A Day in the life of Team Central Leaders...

(This blog is written in response to the Tri-State blog of July 6th.)

OK, so...typically Team Central leaders find sweet slumber within the walls of the gracious churches that we visit during Operation Barnabas...while our students are whisked off to incredible host homes to be dazzled with copious comforts. The four of us sleep where we can find a quiet space...youth rooms, cafes, gyms, sanctuaries, kitchens...you name it, we've set up our sleeping bags and air mattresses in it. And we love it! However...every so often we are invited to stay with a church family in our very own host home and such was the case in Canton...

This morning we awoke to the sweet aroma of crackling bacon and sizzling pancakes...an occurrence that is most definitely uncommon during our summer adventures as ob leaders. We all met up at the breakfast table to partake of our delicious meal...freshly ripened strawberries, hot off the skillet pancakes, steaming bacon and a cornucopia of heavenly breakfast treats. We prayed with our gracious host mom but did not sing the "Thank You Song" for her...we decided to leave that special rendition untouched by leaders and to be used solely by the students. With full tummies we loaded up our borrowed mini van with a ridiculous amount of luggage (Which BARELY fit...by the way.) and quickly drove back to meet up with our very well loved students. But have no fear, we followed all traffic laws.

When we arrived in the parking lot we were delighted to see that our awesome and amazing students were already dropped off by their host families and had taken the initiative to start packing up our Penske for yet another travel day. A second shout out to our packing crew who are oh so diligent! We were greeted with shrieks of excitement as our students bounced across the campus to say, "Good morning to the best ob leaders ever! We missed you SO much!" (Ok, maybe this was just the girls...our boys don't shriek and bounce...) We watched as the students lovingly said goodbye to their host families.

For devotions this morning, all 34 of us read through the first three chapters of Philippians and then watched another challenge filled sermon in the Philippians series by Mark Driscoll. All 34 of us really do love these sermons. You should check this pastor out...true story. We then broke the students up into their Discipleship groups and took an hour to meet with them...to gauge how they are doing spiritually this summer...what God has been teaching them...how they are growing...and areas where we as leaders can better challenge and push them to become the men and women that God is calling them to be. It was a sweet time to share our past struggles and what God taught us through them...the students shared with open hearts giving us all the opportunity to learn from each other...and to marvel at the work of our mighty, powerful and all-knowing God.

When we reached the end of our scheduled team time this morning, we dashed to the bus where the students (and leaders) all signed a lovely encouragement poster to leave for the Canton congregation. We got on the bus...except for Jeremy...he hopped on the Penske and took Ben with him. We drove the students to Cici's Pizza...a crazy all you can eat pizza, pasta, salad and dessert buffet. Normally, our faithful financial adviser, Stacie, would pull out her blue money bag to provide the funds for lunch...HOWEVER, today we owe a HUGE thank you to Tom and Mary for footing the Cici's tab. What a blessing to Team Central! Thanks guys! We are continuously grateful for the ways that God provides for us. We leaders ate a delicious properly portioned lunch from the buffet line complete with absolutely amazing cinnamon rolls...and watched as many of the guys (Brian) ate a not so properly portioned lunch from the buffet line. We enjoyed the time we had to sit and visit with our students...we think they are pretty funny...and they think the same of us because, well, we ARE pretty funny.

On the bus ride from Cici's to Wooster, Jade and Drew led the team in a time of prayer. Prayer for unity, for divine appointments, for the ministry we did in Canton, for the Wooster church and community and for personal growth. As leaders, we love to see students taking the initiative to start spiritual conversations and making Godly decisions. We are excited to see that God is growing Team Central students into spiritually minded and ministry minded young people.

After a few missed exits, we pulled our blue bus and yellow Penske into the Wooster parking lot and instructed the students to pray for our new ministry here in Wooster while we dashed inside to meet with our contact and finalize last minute preparations. (PS...this church is smack dab in the middle of a cornfield! How awesome is that??) We brought our students in and introduced them to the Wooster GBC staff. We took part in a prayer session with the staff and we were all encouraged to hear their stories of ministry and get a glimpse into the heart of this congregation. We know the importance of starting off a new ministry with a time of prayer and loved being able to do that with both our students AND the staff.

Following the prayer meeting, the Triangles stayed on campus to work with the Maintenance crew on various projects such as weeding, raking, painting, cleaning and Sunday morning set up. Cheerful and enthusiastic, they completed all their tasks and were ready to greet their host families. The rest of the students joined Stacie and Wooster GBC staff in handing out flyers for the Day Camp coming up in the next few days. They knocked on doors and invited students to the camp...even giving the opportunity to register immediately. They took time to start spiritual conversations and pray with community members before heading back to the church. We pray that the Day Camp will be fruitful this week.

We assigned host homes. We spread hugs all around to say, "Goodnight! We love you!". We unpacked our ridiculous amount of luggage. We searched for one of the aforementioned "quiet spaces" to sleep in this large church. We went to WalMart. We went to Chipotle (yum!). We discussed our team and how we have been seeing God work. We watched the beautiful Ohio sunset and brainstormed ideas in which we can make Team Central most effective for the Kingdom of God. We went back to our current home, Wooster GBC. We prayed for the students, for our ministry in Wooster and for Wifflefest. We played some basketball. We had our nightly leaders meeting. We prayed some more for our team. We journaled. We wrote blogs. We posted pictures. We thanked God for yet another effective day of ministry for Team Central. We went to bed.

ZZZZZzzzzzzz.....

(Ps...Matt received an email tonight from the youth pastor at Western Reserve. He wrote a note of encouragement to our team stating that as a result of the flyers we distributed during the Saturday Night 4th of July Fireworks Spectacular, a woman brought her family to the Sunday services...the very next day! AND...she made a first time decision to give her life to Jesus Christ! AMAZING! We are rejoicing.)

From Wooster, Ohio...Goodnight!