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When: Sunday, August 24th during the Sunday school hour Where: Fellowship Hall We will eat, talk about the new year and get feedback from you on your praises and concerns. Mostly praise, please! We will also give you the opportunity to sign up to help us out throughout the year on D’Now, mission trips, etc. See you there!
Musical Opportunities for Youth Church Orchestra Sundays @ 3:30 PM in the Sanctuary Ages: High School Youth-Adults Youth Handbell Choir Sundays @ 4:30 PM in the Choral Suite 6th Grade-12th Grade Some musical knowledge and reading is important. Youth Choir Sundays@ 5:30 PM in the Choral Suite 6th Grade through 12th Grade Wide open – Y’all Come!
We are going to Camp Jabez (check out the web site) the weekend of October 11-13. You don’t want to miss out! The cost is just $180, which includes all meals, paint ball, live band, ropes course, climbing wall and smores! We will have the sign up on-line very soon, so check back! http://www.campjabez.com/ youth-calendar-august-08.pdf
Our Sunday night conversation begins this Sunday after choir. Come for choir at 5:30pm, stay for snack supper at 6:30pm (Bring $2!) and we’ll have our discussion groups from 7pm-8pm. We hope to see all of you, 6th grade through 12th grade, for topical discussion about today’s issues.
Hey, gang! Come join us for games, music, a message from Nate Dog and The Boggan, and fun galore. We are in the basement again, beginning at 6:30pm. We’ll see you there! Camp has been amazing, for our youth AND our leaders! We will have many stories to tell. We’ll see you tomorrow! p.s. Check out Smokey, Jr. trying to steal my carrot cake.
Hey, Smoke Rise! We have arrived and are already ankle deep in sand! The band is awesome and the speakers we’ve heard already, Andy Stanley and Francis Chan, have been phenomenal. The theme this year is “Broadcasting.” What are we broadcasting and what is God broadcasting to us every day? Ask your kids when they get home. Enjoy some pictures and we’ll see you soon. Kristy, Lee, David and Ashley What an awesome group!
Our first dinner at the diner.
Our abode for the week.
The best shop ever!
The crowd. That’s 4000 teens!
Rockin’ out to the band!
See y’all soon! 2 Corinthians 12:9 “And He has said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.’ Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.” I had a very deep and very meaningful conversation the other day that led me to go to this verse. This is the part of 2 Corinthians where Paul is taking about the thorn in his side and the difficulty he has had removing it. The subject of the conversation mentioned previously centered on this very thing, asking: Why do we all have holes in our lives that we think we must fill with frivolous and empty things? What are the thorns that plague us and cause us pain, therefore driving us to temporary solutions for our pain. I’m sorry if this subject seems depressing but it is a fundamental question to our human existence. A possible answer came to me upon reading this verse. “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” How wonderful that God’s presence in our life can make us strong against our weaknesses. The question remains: Why haven’t we, humanity, conquered our weaknesses? Why are we continually, perpetually and destructively flawed? I believe that God can take away all weakness. But it will be on God’s timing. That seems like one of the top 5 “cop-out” answers in Christianity today. But it has to be true. For a loving God would not doom humanity to its iniquity without promise of wholeness at some point in time. For Christians, this may be what we conceptualize heaven to be like…a completeness with God. Why does this reality not exist in our world, in our time or in our reality today? Why did Christ suffer and die? These questions are aligned in the same category and in the same vein of mis-understanding. Only God can answer this question. But is it not wonderful, powerful and full of hope, the promise of grace being sufficient. Maybe that is the answer in and of itself. The moment we accept the gift and promise of grace is the moment we stop worrying about our awareness of incompleteness and we lean on the completeness of God instead. Continue to remember that life is a journey. Make mistakes and learn from them. Recognize your weaknesses, ask God to give you strength and lean on the grace God provides when inevitably, your nature fails you. Know that grace covers guilt and following Christ covers sin. Nothing but this is sufficient for our lives. Awesomeness Abounding! Lee Hey, gang! Today is going to be a good day. I’m a little sore from rafting, a little tired from a hectic summer of keeping up with all of you! Love, ya! I’m also extremely encouraged about what God is doing in this youth group. This summer I’ve observed how you work to serve others, whether in Ahoski, McLean, Va. or in Knoxville, Tn. Not only those places, you work in your community! That is exciting to me and it is exciting to God. I’ve also seen you grow spiritually. Don’t think you have? Trust me, you have. It is through our work, our worship, our prayer life and the careful study of the Bible that we grow in our relationship with the Creator of the universe. And you have all done that this year. I