New Creation

Last week concluded one of the most amazing weeks I have ever had in youth ministry...praise God! At Junior Impact, no other way to explain it, we had an outpouring of the Spirit that I had never experienced in ministry before. God touched and spoke through many young teenagers that night and His presence was so evident that the teens couldn't stop praising Him! I still get chills and smile thinking about it as there is much more to describe what happened in room 153 of Ezell at Lipscomb, but I'll let your imagination run with it. The teens described it as somewhat a fulfillment of the prophecy of Joel described in Acts 2. Call me sometime and I'll share the testimony of God's power with you as many baptisms followed.

The picture above is two guys from Senior impact that gave their life fully to Christ. In all, 17 teens gave their life to Christ as a result of God moving and convicting hearts last week at Junior and Senior Impact. I am so thankful I get to be along for the ride as I truly enjoyed passing on the gift of the Holy Spirit through baptism and asking Hannah (our female youth minister) to baptize most of the girls.

You should have seen the freedom of worship that was displayed by these teens all week and the transparency and ministering to each other that flowed all week...many adults could have become the pupils to those they had been teaching. I know I was completely humbled by the way our teens loved and ministered to each other and recognized the presence of the Spirit moving so freely through them.

I want to end by saying...my wife is amazing. Marcie came with the boys and we roomed together through Junior Impact and then she took the kids to see cousins and friends the next two nights. The way she does these things so unselfishly for our boys is amazing and she does it without thinking of her own needs a lot of the time. It's not being "military", it's being Jesus to our boys in ways they don't even realize. I couldn't do ministry right now if I wasn't married to Marcie and the power of God moving at Impact may not have happened for those teens at Impact. I have been praying for an outpouring for some time. Thank you Marcie for letting me minister!! I love you God and I love you my precious family.

See you in Springfield Mom and Dad!!

Humbly,
Todd

Time in a Bottle

We are starting to realize that certain displays of fun and creativity around the house...won't last forever. We are assured by parents of teens that with certain challenges of every age, come new and exciting opportunities as well. Yet, there is a part of you when reflective that wants to mourn certain "stages" kids can grow out of. Something I wish that our kids wouldn't grow out of is when they put on their super-hero costumes and literally become who they are dressed up to be in a creative and imaginary world that I would love to be a part of.

With Batman, Robin, and Superman we had another superhero come into the midst who wanted to be in the pictures...pajama boy. Looks like a 1920's swimmer but he realized the moment at hand as our boys were posing for pictures several months ago that they wanted to be put on the blog. I love the innocence and imagination of children...Easton even displayed that through expressive dancing behind me as I led singing at V.B.S. this week. All my boys came up behind me last night to dance to the songs and Isaac led a prayer on stage last night in front of everyone with his older brother following it up with another (they call it prayer warrior time at the end of every night at VBS). I Love the willingness and being uninhibited...why do we tend to lose that as we get older and more "refined"!

Will be at Impact from the 13th - 21rst and will have Cole and Chase come through my class on Isaiah! Can you believe that? Love you guys and pray for us as summers are great for ministry, yet challenging on the family.