'm busy packing to leave for CityReach in Loveland CO. Tomorrow morning Jason adn I will be heading east to Baltimore Washington Int'l Airport for our nonstop flight to Denver. Over the next week I'll be leading the Project Impact Team, a team of about 30-40 high school students who will be engaged in servant evangelism projects across the city. Pray hard for life change.

Vacation Recap -- Kumbrabow State Forest

The first two nights of our mini vacation were spent at beautiful Kumbrabow State Forest, 45 minutes south of Elkins near Huttonsville. Kumbrabow has a small, rustic campground (13 sites) that sits beside a beautiful native brook trout stream, Mill Creek. There are great hiking trails, rustic cabins if tent camping isn't your thing, and nice waterfalls to explore. Also nearby in the tiny village of Helvetia is a world class Swiss restaurant. Swiss immigrants settled and started the town of Helvetia in the late 1800's and their descendants live there today. On Saturday evening the four of us journeyed to Helvetia and engorged ourselves at the Hutte' Restaurant. Here are some pics.