Summer Travels (a.k.a I am finally home!)

I am back home now and am finishing up my summer. I had a great time. My team was awesome!!! I love each and everyone of them.  In my spare time this summer I have been working on enhancing my photography skills. Here are a couple of pictures that I took during the summer.

Sunset in South Carolina

Cincinnati, Ohio 

I had a lot of fun with my team. We did some awesome stuff together. We went camping, went to an amusement park, and we got to go to the Creation Museum. We also had fun performing our play together. The play we put on was Creation, Evolution, and the Flood. I was able to play the part of Noah.

     Well, I had a great time traveling this summer and hope that I can do it again, but most of all this is what God taught me this summer. This summer has changed a lot of things in my life. Seeing God working in lives is something very special and awesome to see.  Experiencing God’s goodness every day as you're serving Him as well as working with a group of people focused on serving Him  is an amazing experience. If any of you readers have the opportunity to go and do missions work for a summer don’t miss the chance to do it. Lay aside other less important things in your life and go do it. It will change your life in so many ways! It has mine! God has taught me a lot of things this summer, but most of all He has changed my outlook on life. Life isn’t about us. It isn’t about what we want. Life is a ministry and everything we do while we are still on this earth will have an effect on people in a positive or negative way. Think about that for a minute. When you go to the grocery store, people are watching you. When you are out with your friends, they are watching you! Are you being a good example for Christ or are you going with the flow? This summer I have had to give up things that I really wanted for the unity of the team. It was really hard because some of those things were good things, but in God’s grace He showed me that some of the things that I wanted I wasn’t ready to handle yet. It wasn’t easy handing those things over to God. I still wish that I could go back and change some of the things that I did wrong this summer, but I can’t. I already did them. God has given me a desire to see souls saved. He has worked in my life to show me that if I can get up on stage and present the gospel to a large crowd of people then I shouldn’t be afraid or ashamed to share it on a daily personal basis. He gave his life for me and I am afraid to give somebody a tract? This summer we had 30 people accept the Lord as their personal Savior! How awesome is that! We were able to perform our play at a Juvenile Detention Center. We had fifteen young men accept the Lord as their personal Savior that night. To see the joy on their faces was an experience in itself. It really made me appreciate the life that I have been raised in and all that God has done for me. This summer has also taught me to trust in God and follow Him. Not everything will be in my control. I need to just let God do all the work. That is what I have learned this summer. Thank you to all those who were praying for me. I really felt your prayers. Thanks!

I hope that some of this will be an encouragement to someone.

In Christ,

JD