Ambridge Youth Ignite desires to provide a ministry to the youth of Ambridge that encourages their relationship with Christ, fosters their overall development and identifies and sharpens young leaders.
God has given us several new opportunities in 2010!
This coming January 2010, Ambridge Youth Ignite is sending a team to Lima, Peru. The team will work along side a team of Peruvians to provide a one week sports and arts camp for the youth who live near San Mateo, a church in Lima. The one week camp will be used as a launching point for a new youth ministry to take shape at San Mateo.
In April of 2010, our leadership team has also been invited to lead the middle schoolers at New Wineskins. This age group has been overlooked in the past and the organizers desire for us to create a mini-missions conference for the students.
This summer we will hold our 7th Sports and Arts Camp. The camp will continue to be our catalyst in serving and connecting with the community as we try and reach more youth with the love of Christ.
The three leaders who started the fall arts classes are all hoping to continue them during the spring and we maybe adding several more. We also hope to connect with a specific sport in the spring in an effort to connect more youth with Ambridge Youth Ignite during the school year.
Our discipleship groups will continue to meet every week during the school year. Our hope is that through the discipleship groups as well as the Ambridge Sports and Arts Camp and the Peru trip that we will see more and more high school leaders stepping up to lead us into the future.
It is truly amazing to me to look at the leaders who are heading up our new arts classes and our girls' discipleship group and see that none of them are mine. God has brought new leaders and planted dreams in their hearts, and they are stepping out in faith to show the youth of Ambridge the love of Christ through sports and arts.
During the spring of this year I read an article in Relevant Magazine on homeless children through out the world. The article focused on homeless children in Central and South America whose parents had left them to move to Spain with a desire to make more money for their families. In most cases the parents never return and the children are left to themselves.
The article reminded me of the poverty that I saw in Lima, Peru where my team went on Josiah Project. Our team saw children and families living in a desert, where they moved because they couldn't make it in the city. In an effort to create a home they picked up everything they had and made makeshift homes in the desert. They have water, which they had to pay for, delivered in trucks. As we walked around the makeshift city (literally thousands of people lived there), we saw children playing on piles of garbage.
Through the article I thought and prayed and wondering whether God wanted us to go to Peru and run a sports and arts camp. Why a sports and arts camp? As I look through the ministry that exist for the children and their families, there are many that offer food, shelter and finances but not necessarily a place for children to have fun and be children. What better place to have a sports and arts camp. Lastly, I wanted us to go to help out the missionaries who are already there and I found that our desire and the missionaries match up.
With all of that, I am telling you that we are headed to Peru this January 2010 (its summertime in January in Peru) to run a sports and arts camp for a week, as well as leading an Intro to Youth Ministry course. The missionaries in Peru desire to create a youth ministry at one of the local churches from the youth who attended the week long camp and with the Peruvian leaders who lead the camp along with us.
It is an amazing opportunity that God has given us, pray for us as we prepare.
Ambridge Youth Ignite is wondering what youth sport Ambridge needs. We have created a survey for you to take if you click on the link below it will take you to SurveyMonkey where the survey is located. Remember while you are taking the survey that we at Ambridge Youth Ignite do not desire to start a sports league that already exists in Ambridge. That is why you will not see Baseball, Football or Soccer.
This year was the 6th summer that the Ambridge Sports & Arts Camps have given the youth of Ambridge opportunities that they would not have had otherwise. Wow! Six summers of an entirely free camp, and hundreds of youth seeing God through the love of the leaders and through our weekly testimonies. We would have never made it through the first summer much less the sixth without your prayers and support.
Its amazing to me that God continues to make the Ambridge Sports and Arts Camps happen. This year was no different. There are a few stories that I want to point to to show you the fruit that is beginning to come from these past six summers.
I have to start off with Johanna.* Johanna attended the Sports Camp as a participant when we first started in 2004. In 2009, Johanna was one of our leaders. She is a rising sophomore at Ambridge High School. As well as helping us out this summer, Johanna had jaw surgery, a procedure that forced her to eat nothing but liquids for several weeks. While recovering we sent Johanna a signed T-shirt from all the campers and the staff. We were planning a trip to her house, when she
decided to come back to camp! Even though she had difficulty talking and wasn’t able to particpate in the sports, Johanna was a huge help with registration, treating injuries, setting up snacks and anything else we threw at her.
