It's Friday!

Hello parents and friends!

Last night, soccer camp was canceled on account of rain. We were literally pulling out of the church as we heard the news on my cell phone. The leaders decided to drive around in the bus a bit to think about what we'd do with the night before we told the students. We ended up going back to the church and then telling students that we were going to the mall. Though there were shouts of enthusiam, which has come to be a normal response for much of what we do :), the feeling was bittersweet. Students were getting used to seeing their kids and giving of themselves to them every night.

We dropped the students off at the mall telling them that if they weren't back to the bus by 7:30pm (an hour), they'd owe a dollar for every minute! The leaders stayed behind as all the students went in and then as a joke, we moved the bus to the other side of the parking lot. At 7:30, all the leaders hid and watched as students frantically looked for and ran to the bus because they were afraid of paying a fine :) It was classic. We all laughed about it (the students did, too...eventually).

We ended the night with a great devotion by Bob Doerr. Instead of meeting in our multi-purpose room, we led students into the church's beautiful sanctuary. Bob's devotion was on how God allows pain to grow us. We sang "Be Still My Soul" to begin and then we entered into probably the most memorable and worshippful "team-time" of the week.

As a leader, it's exciting to see students change. They literally are going to come back different people on Sunday. Some of the guys just seem older because they're accepting responsibility in the name of Jesus. Many of the girls are healing the hurts of children in Jesus' name. What a remarkable trip. I love seeing change like this.

Today we served all over South Bend: Downtown, at a rescue mission, the pastors' houses, and back at the church we are staying at all week. Right now, everyone is resting and grabbing some free time before we head to our last night of soccer camp. Pray for us!

We love you all and are excited to tell you in person what God has been doing in us this week.