July 2009

July 10th, 17th, and 31sth - Pink Flamingoing

Still raising money for camp!
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July 11th - Shopping with Dom

Where Viking night is exclusive for dudes, Shopping with Dom if just for the AHYEAH ladies (and they had to put up with me. hehe) This was an event which was purposeful in treating the girls like princesses. :) For weeks the AHYEAH ladies had been bringing friends to church and events to rack up cash for an Oklahoma City shopping spree. Basically, each girl starts with a $15 credit, and for every friend they bring they get $ added to that credit. Can life get better? It will!

So we met that morning and loaded up in a mini-van and the CRV and headed to OKC. We arrived and picked up their shopping cards with worked at every mall store and went to town. The girls shopped till we were all about to drop.

Then we loaded ourselves and our bags up and headed back to church fora catered dinner (thank you Randy Schuyler). What the girls didn't know is that we commissioned the AHYEAH men to serve the girls. What I didn't know was how awesome, caring, and thoughtful our men are.

When we arrived at church, we were ushered into the youth room and not allowed to come out! Finally, all of the girls, and several mothers that came to join us, were allowed out and led in a straight line to a sign-in table where stood an AHYEAH gentleman dressed to the hilt, hair slicked back, and a speaking in a swave French accent. As each girl was signed in, a different gentleman escorted them arm-in-arm past a partition to an exquisite table, decorated with flowers, wine glasses, candles, chocolates, fine china, and folded napkins. Froo froo was hanging from the ceiling and decorated everything. And meanwhile a youth serinated them with live music from a keyboard.

Serving by serving (appitizer, salad, entree, and sides), the AHYEAH gentlemen, sharp in black dress clothes (one youth even ran to Goodwill and spent his own money that day so he could be dressed nice) and speaking in French accents served the ladies and waited on them hand and foot. And to drink they had classy Martinelli's sparkling cider, red or white (non-alcoholic of course), which they served wrapped in a towel.

Throughout the meal, live music was played. Then, during the entree one of our gentlemen got up and sang a couple songs to flow with the music and the setting.

Finally dessert came out. And as the dessert plates hit the table each girl noticed that their names were written on the plate in chocolate. These girls felt special!

Amidst the dessert, I gave a 15 minute devotional about their worth and who their first love is and should be, and their status before God as priceless gems and princesses. With the closing of the event, the AHYEAH gentlemen took the sign-in list from the beginning of the meal into the sanctuary and prayed for each girl by name, for blessings for her and thanked God for her value.

Every one of those girls were touched and felt special, and at some point in the evening every one of them teared up at one thing or another. And I must say, I have never been so proud of our AHYEAH men. Men, may you always see the value in the women around you and treat them as the priceless treasures that they are. Ladies, may you have confidence in your worth, demand nothing short of God's best, and carry yourself as the princess that you are.

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July 20th-24th - Extreme Camp

Camp was awesome! It was the first voyage of the Abiding Harvest Bus (Joan of A.H.). The theme was exhange. Based on the idea that we can't just give up something, but we exchange that for Christ and who He is. The sessions were awesome and convicting ("Just a lil' bit of poop!" - ya, ask an AHYEAH camper). We also were teamed up with another group basically to compete against. That relationship started out a little rocky, but by the end of camp we were family.

On top of the extreme sports (extreme ultimate frisbee, extreme soccer, paintball, the blob, human foozeball, and extreme volley ball) which were all AWESOME, the camp rented out an entire waterpark for us where we spend half a day with the place to ourselves. It was sweeeeeeet.

Then on the last night, the session discussed laying down who we are and send the entire group of camp outside. Outside we found dozens of crosses set up with little fires underneath them. After going outside we continued in prayer and worship and really had an encounter with God. Each youth was given a peace of old cloth which they would lay down at the cross, and each counselor was given a small cross to give them in return. Then all of the youth gathered around Jacqui and I and prayed for us some really powerful stuff. God did awesome things that night!

Returning home was/is always kinda sad, but we were comforted by stopping at our traditional Don's Restaurant for some good, non-camp, Texas food. Yum.