Wow, what a summer. We had a great opportunity this summer to see God move in this community. First off our team was wonderful, we had team of six people who did both the sports and arts camp everyday for 5 weeks, that may not sound like a lot but let me tell you working all day with elementary and middle school students pushes people to their limits. But the team did a great job at coming together and was able to place the youth and God before themselves.
The arts camp (which was in its 1st summer of existence) was really neat, we were able to create a mural with the youth, which now resides in downtown Ambridge. The mural was created by the youth and except for a few touch ups was entirely painted by them too. We are hoping through things like the mural the youth in Ambridge will begin to see that they can make a difference in their community and that they will begin to feel more of a part of it.
We also each week had a chance to proclaim the gospel not just through our words but through our actions. But we also know that it is nothing that we do that brings salvation, it is God the father, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit that brings the opportunity and we just hope that we "planted a seed" or "watered a seed" with the youth and their families that we had the opportunity to interact with through the summer. We hope that our actions will help point them toward Christ.
As much as I am glad that the summer is over, I miss the daily interactions with the youth and how those interactions shape my faith in a way that I cannot recreate outside of the camps. It was also great to spend each minute with my family, Shea, Caleb and I were there at both camps and Caleb definitely has a fan club now.
As we move into the fall, we are praying and discern God's call for us in this community. We at this time feel that God is calling us to create a lacrosse ministry to the youth in this area. Now this may not sound like a great idea to you but for some reason God has placed it on my heart for several years now to do this. I think one of the reasons is because God wants all of his children to have opportunities beyond where their social classes reside. Many people in Ambridge live at or below the poverty level and the farthest thing from them is lacrosse. I think we have a beautiful opportunity to expose the youth to something they have never had the chance to be a part of and help them see that God loves them and desires a relationship with them as much as the financially rich. We want to begin to tear down the barriers between classes, through that I believe we can see justice and God's love for all of his people.
Please pray for our vision, for the team (Emily, Jake, Kayleigh and Sadie) as they discern their futures, for the youth that Christ may become real to them and that all of us may seek out God's desire and provision for our lives.
