Temperatures climbed over 100 degrees today...but that's okay, it's a "dry" heat. I do notice that it is easier to breath the air because it is not thick with humidity, but it still feels hot! Amazingly, there was no complaint that I heard from the youth about being outside in the heat. The only complaints came from the men who chose to go fishing at 5 AM. A member of the church here named George brought his stepson DJ and met the men at the church to go along for the trip. The complaints were not focused on the early hour, but instead on the plague of mosquitos that called the riverbank their home. You would have thought that we were stuck in the forgotten eleventh plague. I cannot even begin to describe the multitude of these insects we were confronted with. We finally gave up the location in favor of fishing off a nearby bridge. We were finally able to reel in some good looking fish. George was kind enough to show me a good spot to cast, and in less that twenty seconds I had a three pound fish hooked. Unfortunately, it was the only one that I caught. We really appreciated George and DJ getting up so early to join us, and it was well worth the effort for the time spent with them.
Our youth joined with a Youthworks mission team (similar to Ocoee Outreach) to prayer walk an area of the town. We broke up into teams of five and made sure that everyone home in the area had a team step onto their driveway and pray for those that lived there. Several of the youth were nervous about praying out loud in front of someone's house, but after the first couple of houses, all fear melted away, and they made the most of the their time in the community. Several groups had the opportunity to talk with families in the houses. The children especially would come out to see the strangers walking through their neighborhood. We will be going out again on Thursday morning to do more prayer walking in another area of the community, and there is a possibility that we will take some time to come back these areas and spend some time playing and interacting with the children.
In the afternoon, we had two children show up to spend time with us. The children enjoyed playing a creative form of tag and an exciting game of indoor kickball. We had to keep our eye on the older of the girls because every time it was out team's turn to kick, she would immediately get in front of the line, and even as we were kicking, she would sneak up and try to kick as many times as she could. One family from the church came by to go with us to Forsyth for the cookout and pool party. Another two boys showed up before we left and accepted the invitation to come with us as well. Three or four of our youth did a great job of taking the boys under their wing and giving them some people to hang out with. One of the boys challenged me to a game of basketball. This isn't unusual except for the fact that this young man isn't tall enough to ride most roller coasters at a theme park. It's going to be a three on three match, and he is supposed to be back tomorrow to play, so I hopefully will be able to give an update either tomorrow or Thursday. If I don't mention it again, then he probably beat me, so please be merciful and don't ask me about it when we return.
The day ended on an encouraging note. One of our young ladies shared that she loves being a part of this youth group because she feels so encouraged by them. She said that she would rather be here than with any of her friends from school. This is the kind of think that I hope we hear more of. As brothers and sisters in Christ, there should be no place where we feel more loved, welcomed, supported, and encouraged than in the church family. I hope that this is something that even we as adults can say about our lives. I pray that we would crave fellowship with the body, not only for our own encouragement, but also the encouragement that we can offer others. Thank you to everyone for your prayers; it is clear that God is honoring your petitions on our behalf!
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