Student Ministry Summers= Lots 'o Trips

This summer was full of fun stuff with our student ministry.  Now that Jeff is the Middle School minister his responsibilities have increased in the summers.  On top of that budget did not allow for a summer intern- so Jeff somewhat got to figure out how to do both his new and old job this summer.  I may be a bit biased, but I truly think he did a wonderful job at it. 
Early in the summer we always have what we call Summer Bible College.  This is during VBS week and is a more "grown up" version of VBS for the middle school kids.  This year they had Bible study in the morning and then went out to different sites to do service projects before noon.  Although this is in town, we usually feel by the end of the week like we've been away on a trip.  This year I got to help out and do a service project where we made care packages for church planters.  I can't reveal what they contain as some of the recipients may be reading :)  Here are a few fun pics from our week:

in addition to our creative photo shoots- the kids also washed cars for anyone who needed it!
They were sweet enough to..um... wash ours...

just out of the goodness of their little servant hearts, not expecting anything in return... or maybe not... :)

Jeff was approached back in the spring by a student who really felt led to continue a ministry he had participated in during his years going to the middle school mision trip.  Since we've been at FBCH the middle school students have taken a trip to Memphis to work with a ministry there called Street Reach.  The students basically spend the week doing backyard Bible cubs and helping the ministry and church do projects in the community.  It is such a sweet thing to see middle schoolers deeply impacted by what is typically their first encounter with poverty.  This student wanted to do a similar ministry in Hendersonville this summer.  The result of that and many conversations was our own version of "Street Reach".  We had around 60 kids participate on two different weeks.  The best part was seeing these kids initiate and organize the activities for the week with a little help from adults. 

It was really encouraging to see them really be affected by a ministry, and then ant to reproduce it in reaching out to their own community! Yay! They are "getting it" :)
stay tuned for the last installment of the "lots 'o trips"...