Catch Up

Hey!
I didn't get a chance to update y'all last summit. Last summit we were in Hopkinsville, KY. I stayed with Danielle and Bethany at Ms. Peggy's home. The church we were at was Concord Baptist Church. We had anywhere from 6 to 18 kids in Happy Heart City. It was cool to have a lot of boys in Happy Heart, because its normally all girls. We had a lot of fun with that group and I know that God is still working in the kids and the adults.
This summit we are in Allegan, MI. We started on Sunday and we are half way through our first week. The first Sunday, we had 14 kids. We are down to 5 on average at nights now. I am staying with Ms. Annabell at her apartment. Hilary was staying with me, but went home to visit her grandmother. Please be praying for the rest of this summit and for all of us to have energy. These are some really great kids, and I am excited to see what God is going to do in Happy Heart this summit.
This Friday, I get to see my parents! I am really excited to see them and will send my love with them.
Thanks for your prayers.
Sarah

New Beginning

Hey y'all,
so we just finished our first summit of the year. It was in Flushing, MI. The week started out a lot different than last year, because our bus was broken. We drove to our first church in personal cars and with the truck. We got to the church and everything went pretty normal. We met our host family, and went to their house. I stayed with Savannah at Pat and Rebecca's house. They have four kids, Bridget, Emma, Maggie and Dylan. They were so much fun to get to know and to hang out with.
    In Happy Heart, we started out with 18 kids, and ended with 5. Even though we didn't have too many kids, we had a lot of fun with them and got to share God's word with them. Base Camp had about 45 kids to start and ended with about 15. The church had a pretty good response to the messages, and overall, things went well.
    It has been a long week and most of us are super tired. But on Friday, we will be back at the Life Action Camp for the day. Adam is taking the bus driving test, and the rest of us will be relaxing. We will leave for our next church on Saturday morning and arrive at the church Saturday afternoon, set up, and meet our host families at about 9:00 and get ready for Sunday morning.
    I am really excited about what God is going to do at this next church and what He is going to teach me. Please keep me and my team in your prayers as far as health, general provision and energy.
Thank you!

Sarah

Camp and what not

Hey y'all! 

So training camp is coming to a close. We only have two days left until we load up and hit the road. I have made so many great friends over the past 5 weeks. Two weeks ago, we went to Battle Creek, MI, for a one day practice summit. It was great to go back to that church again. They brought out the boats again and we got to go tubing and just fellowship and relax with one another.  Last weekend we got to help out with Labor Day family camp. I worked night shifts in Sonshine Club, which is for 2-3 year olds. It was a refreshing change of pace. On Friday we head out to Flushing, MI. We will be there for 11 days. I am excited to see what God is going to do in the congregation and in the team. We have already had some changes during camp with changing people to different teams. But God has the big picture in mind and His way is better than ours. Please keep us in your prayers as we head out and do our first summit together as a new team! 

Your Grace is Enough

Hey again, I know its been a while since I have updated.
To begin, I had 6 weeks off for the summer. I enjoyed seeing family and spending time with them. After the short six weeks at home, I left for Life Action Family Camp. I worked three weeks of family camp. I was a family assistant all three weeks. I also taught Happy Heart for the entire time. I met so many great families over the three weeks, and make a lot of great friends. The second week of family camp was eventful. I broke my finger, and lost my voice all within 24 hours. But, God's grace is enough. I really had a great time at family camp and I learned how important surrender really is. Even though I was teaching kids, God used what we were teaching them, to teach me.
Now we are starting training camp. We will be training for 5 weeks. Training camp is a lot of fun, but it is also super exhausting. On top of all of the new team members coming in, we are kicking it all off with Seek Week. That is where we have speakers come in and speak to us. It is intense, deep, and very much needed. I am so excited to see what God is going to do this week here at camp, and this year in my heart.
I am still trusting God to provide all of my needs, and I know that it is His timing and not mine. Please be praying for me to rest in God's love and peace. I need to let go and let God.
Thanks for all of your prayers!

Follow Me Because I Follow Christ

Matthew 16:24 says: Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone wants to come with me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me."

        That is a very well known verse, however, we usually don't take time to really listen to what it is saying. If we want to follow Christ, we must first deny ourselves. We have to be willing to give up EVERYTHING we have for The King of Kings. Anything that He has for us, is so much better than what we have or could ever hope to have. 