Here is a quote from Johanna, “I wanted to thank you for letting me come back and hang out the last two weeks. It really helped me feel better both physically and spiritually to be working with such a great group of coaches who love God and want to love on the kids of Ambridge. I really felt encouraged each day when I was walking home by just hanging around with you guys. The energy and excitement that you and the other coaches brought into each day was a blessing to me. I feel like in just those two weeks I learned so much.”
Two other High Schoolers who helped lead the camp, Brandon* and Alex,* also had transformative experiences. Brandon is one of the High Schoolers that I have been mentoring since last September. He has been great to watch grow as I have seen him make new friends and be stretched by working with youth at the Sports and Arts camps.
During one of our Thursday night Pizza and Testimony nights, Brandon gave his testimony to the youth about how God has changed his life and released him from some of his anger. Alex also gave her testimony, she told the youth about her challenging childhood and how God has brought her out of that. Alex is someone in whom I have seen great leadership potential and who Shea will have the opportunity to mentor starting this fall!
Finally, I want to tell you about the final performance of the Arts Camp. It was music week and the youth learned how to play guitar and djembe (hand drums), and sing together. Their performances brought chills to the audience, including myself. It was amazing to hear them perform that well after just two weeks of practice. One mother told me that she “was brought to tears” by the youth. God was truly glorified through the youth and the leaders performance.
Week 4 ended really well at arts camp the youth performed two plays. The younger group performed The Grouchy Ladybug and the older group performed a scene from Hamlet. It was really neat to see the youth perform, especially when I know how difficult it is to get in front of a group of people and speak.
Flag football went well too, while the week seem to turn into a week of Shark and Minnows (a game of tag) with football flags, the youth really enjoyed it. Flag football week seemed to give us more of an opportunity to talk about sportsmanship and how we treat our teammates and our opposition. Unfortunately this is a tough road because most of the examples that the youth are seeing through professional sports are setting poor examples of sportsmanship.
During the week we talked them about the importance of letting wins and losses go after the games were over. We also talked a lot about the line between being competitive and being angry, which I have fallen on the wrong side of many times. Also, encouraging the youth to encourage their teammates and their opponents instead of tearing them down.
Definitely a challenging road but an important one.
This week was bittersweet for me. Lacrosse has become my favorite sport over the past few years and I really enjoy teaching it to the youth. Since we started the sports camp in 2004 it has been a dream of mine to start a lacrosse team in Ambridge. Until recently the sport of lacrosse didn't exist in Beaver County, where Ambridge is located. I was hoping that this week would be another opportunity to increase the visibility of the sport with the youth here. But as the week went on I felt that God wanted me to let go of this dream to start a lacrosse team in Ambridge.
So, as I was saying it was definitely bittersweet, several of the youth really enjoyed the week and want a team here but I know that I need to let go of it. One quote that struck me as I was going through this week was this, "if God gives you a dream, and the dream comes to life and God shows up in it, and then the dream dies, it may be that God wants to see what is more important to you - the dream or him." That quote is from Me, Myself and Bob by Phil Vischer.
As I looked at my life recently, I have really desired to be known as a lacrosse coach. But, God desires me to be His first, for me to be know as a Christian, a follower of Christ. I hope that I can begin to desire again to be His first and let go of things that keep me from being who God wants me to be.
Wow, what a week. The past week was definitely intense, we went from a high of 30 youth last week to 50 at sports camp this week and the number of leaders we had decreased by a significant amount. So, as I was saying it was an intense week. We continue to show God's love to the youth through sports and arts, here are some photos from the past 2 weeks.
Wow, the summer is here and its hot. We have a great staff this week, they have come together so fast and the only sad part is that some of them aren't going to be around all summer. The youth have been great too, picking up on soccer and with all the different physical art they are being challenged with.
My favorite part of this week so far was the return of a family of campers who attended camp back when we started in 2004. It was great to see them and the oldest actually help lead a station. That was a blessing, I hope we can stay connected to them through out the summer and during the school year.
Last night I spoke with our team about our passions, that is our theme for the summer with the team. We are trying to uncover our passions that have been covered up, forgotten and pushed down by our culture's expectations. Pray for us as we walk thought the summer together.
We are very excited about the upcoming Sports and Arts Camp 2009. This will be our 5th year of the sports camp and our 3rd year of the Arts Camp! We are assembling a really great team and our continuing our preparations for the summer. Most of the team members are from right here in Ambridge. Camp starts June 15th with the Sports Camp at 9 am and then the Arts Camp at 1 pm. Also, this summer Church of the Savior will be hosting a free lunch for youth 18 and under, its from 12 pm until 1 pm.
