Declare His glory among the nations,
His marvelous deeds among all peoples.
Psalms 96:3

Friday, June 18, 2010

one month shy of a year...

...since I've posted on this blog!  I just looked at the date of the last posting - unbelievable how fast a year has gone by.  Last year at this time, a team of students and leaders were preparing for a two week trip to Gabon, Africa...and again this year, we are planning and preparing for a new trip together.  This one is a little closer to home- a 10 drive by bus instead of almost 24 hrs start to finish by plane.  Our destination - LIFE 2010 Conference.  One of the most amazing opportunities our students have to gather together with other teens of our denomination under one roof.  We're gearing up for a week of some awesome speakers, great times of worship and abundant opportunities to connect within our own student ministries.  Our kids {and, I might add, our five leaders} are excited and ready to begin our road trip and stand poised and ready to be challenged and changed during this week. 

In past LIFE conferences many of our students have gone forward to receive Christ for the first time, recommitted their lives to God and committed to fulltime ministry & missions. This week is all about growing and changing.  Our students will be stretched as they listen to deep speakers, worship in music with thousands of other teens and connect with the rest of the group {four teens to a room, folks, that's real connection!}.  There'll be lots of listening, learning and certainly ALOT of laughing!!!  {Seriously, if you have not taken the time to get to know our students, you are TRULY missing out on alot of laughing!} 

The theme of this year's conference is
 COLLIDE...what happens when your world meets God’s world?   

The LIFE 2010 website describes the conference like this, 
"Imagine thousands of students authentically experiencing God and being inspired to expand His Kingdom. Imagine worshipping and growing closer to Christ. Imagine connecting with new friends, serving together and helping church plants. Imagine tons of seminars and workshops, awesome concerts and incredible experiences. That’s what LIFE is all about."

We're excited to have Francis Chan back with us as our main speaker again this year. 
 Many of us have read his books "Crazy Love" and  "Forgotten God" and know that God is working with him to present some pretty challenging messages to our students.  We'll also have the opportunity to worship with some great musicians - some of which are playing in the background as you read this. 

Check out the LIFE website {click on the link above} and stop one of our students in the hallway - they're REALLY excited for this trip and would be glad to tell you about it!  We'll be blogging here throughout the week of LIFE to update with pictures, stories and prayer requests so stop by often.  PLEASE pray for our students as they prepare for this trip.  Pray that the LORD would grip each heart and transform each one of their lives to mirror HIS.  These are students with GREAT potential to change their worlds, pray that the pressures around them would diminsh so that they will choose to follow hard after Him with a radical faith.

Thank you, parents, for allowing us to accompany your children and love on them as they reshape their lives for Christ...each one of us take our jobs seriously and look forward to seeing what God has in store for each of them.  We do what we do because it is our desire to raise up a new generation of Christians who follow daily after Christ with total self-abandonment.  We're so privileged to be a part of their lives

1 comment:

Rob Tanner said...

Thanks for kicking this off Terri. As one of those 5 leaders, I too am anticipating great things for these students during our week at LIFE. The world is a tough place and Satan is hard at work to keep our students focused on themselves. When he's successful, opportunities to "collide" with people who desperately need Christ are missed. May this week motivate us all to make sure that our world meets God.