       ***Taking up our cross is self denial. We need to refuse to settle for anything less that the very best... Which is God. It also means torture or persecution. Jesus went through so much for us... Are we willing to do the same for Him? No pain, no gain. Are we willing to suffer temporal pain for eternal gain? And lastly, it means death. We need to die to self, die to pride, die to sin, die to anything that goes against what God says*** 

       The last part is the most important part. (In my opinion.) We need to FOLLOW Him. Not just say we do, we really need to follow. That means waiting on His timing and not rushing it and going with what you had planned. It means being obedient to His calling and being willing to go where He wants you to go. Its trusting in Him even when things get tough. It's knowing that He wont fail you... EVER!! He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. We are called to be holy as He is holy. We can't do it on our own, and if we aren't committed to Christ, there is no way that we will ever be holy. As we draw nearer to Him, and let Him change us, that is when we will start looking more like Christ. Its not a pain free experience. He will stretch us and take us out of our comfort zone. He knows where our hearts are, but He is testing us to see if we will follow Him.

The saying "Follow me because I follow Christ" is very heavy. If we say it, we cant be hypocritical about it. The word "Christian" literally means "little Christ". So many of us "Christians" are going around and saying we are following Christ, but are living the exact opposite. We can't say we are living like Christ, while we are really living like the devil. It can't happen. If we don't look like what we are proclaiming, its time to take a step back, pray and see what isn't lining up with what we are saying. We cant expect people to want to be a follower of Christ if we are living the same way that they are. That is what drives people away from the church and from Christianity in general. We have such a double standard as Christians and tend to live hypocritically. Its time to change. Its time to get real with God. Its time to start living out your faith and truly start following Christ. 

(I wrote this with only myself in mind... However, I hope that it opened your eyes to how much this nation needs God. And it won't ever reach it unless we change first. Pray, "Lord, send revival... And start it in Me!"

We need God to change this nation.. but it won't happen without prayer. We need change, but we need God more.)

***www.markbatterson.com*** 

He washed my sins away!

Hey guys,

Its been a while since I have updated y’all. Since the last update, we have been to two other churches. We went to Goodlettsville, TN after Harrodsburg and we were there for 8 days. I stayed with Tara at Jeff and Mary’s home. They have a daughter, Katie, who is 19. God did some great things in Goodlettsville with the adults and in the kids.

After Goodlettsville, we went to Asheville, NC for Heart Cry for Revival. It was a conference that our team got to do worship for. That was a really great time seeking God as a team. Heart Cry was 4 days and then we left for Guyton, GA. We were at New Providence Baptist for 11 days. It is Danielle’s home church, so that was fun to have her family there. It was our last summit with Laine and Janet and their kids, so that was sad. But we had an end of the year party at Danielle’s house. We got to square dance, and sack-race and compete with corn toss and seed spitting. It was so much fun to learn how to square dance with the team.

We left Guyton and headed to Honea Path, SC. Me and Jodie are staying with Sam and Cathy’s home. We just got here two days ago and I am really excited to see how God is going to work in this church. This morning was the first morning of the summit and we had ten kids in Happy Heart.

I am praying that God gives us all energy and focus. This is our second to last summit of the year and its winding down fast. It has been a wonderful year and I am excited to see what is going to happen next year too.

Thank you for all your prayer and support. It really is a blessing.

Watch this video and read the lyrics.. its great http://proskuneo.org/2012/12/multilingual-worship-song-loue-haitian-creole-english/

Christ is Risen From the Dead

Hey guys! So last summit we were in Harrodsburg, KY at Harrodsburg Baptist Church. It started out really well and once again, there were at least two nights where Laine didn't preach. God really took over that church and moved in a great way. On the first Wednesday, there were a lot of people who went up to testify. Because of that, the night was very long. Us Happy Heart teachers decided to circle up and pray for everything that was going on in the sanctuary. We told the kids that they could come join us if they wanted, or they could finish their game. Every single child came over and joined our circle to pray. It was the coolest thing EVER! Each service that week went about 3 to 3 and a half hours. But God was moving so much. He worked so much in my host family too. It was really cool to see what God was doing in their lives.
    That summit I stayed with Amanda at Chad and Leanna's home. They had two kids. Logan is 16 and Joshua was 11. It was really great to get to know them and spend time with them. We ended up extending our summit for an extra day. And the super awesome thing was that all of the team got to sit in for the last night to see what God was doing. We got to partake in the Lord's Supper with everyone in the church.
   Right now we are on Spring break!!! We are in Johnson City, NC at The Barn at Buladean. We have a beautiful view of the mountains. I am rooming with Danielle, Hannah, and Sarah. So far me and Danielle have watched The Parent Trap on VHS :)
   God is so great and I am super excited for church tomorrow for Easter!

Christ is risen from the dead
Trampling over death by death
Come awake, come awake!
Come and rise up from the grave!

Christ is risen from the dead
We are one with him again
Come awake, come awake!
Come and rise up from the grave!