In memory of my Grandfather, Paul, I wish to pass along this story as Paul had told it to many listeners during his lifetime.Paul died in 1999.
During the late 1950’s and early 1960’s, we had droughts, no rain (in late summers and fall seasons) for five years.Thus, all the farmers in, a southern county of Maryland, had depleted any or all surplus feed for their cattle, and feed was high in price because it was scarce.
An uncle of mine, Roger, who was bout 76 years old, had a small farm.On this farm, Uncle Roger raised a small herd of cattle of which he prized very highly.Now due to the continued drought, he knew he could not feed his cattle unless we got some rain because his hay, barley and wheat crops had all failed.He must depend on a good corn crop, which needed rain.The corn stalks were firing, that is, drying up clear to the shoot, the stalks where large enough and the shoot was there, but for the ear of corn to grain out, it must have rain.
So, Uncle Roger knelt down right there in the cornfield and prayed for rain, telling God just how badly he needed it.As he finished his prayer he said, “Now God show me you heard my prayer”.Then, Uncle Roger got up and walked back toward his house, he looked up in the heavens, the sky was real clear, only one little cloud off to his left, no sign of any rain.But, just before Uncle Roger got to the porch of his house, there was a flash of lightning and a roll of thunder, which startled him.He said, “It is so hot, I guess that was heat lightning”, but before he could reach the house a beautiful fresh shower of rain was falling, enough so that, if you would have been standing in it you would have gotten good and wet.As Uncle Roger went in the house he went straight to his bedroom and knelt and thanked God for the lovely rain.He was sure God had heard his prayer.
The corn matured very nicely, and as it ripen, Uncle Roger cut and tied the stalks together.After finishing cutting all the stalks, he disked the ground.Then, Uncle Roger called me and asked, “If I would sow the field in wheat”.I asked, “Do you have the seed, fertilizer, and grass seed ready?”And he replied, “Yes”.So, I drove my tractor and drill down to his farm and sowed the field for him.
Afterwards, Uncle Roger went to shucking his corn.One day, after several weeks of shucking his corn, my phone rang; it was Uncle Roger.He said, “You must come down right away”.As I hung up the phone, I said to my wife, “I wonder what the trouble is down there, he sounds like he is crying”.You see his first wife had died in an automobile accident and Uncle Roger had remarried a woman some years younger and sometimes they did not get along too well.My wife said, “I guess you will find out when you get there”
As I drove up to his garage, Uncle Roger was standing out front, holding this ear of corn, shaking and crying and said, “Look what God has done for me”.He then handed the corn to me.
Uncle Roger told me how he had prayed for rain, how God had heard and answered by giving a good soaking rain; which my uncle figured was the answer to his prayer, but God had gone further.He also gave this perfect ear of corn with this perfect cross.Uncle Roger took me up in the field to show me just where he was shucking.That day, he had completed shucking one bundle of stalks and had re-tied that bundle and laid it aside.Uncle Roger was then about half way through the second bundle, when he shucked out this ear of corn and as he went to throw it on the pile, this ear of corn shook in his hand; but he was already in the process of throwing it and the ear fell on the other side of the pile.Bewildered, Uncle Roger got up and walked around the pile and found this beautiful ear of corn.He said, “As I looked around, I was standing just about where I knelt to pray”.I have never seen anyone so elated in my life, crying and shaking for joy.
So, I say again, “God surely does hear and answers prayers.Here is proof.Praise His Holy Name, Amen.
Last week, I went out and shot baskets at the court down the street from my office. While I was shooting, I started thinking about why I enjoy sports.
One of the things that I realized was that in sport successes and failures were constant in every play or in my case every shot. If I shot and made it, I felt successful and if I shot and missed I felt like I failed. While this is a simple idea and realization, I feel like in life we don't have a lot of opportunities to fail and learn from those failures as in sport. As a bookkeeper I really can't fail, if I do, it immediately looks bad on the organization that I work for. I can't make mistakes and have the opportunity to learn from them. But in basketball, if a shot is long or short, I have the opportunity to go back to that spot that I shot from and adjust.
While following Christ, we are only "successful" when we realized our sins/failures and confess them to Christ and ask for Him to forgive us . Due to the fact that our sin keeps us from God the only way that we can be close to Him, in a relationship, is to live a life of repentance. When we confess and pursue God that is when our shot goes in.