wish to encourage you to end the summer strong because we have some momentum going into all the exciting things planned for fall. Fall Retreat! Wednesday and Sunday nights! Ski Retreats! Gatlinburg! It’s going to be fun. Awesomeness Abounding! Lee You may not want to hear this. Can you feel it? The summer has crested the hill and is gaining speed, rolling toward fall. In one month, public school begins again. In a few weeks after that, most college classes will begin…including McAfee, Kristy! Are you ready for it? I remember when I was in school this was the time of year that we began to get the “Back to School” advertisements in the paper. That was always a BAD Sunday. “But wait, it’s only July 13th!” Yes, but look at the calendar. Can you see it on the horizon? I’m not trying to bum you out. We still have plenty of summer left. But the preparation time for a season of change is always important in life. We cannot deny what is ahead, especially if it is already planned. I know that in my life, I have felt God preparing me for new things. The recognition of that preparation time and the conscious involvement in it is where a lot of growth in our spiritual relationship takes place. I see many examples in the Bible of God laying the ground work for those he chose to do his work, preparing them for what was to come. We don’t know much about Jesus first 30 years but I am certain it was used in preparation for what lay ahead. The preparation time for Paul included deep study and practice of the Jewish orthodoxy of the day. And while he spent that time persecuting those who followed Jesus, once his passion was turned 180?, he was prepared to defend Christ with all of his being. The key is that they were not scared of the future, even the future that they saw clearly before them. The anticipation of a moment can kill the enjoyment of the present. The anticipation of a moment can impede the things that we are to learn during the present. Enjoy your time now, look to the future with anticipation, and use the awareness of both to live your life to the fullest. One cannot live in two places in time. You will miss out on both. Happy Summer! Lee Giant Flower Makes Big Stink The Amorphophallus titanium is the world’s biggest and worst-smelling flower. The plant, also called titan arum, but popularly known as the corpse flower, blooms only a few times in its 40-year life span, and the bloom lasts for two and a half days at the most. During the first eight hours, the bloom emits a scent that has been variously described as similar to that of rotting eggs, a dead elephant, an outhouse in sweltering heat—and worse. But what is putrid to humans is a siren call to the carrion beetles that pollinate the flowers. They can smell the stench for miles. What is the lesson here? For one, don’t write your UTH NEWS article at 8am on Sunday morning. I forgot, please forgive. However, the other lesson is…sometimes things that are beautiful to some are not to others and vice versa. Celebrate individuality and look for the beauty in all things. Have a great week! Awesomeness Abounding! Lee Are we still looking for life on Mars? Apparently we are. I’m fascinated by this stuff, as humans continue to look for evidence of something else besides what we know on our own world. Let’s hope we find an intergalactic Exxon station and pronto! Check out this news article from the Associated Press, written this week by Alicia Chang: “Is the white stuff in the Martian soil ice or salt? That’s the question bedeviling scientists in the three weeks since the Phoenix Lander began digging into Mars’ North Pole region to study whether the arctic could be habitable. Shallow trenches excavated by the Lander’s backhoe-like robotic arm have turned up specks and at times even stripes of mysterious white material mixed in with the clumpy, reddish dirt. Phoenix merged two previously dug trenches over the weekend into a single pit measuring a little over a foot long and 3 inches deep. The new trench was excavated at the edge of a polygon-shaped pattern in the ground that may have been formed by the seasonal melting of underground ice. New photos showed the exposed bright substance present only in the top part of the trench, suggesting it’s not uniform throughout the excavation site. Phoenix will take images of the trench dubbed “Dodo-Goldilocks” over the next few days to record any changes. If it’s ice, scientists expect it to sublimate — or go from solid to gas, bypassing the liquid stage — when exposed to the sun because of the planet’s frigid temperatures and low atmospheric pressure. “We think it is ice. But again, until we can see it disappear … we’re not guaranteed yet,” mission scientist Ray Arvidson of Washington University in St. Louis said Monday. Even if it’s not ice, the discovery of salt would also be significant because it’s normally formed when water evaporates in the soil. Preliminary results from a bake-and-sniff experiment at low temperatures failed to turn up any trace of water or ice in the scoopful of soil that was delivered to the Lander’s test oven last week. Scientists planned to heat the soil again this week to up to 1,800 degrees, said William Boynton of the University of Arizona in Tucson.” Awesomeness Abounding! Lee
