a year ago today

so this post/update is long overdue but i guess better late than never.

a year ago today i started the beginning of my summer as a youth intern at calvary baptist church in rapid city, sd

a year ago today i was scared to death about what i got myself into for 2 months.

a year ago today i boarded my first plane on my first flight.

a year ago today i left home for more than 10 days for the first time.

a year ago today i started a journey outside my comfort zone, giving my time and resources to God and his children.

a year ago today i walked into the rapid city airport and saw Mrs. Connie, Jacob, Rebekah, and Heidi waiting for me.

a year ago today i went to the Fox's house and talked about my summer plans.

a year ago today i met the family i would be staying with the whole summer, all the kids wearing texas stuff.

a year ago today i met most of the youth i would be spending the summer with.

a year ago today i begin to form a friendship with all these youth that i could never forget.


as you can see, a year ago today was a huge step for me. i have been reflecting over the past summer and it hit me more today because i wasnt going back there this summer. so i decided to write down some of what i was feeling. i cant believe it has been a year since i started the best summer of my life so far. i met some of the most amazing and Godly people, and i fell in love with a place that was not harleton. God placed me with a great family with great children. i count all 4 of the brothers that i stayed with as brothers. i grew close to all of them during the summer. Mr. Dave and Mrs. Barbara were amazing parents to me while i was away from home. i know i have a second family in rapid. the youth, nikki, evie, kailynn, caitlin, rebekah, heidi, andrew, aaron, brad, caleb, hannah, matt, pat, probey (thomas), andrew, colton, and amy, are some of my greatest friends and i miss and love them all. the adults, mrs. connie, mr. jay, pastor steve, bro. mike, mr. dave, mrs. barb, danny, mrs. tonya, the lepperts, the wells, the romeyns, the piersons, the sandines, the wallas, jacob, levi, sam, andy, samantha goodrich, ethan are all influential Godly people who led, taught, helped, provided, and were just there for me the whole summer. all these people and the ones i did not name are some of my best friends and i count them all as blessings God provided for me to be around. Thank you guys (haha) for everything yall did last summer. I cannot wait to visit this summer and see all of you again. July can not come quick enough.

LOVE you all,
Adam

while i'm waiting

this past week was incredible for me. we went to camp at kamp kinship. it was great to see friends from the harleton group come up and get to talk to them. but probably my favorite part of camp was getting to hang out with my youth all week. i got to see God move in them and cannot wait to follow up with them all as i see them.

God used our camp pastor Gary Vaughan to help me with some of my deciscions regarding my future. i sat down and talked to gary at lunch one day and kinda just asked him about his story that led him to where he was now. he told me his story and it was strangley familiar to mine. he went to college and worked towards getting his education degree in a composite social studies form. he then asked me about a little of my story and i told him about where i am up till now. i told him that i am waiting for God's direction about where to go next. i told him that i am one of those guys that wants to see my whole path lit up. he told me that he was that way too, but God sometimes lights up just one step up at a time for guys like us. this makes us rely on Him and to be obedient to Him. gary said that when you have no sense of what God is telling you to do next, do the last thing that he told you to do until he reveals that next step.

so that is where i am at right now. unsure about my future path but loving the present time that God has me in. I will continue serving Him while i am waiting on that next step.

Pleasures

“If these are the pleasures afforded to sinful men, what does God have in store for those whose hearts are His?”- St. Augustine of Hippo

a little of the journey

so my journey up here has been about a year in the making. it started after youth camp last year. i felt God calling me to serve this summer. in what capacity i did not know but i felt like it was in the dakotas somewhere. i was inspired by a few summer missionaries from kamp kinship that year. i wasn't sure if it was really God calling me or if it was just a longing i had to be back into the dakotas' great weather. so i kinda put it off. i asked a couple of people to pray that God would reveal to me what he wanted me to do clearly so i couldn't pass it off as something else.

then after the beginning of this year God started speakin to me through my quiet times. the main quiet time that got my attention was out of isaiah 6 when isaiah has an encounter with God.

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. ² Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying.³ And they were calling to one another:

"Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty;
the whole earth is full of his glory."

⁴ At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.

⁵ "Woe to me!" I cried. "I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty."

⁶ Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. ⁷ With it he touched my mouth and said, "See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for."

⁸ Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?"

And I said, "Here am I. Send me!"

isaiah's encounter with God started with him witnessing God and his splendor. one of my teachers has told me that the definition of worship is an encounter with God in which u come away changed. you can never encounter God and not be changed by it.

through isaiah's worship God revealed his sin. isaiah sees his sin and immediately confesses it before God. God heres his plea for forgiveness and through his grace forgives him. oo there is so much to say about grace but that will be another blog.

God then asks who will go and speak to the people and reveal their unfaithfulness and sin and isaiah cries "Here am I, send me!"

After having this quiet time i knew without a doubt that God had called me to go to the Dakota's but i did not know how or where. i started by emailing a pastor from north dakota who is in charged of the camp our church helps with each summer in south dakota. after two weeks or so i still had not gotten a reply from him. i figured that i did my part and it wouldn't work out and i could stay safe at home this summer. however after another week i got an email back from him and it said he had sent my info to a few churches and some of them wanted more info. i sent the info to him and he sent it to the churches.

i decided i wanted to go camping out for a night and pray this thing over and see in which direction God was leading me to. i came back after that camp out and had three emails from three different places all asking me to consider and pray to see if that is where God wanted me. I was so excited. I begin to pray about them and God led me to choose Calvary Baptist Church in Rapid City, South Dakota. Now here i am. I am a week into this amazing journey and God has placed me with a great family and an awesome youth group and church. I am excited about what God has in store and will be updating you with events and happenings when they come. so this was a lil bit of my journey.

Leavin on a jet plane....

so as some of you may know i leave tomorrow to go to South Dakota for 2 months. or as tanner tells me 10 weeks. I am heading to Calvary Baptist Church in Rapid City to help with the youth group there. this call to head up there started about a year ago and i will tell you more about that another time.

my plan for this blog is to provide updates with what is going on where i am at, tell you more about what God is doing in my life, and to sometimes share things that i have found out along the way. one of my teachers once told me it is better to start doing something like this maybe once every week or so. then when you do more people feel as if they are getting more as a bonus so that is my plan.

i will be in south dakota until august 6 and will update you with what i am doing up here as well as how i got up here. so thanks for your prayers and support. i will be praying for yall too.