It's hard to imagine that this time in Gatlinburg could get any better but it has. It's 2:00am and in the other room I still hear guys singing one of the new worship songs we learned. Today was one of my favorite days ever.

 

Both worship sessions were incredibly powerful and motivating for us to respond to God in worship by pursuing the things that God loves. Louie Giglio has done a great job in helping us think through how we desire to spend our short lives as Christians, and as we prepare to head out to our various mission projects, these challenges lie fresh on our hearts.

 

Before lunch we had our final "family time" - which is a bible study all the students particiapte in. This has been a great time for us to work through life issues with just our students, as opposed to the 4500 other people at the Student Life Conference. All of the students have interactive booklets so be sure to have them walk you through it when they get home.

 

We had some free time in the afternoon before dinner so we hung out in the wonderful southern culture that is downtown Gatlinburg. It was fun to blow off some steam and just enjoy each other's company amidst the interesting backdrop. We all gathered to get into the vans for what I thought was a trip back to the cabins. Little did I know that a surprise was brewing and all of the student were in on it.

 

Today is a special day for Kate and me. It is our anniversary. All over Gatlinburg are cheezy, little wedding chapels. Well...you guessed it. The entire student body was waiting in one of these chapels for Kate and I to enter. We had an entire ceremony of vow renewal. It wasn't supposed to be funny, but that made it all the more funny. It was exciting to learn that Billy Ray Cyrus was also married in this same chapel. What a thrill. In all of the hilarity, it was just a great bonding time for our team.

 

At the end of the night, we had one final large group meeting where we sang together, cried together and sent each team off in prayer. There were lots of hugs and I truly feel your prayers of unity have been answered big time. It has been one of the best experiences of my ministry career.

 

Now we head off to our 4 cities. From here on out each team will keep it's own blog entry and hotline update. As always, finding internet access is a challenge so please be patient with these blog updates. Please pray for...

 

 

 

It is 12:45am at the end of another incredible day. The student life conference has been incredible, the community time has been precious, and God is really challenging our hearts.

 

We mixed up the routine today and decided to have lunch and dinner at a beautiful state park nearby. After lunch we took a hike up Grotto Falls. It was so great to get out and experience nature. We experienced it up close! Be sure to ask the people on this trip what made this particular hike so interesting :)

 

It has been so refreshing to go from singing songs about our Creator and to interacting with his creation. All of these experiences are tying together in profound spiritual ways. The spirits of the group are VERY high.

 

You would be so proud at how our students are conducting themselves, how serious they are taking the teaching times, and how engaging they are in group discussions. Getting away like this is needed...for all of us...even you reading this blog. Thank you so much for praying for us. The trip has been incredible so far.

 

Tomorrow is our last full day. We have some great things planned. You can be a part of it by praying for...

 

 

We just finished a great day. We had breakfast then headed off for the day. Our day began with a tremendous challenge from our speaker Louie Giglio about living for the glory of God. Here is a great follow up question to ask people on this trip when they get home: what were some of the questions on their 20 question quiz?

 

After a delicious lunch together we had some team debriefing followed by a large group bible study. Thankfully we got plenty of free time in the afternnon. Many students napped, others spent time in Scripture, while others just hung out and got to know each other. It was amazing how much a little rest affected our group positively. By the night time session, we really felt locked in and connected with God.

 

Our night time session was a very in depth study of what the Gospel really is. If you'd like to learn more, ask the trip people how we as Christians today are different from Moses. The worship music really connected as well and contributed to a night that was very powerful. God seems to be really moving in the hearts of our students as evidenced by their attitudes and conversations with each other.

 

Thank you so much for praying for us!!! We are looking forward to another amazing day tomorrow. This is definitely going to be an awesome send off for our mission projects. As for what to pray for tomorrow...

 

 

Hello everyone, as I write this it is nearly 12:30am at the end of a very full day.

Thanks so much for checking in with our blog. I’m still working out the bugs with the internet access here in Gatlinburg. So this post may be a bit late…

Getting down to Gatlinburg presented some significant challenges but we all arrived safe and sound.

As is the case with every mission trip I’ve ever been on, Plan A never lasts long. We’ve already had to make several new decisions on the fly and we’re finding that transporting nearly 100 people through the tight streets of Gatlinburg takes longer than we anticipated ☺

We arrived at the conference at different times (7 of the 10 vans decided to take the scenic route). But it didn’t take long before our focus was immediately shifted on Christ through great worship and teaching.

•    A good question to ask people when they get home is how they felt heading into the conference vs. how they felt leaving…

We have a packed day tomorrow. Everyone is dead tired…but at the same time everyone is SO excited! It makes it easier to fight the fatigue.

Please pray for us tomorrow that:
•    God would use the teaching to impact us all
•    Our team would continue to grow closer together
•    For a good night’s sleep

Enjoy the pictures by clicking on the PHOTOS link above. Our internet situation is settled so expect updates every night.