Yesturday

"Freaky Friday" was the busiest day so far for me on this side of the ocean. I had crashed on Thursday night at my friend Austin's house as we prepared for the day ahead. The day began before the sun had time to rise, @ 5am alarm clocks were calling for the tasks at hand. I rolled over and out of bed through the shower and into the early morning with high hopes and butterflies, expectation and anticipation.

Task 1 (6 am): Make a "Wake Up Call Promo Video".
Austin had pre-arranged an ok with a high school student's parental units for us to sneak in early, set up some embarrasing props and startle the sleeping student to life. The goal was to make this video a promo for Beach Break in Italy this summer. We made our way up to the door quietly, slowly and softly. With the video camera ready to roll, flashlight ready to shine and noise makers ready to cause ruckus we entered the room. We had brought a cute little Dora the Explorer blanket to drape over the sleeping victim of this Wake Up. With the embarrasing blanket in place we shined the light directly into his eyes, got crazy loud and disturbed the inner peace of the room. It was hilarious and even though I havent seen the video playback yet I'm sure it came out good. We woke him screaming, "Josh, It's almost time for Beach Break are you going? Are you excited? Wake Up man, It's almost time for Beach Break!!!" then as the camera pans down we ask... "Josh, Why do you sleep with a Dora blanket?" So funny..

Task 2 (11 am): Go to Middle School lunch to amp up the students for Fear Factor
Its always fun going to the Middle School for lunch. Today we just tried to get the students stoked about Fear Factor after school. A lot of kids were really excited to go and see what would happen.

Fear Factor (3 pm): After preparing for this event the last two weeks I was anxious to see the creepy crawly unfold. We had 5 event stations consisting of different games and fear challenges. I think we had about 90 students attend the event. There was a physical challenge with a complete relay obstacle course. An event called "Gone Fishin'" where students, without using their hands, had to pick up fish in their mouths and run across a tarp about 20 feet and drop the fish in a bucket. The team with the most fish in the shortest amount of time would win. Next there was a "Grab & Guess" station. Inside a bag was an unkown item that the students would have to conquer their fears to feel around and guess the name of the object. With items like Octopus, Peanut Butter, Noodles, Sardines and more. The next event you had to fire a nerf gun at a board with about 7 disgusting things to eat and 1 good thing being chocolate. You would get more points for a more disturbing item to eat. The last event was a contortionist spelling contest with words taken from a Bible passage. The students would have to spell a word from the passage correctly using their bodies to get points. A word like "Gennesaret" would be worth 20 points. After all the fear challenges, my friend Olivia gave a talk about conquering the fear in our lives, and how Jesus wants to be our way out of those fears. When we are fearful we should turn to Him.

Capture the Flag/Camp Fires (8pm): After cleaning up from Fear Factor we set up for a night with the High Schoolers playing Capture the Flag in 34 degree rain. We had some fires blazing under the gazebo with smores and hot chocolate. We had three teams of about ten people each representing the US, Germany and Britian. We played and played and ran and got soaked and bathed in the cold mud and it was beautiful. We had three zones and the course proved to be a great place for some Capture the Flag. My team won one round of the game. Later in the frigid night Austin gave one of the best invitations I've ever heard. He simply shared the Gospel from his heart, without persuasive or noble words he shared the heart of God to forgive us. He shared that we as leaders have been changed by this relationship we have with him. It was funny but the Holy Spirit was also penetrating hearts last night. Hearing him speak made me feel so alive to know that I know Jesus, that I too am the light of the world. Thats something worth sharing.

The entire day culminated in that talk for me. All the hard word to plan these events was validated by the Gospel. The fact that we all are sinners, yet Jesus died so that we may be made new, forgiven, changed, awoken to Him, made alive. He died, was buried and rose again. That resurrection power is still alive today... conquering sin, breaking chains and setting the captives free!