Great night of ministry

As it's 1:00 am, I should be sleeping, but instead I'm updating. We had a great night of Crew. We had between 20 and 25 high school students. Especially exciting cause we had 2 new students and 2 we haven't seen in a long time. It was one of those nights I was dreading, there was a difficult meeting before hand, and we also announced that some youth leaders were leaving. I thought it was going to be a struggle and a tough night, but it was a blast. Everything went well. We played hockey (yes there's peoplethat love it just as much as Joe). WOrship really felt like worship and not just music, and my message went well. It was one of those times where I had a totally different message planned, and during worship God said you need to speak from this passage. We talked about examples in our lives, and how we can't let the little things keep us from God. THe passage was Hebrews 12:1-2. It was a great passage for me, because it seems like I let the litle things stress me out and keep me from a closer relationship with God. I'm really encouraged how things are going. Yes we have struggles, and yes there's still tough stuff, but there's a great sense of support and a great sense that God's in control. What an amazing feeling.
This week is shaping up to be a busy one, we have a father daughter dance on friday night as a fundraising. Yes we're dancing at the church! and a retreat for high school in 2 weeks. There's a ton going on but should be a fun week, lots of time carved out to hang out with students and leaders. It's awesome to be excited about what's going on, and I pray that this attitude will continue!
Thanks for praying

Brad

stupid week

Hey I"m actually updating in a fairly quick fashion. This has been a very up and down week. Valentine's Day was really fun, but today has sucked. The issues at church seem to be continuing and even getting worse. Can't post too specifics here but just pray for our youth. We're at the "Nothing's not the same anymore, it's not fun stage." Pray that I can continue to trust God in this tough time. Also pray for a couple church conflict issues as well. Hope everyone's having a great week

Brad

wow

Wow it's been way too long since my last update. I have seemed to completely space on updating this site. Chicago was amazing. It was a great three day break, and the pizza was awesome. The conference was nice. The best thing that I got out of it is that I'm not alone. There's others in the same position as me, with churches in transition and all that. This last 2 weeks has been really busy. I'm gearing up for a high school retreat, as well as big fundraisers for our mission trip. My mind keeps wandering of all the little things I need to do. I guess ince it's been so long the best way to update would be through a quick summary of praises and prayer requests.

Praises

• The church has hired a senior as a part time intern specifically for jr. high so that will be a great thing.
• Great break in Chicago
• Had a great conversation with the head of the council, so got some ideas of where the church is going with my position
• 3 new jr. high leaders have come on board.
• Some really good conversations and hang out times with students

Prayer Requests

• Need high school leaders. 3 leaders have stepped down or cut back responsibilities in the last couple weeks
• Fundraising support for our conference in Tennessee
• Good communication with staff/parents
• I'm having open office hours tuesday and thursdays at a Coffee Shop, so pray that that is more of a relational time with students than an office time.

There seems like a lot more going on these last couple weeks, but there are the highlights. I will keep this page updating more frequently. Thanks for praying. Oh and me and Sarah will be up Sunday night at Applebees, so hope to see lots of people!

Brad