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Unfortunately, I suppose in leadership there is always opposition.  I think opposition is a good thing because eventually, it makes everybody better and has the potential to make a community stronger.  However, it’s not easy.  Sometimes, in the midst of it you feel like you completely suck at life.  That’s where I’ve been this week.  I’m not down or anything but that thought has certainly crossed my mind.

The cool part about this is that I’ve experienced a lot of encouragement from strange places.  I can’t even begin to explain everything.  The encouragement hasn’t necessarily been from one person saying something but it’s been from multiple people’s actions even though they have no idea what it has meant to me.  There are also some other weird affirmations that I don’t think are appropriate for me to discuss here but they are thoughts and dreams that God has given me for the past seven or eight years that are on the cusp of break through.  Thank you God for the encouragement…you know just what I need in the face of opposition.

I’m reminded of some Scripture I just taught about this past weekend and is something I’m hanging onto right now.

But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

This past week, our family ministry team, at church, took on a night of camping to film for our September series called, “Where The Wild Things Are.”  Obviously, we did not come up with that name but considering the REAL movie comes out in October we decided to do our own interpretation of the movie.  This is the series trailer that I created to be shown on the TV’s around the church as well as in each age-group environment (birth-high school).

This was the most challenging thing I’ve filmed for two reasons:

1. I was in it. I had to frame up the shots, press record and act (poor attempt at acting, of course).
2. There were 8 people in it. There were a lot of people to work with…It was easy to default by having everybody in each shot especially because of reason “1″ (I was the camera man and in the shots at the same time). I tried my best to not have everybody in each shot.

Take a look at the trailer. I will post each episode as they’re completed. There will be four a total of four short films when I’m done.

“Yes, we know the Word and a have a genuine desire to share the gospel with them (students).  But we haven’t taken the time to know them and their changing culture.  When it becomes obvious they aren’t responding to our efforts, we lament the fact they have turned a deaf ear to church.  But is that really the case? I don’t think so.  More often than not, their ambivalence to the church is rooted in the fact they can’t hear anything we’re saying.  Because we haven’t taken the time to know them and their world, they don’t hear or understand any of it.  They’re not deaf–we’re dumb.  In the end, we’ve done an ‘injustice to people whom Christ loves and for whom he died.’”

Engaging the Soul of Youth Culture by Walt Mueller

Wow!  If this isn’t a challenging quote–I don’t know what is.  This quote has inspired me to take my “calling” more serious and become a better cross-cultural missionary to students.  I admit it…I’ve been so focused on things like getting my series planned out for the rest of the year or organizing “this and that,” that I’ve forgotten them.  I see students, I talk to students, I listen to them…but it’s all in the context of our church walls or student ministry events.  I haven’t been in THEIR world lately.  Have you been in the world of the people you are “called” to lately?

I took this picture this morning at sunrise.  Woke up at 4:30am and couldn’t fall back asleep so I decided to get my day started.  I’m calling this picture “Come and Listen,” not sure why…it just seems to fit.

Check out this link. I was really INSPIRED when I watched this. It’s fresh!

Galatians: A Reading