What an incredible week this has been. I would like to go ahead and put this out there: "Best week ever!" I didn't even get a chance to write a blog for last week because of everything going on to get ready for this week's sports camp. Jeremy was out of the country and the responsibility of finalizing everything for camp fell on me. There was a lot of emailing and phone calling going on, so there wasn't all that much to tell about. Except for Monday, Horace and I rode through town a little bit on our bikes going from park to park passing out sports camp and Bible school flyers. Most of the people we talked to had a very positive response and seemed to appreciate what the church was doing for the community. It's hard to say how many students showed up because of that, but it was a great opportunity for Horace and me to get out and tell the community about the things that Infinity Church was doing.
From the time Jeremy got back on Saturday night until about 7 o'clock last night it was pretty much nonstop. It started out with a trip to the Baptist Association to load the truck up with everything we would need for the block party on Sunday and the sports camp throughout the rest of the week. We drove around for a little while after that checking on all the teams coming in on Saturday night. It was early to rise Sunday to meet Jeremy at his place and ride with him down to Baltimore to begin setting up everything for the church service outside in the apartment complex. It rained and stormed hard late Saturday night, it was still wet Sunday morning, but the rain was gone. This made for a humid day with plenty of bugs around all day long. We didn't have as many people come out Sunday as we had hoped for, but we had new people who were not regular attendees of Infinity Church, and we were excited about that. We hung around for a while after the service and some of the mission teams sang and performed for the people who were there. We started breaking everything down around 3:30 and went home and rested up for the rest of the week.
I had the privilege of spending some time on Monday morning with one of the mission groups. Vertical Generation was a group of about 85 students from Calvary Baptist Church in Winston Salem, North Carolina. They had a time of worship, prayer, and sharing on Monday morning and they asked for someone from Infinity Church to share with them some encouragement. I was there and able to worship and pray with these guys and it was a real blessing. I was able to share with them from my overflow of what God had been teaching me this summer. I described to them how inadequate I felt when I left Knoxville to come to Baltimore for the summer. I knew no one here and was coming to live in a culture completely different from what I had known my whole life. I shared that this is right where God wants us. If we could do it on our own we wouldn't need Him. But that's just it, we could never do anything for the Kingdom apart from the strength and grace of God. I encouraged the kids that on their own strength they would not survive. We all are dependent on the strength He gives us, that way He gets all the glory and we have nothing to say except, "glory to God."
I got back to the apartments in time to see the end of the Bible camp and the kids who had showed up that morning. Again, not as many as we had wanted, and the longer the week went on, the more we realized that the week of 4th of July as not the best to try and compete with everything else going on. But all in all, the Bible school went over very well and the kids who came really enjoyed it. Throughout the week I got to know the mission team carrying out the Bible school quite well. I got to hang out with them last night actually. It is a group from Burnt Hickory Church in north Georgia. The whole group is middle schoolers and a handful of special leaders who kept up with their middle schoolers all week. I was impressed at how great the kids were with jumping in and doing the Bible school on their own for the most part. They really took the community kids and encouraged them to take part in what was going on. The leaders were there for supervision of course, but it was the kids from Burnt Hickory who kept coming up to us on Wednesday telling us they had prayed with someone to receive Christ. What an awesome opportunity for these middle schoolers and a blessing it has been for the community.
The first day of sports camp went over really well I thought. I think all the groups that were here helping were surprised at how easy it was to share with people about Christ and about Infinity Church. We had "welcome wagons" at the two entrances to the apartments that were able to share with everyone walking by on the sidewalks. This played a key role in bringing in kids the next several days. One welcome wagon was staffed by a group from First Baptist Powell and the other was staffed by a family that had come all the way up here from Florida to help serve. Both teams did great passing out popcorn and making killer snow cones (Both of which I tested and strongly approved of) and telling the people what we were doing and more importantly, why we were doing it. Monday night I got to share with the group of campers my own testimony. I told them about growing up without a dad around too much, but that God had been my Heavenly Father that had given me support, encouragement, protection, provision, and love. I think it helped the kids see that I could relate to where many of them were and how God had been there for me through the hardest parts of my life. Monday night I was able to spend with my own faith community from FBC Powell. At the beginning of this week I didn't not know any of them, but by the end of the sports camp yesterday it was as if I had grown up going to church with all of them. It was really like that with several of the groups. I'm thankful that I got to spend time away from camp with most of the groups that were here this week. It's been such an encouragement to see how excited all these groups were to be here spreading the Gospel and bringing the God's Kingdom to earth. On Monday night when I was with Powell they were having a time of sharing of what they all had done that day at sports camp. A few of the men were describing sharing the Gospel with people in the community and the kids began to get real excited. As a group they decided that since they were on a mission trip they wanted to take their Tuesday night and go the Inner Harbor,not to eat or shop, but to share the Gospel. That's what they had driven 9 hours to do, and they wanted to take every opportunity they had to share the Gospel. I was blown away at witnessing this.