It really got me thinking about the body of Christ, how we help ourselves out and how we teach each other to act as Christ acted.By no means am I equating the actions and attitude of the McLean staff with the suffering of Christ. We were a slight pain…nowhere near the devil in the desert. But I know what it is like to work in professional ministry, to have to deal with unexpected situations, to have to fix problems that I didn’t cause and all in a day where I already have a full plate of responsibilities. I also know I would not have been as gracious and kind. I would act as expected: Annoyed, frustrated and impatient. These feelings, coming from the staff at McLean Baptist Church, are not evident to me this week.I believe this kind of patience and grace comes only from God. It is not typical human behavior. And if it is present in the staff, it must also be prevalent in the church body, as the two usually run hand in hand. I wish for all who experience the gift of grace this week to accept it and learn from it. We see a good model of a church willing to welcome strangers. I hope Smoke Rise will return the favor to someone else down the road. Awesomeness Abounding! Lee Please call with any questions. Check out the links for all information. Lee = 678/481-0488 In Memory… Everyone longs to leave a legacy. Have you noticed that? We all are striving to ensure that once we are no longer here, someone will remember us. We will have had an effect on someone else that causes them to remember us long after we are no longer here. It’s interesting. This characteristic of human nature is as old as well, human beings are. The pharaohs of ancient Egypt inscribed their images onto walls and other things so that once they were gone, they would be remembered. People had portraits painted, statues erected, later photographs were taken, diaries and journals are read, scrapbooks are made, family trees are traced, and so many other means of remembering are taken up by people of all generations. We are creatures of memory. And so, on this holiday that celebrates remembering… let us take some time to remember those who fought and died for our freedom. 620,000 Americans died in the Civil war alone. Keep in mind that after the Civil War, we participated in so many other wars, and countless more lost their lives in the fight for freedom. (more…) As I spent my first week as a graduate, working hard to prepare for summer activities, it did not sink in until today (Saturday 5/24) that…I…was…done. No more school, as least at this level and at my current career plan. One cannot help but reflect on the years it took to get through and the effort that at times seemed so overwhelming. After this self reflection, I came to one conclusion. I’m not ready to be done! (more…) Congratulations seniors!! Today is your day- you made it! I’m sure by now you’ve all received Dr. Seuss’s “Oh the Places You’ll Go,” eaten lots of cake, shared pictures, reminisced on the beginnings of high school, said good-bye to the halls of your high school, and are dreaming about the future. You deserve it! Today, we want to honor your hard work and effort. We want you to know that you will always have a church home here. I was thinking back to my high school graduation and I remembered how I thought the summer wouldn’t go fast enough. (more…) Education is so very valuable. Whether it is received through the rigors of daily life and hard work or through the student/teacher classroom experience, it is what shapes us as people looking to reach God’s purpose in life. You have heard it a thousand times, yet even at 1001, it is still true: One never stops learning. Education begins at day 1 and continues until our last breath. If not, we run the risk of becoming stuck in our day to day routine. How boring that would be. (more…)
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Paper Airplanes in Space? No, this is not a bad Sci-Fi Movie.Posted by: prophittman in Lee's LinesScientists make paper planes for space A spacecraft made of folded paper zooming through the skies may sound far-fetched, but Japanese scientists plan to launch paper planes from the International Space Station to see if they make it back to Earth. (more…) Acts 1:6-14
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The attitude of some people that exudes forgiveness, flexibility and kindness sometimes astounds me. It is Monday, June 2nd and the youth plus 6 adults (including myself) are in McLean, Virginia on the second leg of our music and mission trip. To make a long story short…in the first 6 hours of our visit, we broke two glass objects in the church. Both of them will be expensive to replace. Both of them will take some time to replace. It is a source of embarrassment for us that these accidents occurred. But placing myself in the shoes of those who have to fix our accidents and fix them in their own house, makes me wonder if I would have been as forgiving and easy going as the staff at McLean Baptist Church.Cam Edgar, Associate pastor and former Smoke Rise member, along with Dianne, the church administrator, have opened the doors wide for our youth to stay in their space, do some local mission work and see the sights of DC. We have been demanding by just being there, not to mention dealing with the accidents. Their graciousness is overwhelming and we cannot thank them enough. 