Caswell

We had an amazing week last week at one of our most favorite places on the earth, a little place called Caswell.  Caswell is a beautiful retreat off the coast of North Carolina which at one time served as a civil war fort and now serves as our youth camp each summer.  Justin and I have been going to Caswell since we were students and it holds so many special moments and memories for us, we love taking our students there now.  This year was quite different for me since I was now going as a mom with an 8 month old in tow.  Even though I didn't get to experience every single moment with the group I still had an amazing time and I cherish the moments I did get to spend with them.  I am so thankful for the ladies who graciously watched Silas for me at different times, so I could do more.  Initially, I was a little nervous about how things would go and how Silas would do but God truly answered by prayers.  While there I met another mom who was there for the first time with her 13 month old and feeling the same way I was, we got to talk often and share about mom stuff and even had playtime with our little ones - who knew all those needs would be met at youth summer camp?  Well, God knows.  God was definitely at work and we are so excited about the decisions made by everyone while we were there.

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.  Galatians 2:20

Our whole group on one of the forts.

One of the barracks where our group stays while there.

Before Hatch (Worship) one night

We got to take Silas to the beach for the first time while there, he absolutely loved it and we all enjoyed watching him discover this new little world!

Shine

We are in full-out summer mode so I thought I'd share a little bit about what's going on in our life this week.  In case there is anyone that doesn't know Justin and I are crazy about a group of students (or maybe we are just plain crazy), specifically the Salem Baptist Student Ministry and they are a huge-gantic part of our lives.  We have been serving in the Salem Student Ministry for a lot of years now and in recent years Justin has taken a leadership role at Salem in leading the Senior High Student Ministry.  We are so blessed to be a part of this great group of students.  God has truly blessed us through them and through our church family there.  After several years of student leadership and a ton of school work we are being blessed by our church again this Sunday as they have supported us in our journey and are presenting Justin for ordination.  We are so humbled, excited and thankful that we are taking this next step in our life and we truly know that we would not be at this step if it were for our God firstly and secondly for the wonderful Godly people we call our church.  So thank you church family, we love you so much.

This past Sunday we kicked off our annual VBA youth week.  What is VBA you ask?  Simple.  Vacation Bible Awesomeness.  It's a full week of nightly gatherings packed with all sorts of games, worship, insane video skits, small groups lead by our awesome seniors and most importantly God's word.  This year we are focusing on what is means to Shine, where our source of light comes from and how we can Shine for Christ daily in our lives.  Please be in prayer for our students this week during VBA, we have about 80 or more students each night and we always have lots of new faces.    We just pray that we can all Shine brightly for our Savior in a dark world.

Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.” Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the word of life."  Philippians 2:14:16


Next week we will be traveling to one of our most favorite places in the world, Caswell.  It's only the best youth camp ever.  We can't wait.

Thanks so much for all of the support.  We still have a bazillion things to do in our house and we will get back to that, but right now those things just have to wait while we spend the next several weeks with our students.  I will definitely continue posting about our summer and we have some great etsy features and ministries we will be sharing with you throughout the summer on our little blog (even some giveaways!).   Hope everyone has an excellent week!