Idea

First Impressions...

"You can only make one first impression."

Today the team is traveling to Hartford City, Indiana to spend the week in ministry at a youth camp. This is the first time that these students will ever see our ministry team from Valley Forge Christian College. We are very excited about this new adventure for our team. As we have been traveling for the summer, some of the members of the team have been mistaken for past members of the team by students. We always have a good laugh when this happens. This is why it will be so exciting to go and minister at an entirely new camp, we get a chance to make a first impression.
This reminds me of Christianity in general here in the 21st century. Have you ever told someone that you are a Christian and immediately they stereotype you with a ton of stuff that has nothing to do with following Jesus? This may have been because that person's first impression of Jesus was not enjoyable for them. This is why I get so excited to read about the early church right after the time of Jesus. In the book of Acts, these followers of Jesus received power from this upper room experience where the Holy Spirit was poured out upon them, then they went and began to change their world with the message of Christ. I love reading through those stories where Paul is telling people about Jesus for the first time. This was their first impression of Jesus and some of the people that heard this message were never the same again. Even though a lot of the people of that time had heard very similar stories about virgin births and resurrections from the dead about other gods, the message of Christ resonated inside of these people as they got the stripped away, raw understanding of who Christ really was and how they could be a part of this new movement that in some ways was completely against the culture of their time, yet it connected with something deep inside of many people and they began this movement that we call Christianity today. I get excited about first impressions, hopefully our time here in Indiana is a life changing experience not only for the teens that we come in contact with, but our lives as well.

At the Drive-in

After an awesome week of ministry at a camp in Carlisle, the team decided it would be nice to go to an old fashioned drive-in movie. The movies were awesome and the whole drive-in experience brought me back to "the old days" when I was just a kid with my family.

Have you ever had those kind of moments? Ones that remind you of a time in the past. A time that you wish you could go back to just for a little while so that you can savor the moment a little more than you did when you did back when it happened.

I had another one of those moments this past week as our ministry team returned back to the camp where I first made the decision to be a follower of Christ. I can remember the look of the room, the speaker and who was doing worship. But even more, I can remember back to those first moments that I understood that there there was so much more going on than I ever knew before. I remember the excitement that I felt when I realized that my life would never be the same, the moment I realized that I was created for something greater than the life I was living.


When I look through the bible, I wonder how many times Moses went back to the burning bush where he first experienced God in a great way. I wonder if Peter ever got into a boat and rowed out to the middle of the lake where he walked on water. I really enjoy going back to those places that God has moved in my life and finding refreshment in the opportunities that God has given me to take hold of those divine moments.