Monday night I fell asleep on the couch at about midnight thirty and woke up once for long enough to read 3:15 on my watch and then roll over and fall back asleep until 7 o'clock Tuesday morning. Needless to say, I was incredibly tired. I was feeling good Tuesday though, I know it was the strength of the Lord which I had talked about Monday that got me through this week. Tuesday I was actually able to be at Bible School with Burnt Hickory and is when I really started to get to know everyone with their group. Tuesday's sports camp brought out more kids as well and I got to share with the kids how just as there are penalties for breaking the rules in sports that must be paid, there are penalties for us breaking the rules God has given us that must be paid for. Romans 6:23 tells us that we deserve death because of our sin, but God has given us the gift of eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. After presenting the Gospel I told the kids that if this was a gift they wanted to accept to find one of the camp councilors sitting with them. Immediately after I prayed one of the young ladies from the Calvary group brought Nigel to me and he told me, "I wanna accept that gift!" So I asked him some questions and made sure he understood what all of that meant, and then I let him pray and ask forgiveness of his sins and to accept the free gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ. I had a smile on for the rest of the week!
Tuesday night Calvary went over to a men's shelter to put on a concert and I was able to go and preach to the men there. That was also a privilege and that evening was one of the strongest I've ever felt the Holy Spirit working in my life. I went in intending to preach the same message that I had to the kids, but I knew when I got there that's not what these guys needed to hear. But I wasn't sure what they needed to hear. So I prayed and prayed and searched and God told me to tell them, "God does not leave you where He finds you." So I preached a different perspective of Jeremiah 29:11 and I think the men really appreciated it. Tuesday was another late night, but at least I made it into my bed when I got home.
Wednesday morning I got to spend with the Bible camp group again; which was a real blessing. I really appreciated the work they did with the kids in the mornings. Wednesday sports camp was our biggest turn out. I talked to the kids about Jesus being the only way to Salvation because He is the only person who ever lived that did not have His own sins to pay for; therefore, He was able to pay for our sins. We had a few more kids respond and pray with camp councilors. After camp we put on a concert that Burnt Hickory came back for and sang, Calvary Baptist also sang some more songs and did a few skits that the kids really seemed to enjoy. After everything was over Wednesday night a small group from Calvary separate from the group of 85 kids took their pick-up over to help a man and wife move out of their house. They were in a pretty rough part of town and we helped move to a house near the church. So we told them about Infinity and they should be joining us on Sunday. They also have a son who is 16 that seems to be in some in with some pretty rough people. T.J. could really use a lot of prayers. Afterwards, this group went out with Jeremy and me to a place called Timbuktu for what has been advertised as the best crab cakes in the world. I must say, they were pretty good.
Thursday I got to sleep in a little bit; the Burnt Hickory was done with Bible school, so I didn't have to be in Baltimore until about 1 o'clock to set up for the sports camp. The last night of sports camp went incredibly well and I can't believe sitting here now on Friday morning that it is over. Since I've arrived on May 21 this has been the week we were working toward, and now it's behind us. I realize we did not have the turn out we would have liked, but I know the kids that were there were able to learn a great deal, not just about sports, but about Christ, which is the main goal of everything we do.
I want to give a shout out to everyone who was involved in pulling this week off. All six groups that served with us this week: the two groups from Calvary Baptist, the group from FBC Powell, the family from Florida, Woodstream church from here in Maryland that were a tremendous help in registration and crafts, as well as evangelism in the community, and of course Burnt Hickory from Georgia that did so great with the kids in the mornings. I was blessed to meet tons of new people of all ages, from awesome leaders in their church communities as well leaders in their respective youth groups. I wish I could name every one of my new friends from across the country, and I hope that my ministry will bring me into contact with them again.
You can begin praying for all the kids that accepted Christ this week. Pray that their lives will never be the same and that they would find a church community that will help them grow and develop in their relationship with Christ that started this week. Pray that Infinity Church will be able to make contact with all those who heard the Gospel from the teams from FBC and Woodstream that preached door to door in the community and get them plugged in as well. We hope that this week was productive for the advancement of the Kingdom of God. Thank you so much for all your prayers and encouragement leading up to this week. It was truly rewarding and one of the best I've ever had. I'm so thankful for this opportunity to serve the Lord in this capacity. I can't wait to see what else is in store for this summer.
To God be the glory
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