Let The Road Trips Begin

Well Im back from CIY with the youth group and it was really good. Many people that I had talked to said that they thought it was the best they've been to in years and Id have to agree with them, it was pretty good. We had a little trouble with the youth group this year, again as we do every year, but it was the first night there in the dorms and so needless to say we didnt get to bed until 3 or so that morning.

It was good to see some old faces and to meet some new ones. Some of you may know that Court and I have been talking and just wondering about church planting and whether or not thats what we want to do or called to do and while at school I talked to two good friends about doing church planting and especially up in the New England area and they too had talked to each other about doing it as well, without knowing that I had talked to them both as well. Well I met a guy this week, one day at lunch and all the seats were taken by my youth group so I decided to meet someone new. I asked if this seat was taken and he said no and our friendship began. We introduced oursevles and did all of that get to know you stuff. . .where you from . .what do you do and so on. Well he began to ask me about what my plan is after the internship was over and I went on to tell him about helping out with a church plant here in Knoxville and then proceded to tell him about my ideas of maybe doing church planting in the New England area. Well Rick got real big and wide eyed and said "No Way", at this time I just assumed he was an energetic guy, but he began to tell me his story. Well Rick was from a bigger church in Florida, but he grew up in Rhode Island and would love to go back there. He began to tell me about how God was working in him and about how a few weeks ago they had a guest speaker come in and talk to his congregation about church planting. He said it was very interesting to him and sparked something in him that caused him to want to move back to the New England area and maybe do church planting. He told me about how just this week, he had talked to someone about doing church planting and moving back to that area up north and about how he would love to go back and reach his home people. The New England area is deeply rooted in Catholicism and to be honest, I have not done a lot of research on Catholicism, but I am extremly interested not due to this fact, but I am just interested in learning about other religions and their beliefs, but this also gives me a little more motive. So with the fact that the New England area is so rooted in Catholicism, it would be great to have someone like Rick who grew up there and who has a heart for the peope of New England.

I feel like God is up to something. With this conversation and with the conversations I have had with friends at school and probably the conversations that I will have in the future.

On a lighter note we went to McKays last night, one of my favorite places here in Knoxville and I got two books Im excited about, The Desire of the Everlasting Hills and The Gifts of the Jews by Thomas Cahill. So Im looking forward to going up to Michigan to have some time to read these books and probably a few others.

I think that I put the finishing touches on the apartment that Kyle and I will be living in this year, pretty small but good enough for me and they're cheap so Im not going to complain. If you know of a good job or a good place for me to work, let me know.

Well we're getting ready to leave to head to Johnson City for Nate and Emily's wedding and to see some family so it will be fun. The road trips are about to begin, 1st stop - Johnson City, TN, 2nd stop - Noblesville, IN, 3rd stop - Port Hope, MI and then back to either Indiana or Knoxville, not sure yet for me. So I may not be able to post for a week or so with me being up in Michigan and not having a computer so to the few that read this, have a great week or two.