One thing that has occurred since my son started to enjoy watching cartoons; was that we are watching a lot more than I had in many years. The fun part of this is discovering shows that I never watched before that make our whole family laugh. One of those shows is VeggieTales, if you never seen VeggieTales I highly recommend it. It's really creative, funny and they are always pointing their lessons back to the Bible. Here is a short clip, one of the funnier ones...
Now with getting to know VeggieTales I decided to read the biography of one of the creators of the show Phil Vischer, its called My, Myself and Bob. Phil has an incredible story of creating VeggieTales watching it have immense success and then watching it fall all the way to bankruptcy. VeggieTales is actually own now by a large media company. Watching Phil struggle through the his book was difficult because he was attempting to do something great for God, impact children and youth with a great cartoon that emphasized Christian ideas, especially that "God made you special and he loves you very much" (this is said at the end of every show). He thought that he was following God and pushing into his calling and then it all fell apart.
Near the end of the book, Phil writes about what God taught him through taking away his dream (creating a cartoon to reach youth). One quote that really caught my attention was this, "He who has God plus many things has nothing more than he who has God alone" - C.S. Lewis. Wow, its especially eye catching when its written like this, "He who has God plus an amazing ministry impacting millions of lives around the world has nothing more than he who has God alone", that idea has really set me back. I want to be in a place where I can believe that on a daily basis where its not about what I do, is about God and my relationship with Him and that alone is enough. Thanks Phil
When I first became a Christian I looked down on my love for sports. I knew that I needed to spend more time with God and if I cut out sports I would have plenty of time for Him. But during my Josiah Project summer God showed me the things I love can bring Him glory. So, we decided to start the Ambridge Sports Camp, Shea and I love Jesus and love sports and we attempted to mix the two together and see what came out.
As sports has become a golden ticket to college or to a wealthy life, I see us headed backwards, back to when you played sports for fun, to be around friends and to challenge yourself in being the best you could be.
That's what we want the Ambridge Sports Camp to be; a place for youth to have the opportunity to be youth, a place where they can be with their friends and make new friends, a place to be challenged athletically, mentally and spiritually and a place to have fun. Its work for the past 4 years. Hopefully the Ambridge Sports Camp will continue to be a place where we see God glorified in a camp and in sports.
When I look at what we believe God is calling us to here in Ambridge...mentoring, lacrosse team, leadership initiative and a youth center. One really stands out, doesn't it...youth center. A youth center in Ambridge run by Ambridge Youth Ignite, wow just saying it makes me feel like I am crazy. For some reason recently God has begun to stir that in me. Honestly, it scares me and that's one reason why I think we need to start pursuing it.
I just finished this book, In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day by Mark Batterson, it really helped me see my fear as a good thing, something that was there for me to overcome, something for me to push into. With that I feel the desire to start praying over a building here in Ambridge that would be a great place for a youth center, that place is the old Foodland.
A couple of experiences have gotten me to this place of search for and praying over a possible youth center. First, in Batterson's book he talks about the building that they prayed over and received to start their own coffee house near Union Station in DC. Um buildings definitely come a lot easier in Ambridge then in DC near Union Station. Secondly, I met the people who operate The Open Door in Crafton Heights near downtown Pittsburgh. Their story is very similar to Batterson's and actually Ambridge Youth Ignite's, they opened a youth center and its still in operation 20 years later. Check out their video below
So, I caught myself saying well if they can do it why not us?
Since my last post, we have had a difficult season. My wife and I who have been attempting to live on the support of our donors, looked at our financial numbers and knew things needed to change. From about April of 2008, I have been applying to jobs and not until recently have I felt peace about what I am about to write.
We are staying in Ambridge, not because I found a great job, not because we got enough donations, but because we can't run away from God's calling on our lives to this place. We love it here, we love our church, we love our friends, we love the youth and the challenges our ministry brings. With all of this God continues to place a burden on our hearts for the youth of Ambridge and we can't run away from that.
As I was thinking about what to say I remembered one of my favorite movies "Field of Dreams", there is a scene in the movie where Ray (Kevin Costner) is faced with making a decision about the field and his home.
I see a lot of similarities between Ray's decision and ours. We need people in our lives (like James Earl Jones in the clip) to say keep going, its worth it, even though things look bad now it won't always be this way.
Peace to you guys as you strive to stay or leave and go where God is calling.
