Reaching out…

Holy Smokes.

I always love these stories.

We left Port Townsend at 11:45 PM, we are leaving Tacoma at 2:48 by way of tour bus with our friends from University Place.  We were just finalizing our plans when we got a call from our friends to the North, Puyallup Young Life. The worst thing that could happen to a Young Life Area ready to go to camp happened. The 57 passenger bus didn’t show up. SO… a lot of tired, excited for camp kids shuffled around so every kid in Puyallup could get a ride to camp.

Pretty amazing, pretty cool to see kids being willing to put their peers above their own comfort so that everyone can make it to camp.

These are the moments that we look back at and say, The LORD was present in that situation.

We have people coming to Malibu from Port Townsend. 4 leaders and 20 students. This is an incredible year, but it has stretched us. In the past I was able to post stories from camp while camp is taking place. I don’t know how easy it will be this year, but we’ll try.

Here is how you can pray:

• That students would come face to face with their creator
• Strength for the leaders to make it through an exhausting week of camp together.
• Patience from students who are working very hard to accommodate the needs of other students.

Some specifics about our students, generally. We have a lot of non-christian kids. We have a lot of kids excited about having the best week of their life.

As a side note, we are still looking for 2 full scholarship to cover the cost of camp. If you feel like God is leading you to help with that. Please let me know. Thanks to everyone who has already helped our kids get to camp this summer.

This will help the 45 people from the Olympic Peninsula make it to camp this summer. This is our most ambitious summer yet!

I am constantly amazed by the irony of the Lord.

We are just finishing our seventh year living in Port Townsend, where we are on staff with Young Life.  The underlying success of an outreach ministry is two fold.

• First, What does God have to say about the whole thing?  This is pretty obvious to those toiling in ministry, it is super-frustrating and easy to lose sight of this point when the organization you are committed to is being sustained by yourself and your wife and a handful of people with in the community. In Port Townsend, we have had great success and we have failed miserably, but the bottom line is that we are faithful to the calling that the Lord laid out in front of us regardless of success.
• Second, Volunteers. How many volunteers are involved. Young Life HQ did a big study on the success of area ministry and the conclusion that they reached was volunteer leaders was the single factor that lead to great ministry.

We have struggled with the ability to recruit, train and retain volunteer leaders. Maybe it has to do with the demographics of our community, or our ability to recruit. For seven years we have struggled, sure we have the occasional volunteer, but a volunteer, a ministry does not make. We have prayed, cried, argued petitioned the Lord.  We have asked in different ways but the bottom line is that that at the end of the day, we still didn’t have leaders in Port Townsend. UNTIL this year.

This year we have A LOT OF EM, and they are AWESOME:

David and Erin Torres
	David and Erin joined our team at the end of last year, they have been involved in ministry for a long time. But the Lord saw it that they would come to PT and bless the teenagers here with their presence and love for Jesus Christ. They are an incredible couple with two children and remarkably ended up moving across the street from us.

Stephen Ssenyojo

Stephen moved to Port Townsend for the purpose of helping out with Young Life. His story is incredible. He was asleep, and the Holy Spirit kept whispering in his that he was called to more and that “MORE” was in Port Townsend.  He is originally from Uganda which gives him an incredible platform to connect with the large African population in our High School. Stephen was a theology major at  SPU and brings a maturity in Christ that is incredible to all those around him. Stephen was our first member of the intentional community.

Chanoane and Jordan Hartt

The Hartts are the closest thing we have to being called “Local” as they both grew up here in Port Townsend. Chanoane has been faithfully a part of Young Life for more than a year and Jordan participates on Committee and comes to club when he can. They are a couple who are faithfully figuring out how to respond to the calling of the Lord, and Young Life has had the privilege of getting to work with them until they are called to something different. The glasses and moustache are  because I didn’t have a incriminating picture of them.

Camille Cody

Camille is our newest addition to the Young Life team, she recently moved here from the east coast and here name is pronounce cuh-mill, not cuh-Meel. She has been an a spark-plug for our club and is actively looking for ways to love a population of young ladies searching for their purpose. She loves sustainable agriculture and  as a result fits right into our community and Young Life club. She is the most recent member to join the Intentional community.

Mary Schoenfelder
	Mary moved to Port Townsend, because there was a job here waiting for her. We believe it is because the Lord called her here. She is providing INCREDIBLE administrative support for Young Life and the committee and comes club when her schedule allows. She was the second person to join the intentional community.

Paul and Jessica Shriner
	And then there is us. Notice that Jessica still has her name tag on, because you are supposed to wear your name tag everywhere when you are at camp. Notice that I have already lost my nametag and I am sporting the Kitna jersey.

I know that this has been long in coming and many of you have been asking.

We have a lot of ground to cover, we’ll start with finances and then get you caught up over the next couple of weeks as THERE ARE GREAT THINGS GOING ON!

Lets see, YL updates sort of stopped right about May/June of last year. Concurrently my technical work sort of “dried up” and short of the occasional small piece of code here or there, it was wandering around in a “Cyber” desert. but it was more than that, our area sunk in to deficit to the point of possible closure.

7 years ago, we felt the call to the Olympic Peninsula to restart Young Life here, and after much research and prayer, we realized that in order to successfully restart Young Life we would have to be creative. We looked into potential church partnerships, and although seemed like a quick fix to a fundraising, it wasn’t where the Lord was leading us. Instead we ventured into a world that Young Life was even somewhat uncomfortable with and that was to partner with technology companies, so first our family could make a living wage, and second we could provide a level of ministry service deserved by all people everywhere.

5 months in a row of no work caused me to question life, purpose and calling. I searched my heart for unresolved issue, and kept hearing that “God was our provider.” It was our job to be faithful and not make changes in this hard time.

A couple of stories from this time that sustained me:

1. I flew across the country to Tennessee for a fundraiser and met a family that had been praying for us for the last year because of our blog, the interesting thing is that they didn’t know that who they were attending the event for. They just wanted to hear some fun stories about ministry.
2. Another family had lost the main source of income and found $300 in their account, they believed that the Lord had put that money into their account for us and was faithful in giving it to us.

In November, income returned to the Shriner household, not a surplus, but our daily bread AND our area returned to a place of surplus. It dawned on me that this was a “fast.”   Through this time, I trusted the Lord more for my daily bread, I loved my wife and kids more and ultimately I learned to rely more on the Lord and those around me.

This time of fasting was humbling and I believe preparing us for something greater for things to come.
For our ministry this time of financial fasting as a ministry:

1. We had our first two people move into the Young Life house
2. We brought 40 kids to camp who all had a personal encounter with Jesus
3. We made up the Young Life area financial deficit
4. Our Young Life team in Port Townsend grew from 2 to 8 people

There are still financial issues facing our ministry. We need an increase in monthly giving, otherwise our area will be in the same exact place in a couple of months. There is an auction schedule in March and this would be a tangible way for you to participate either by attending or by donating an item that has value.

NEXT WEEK: I will share how our leadership team has evolved.

End of a great week.

We got home two days ago, after a week of going full speed with a bunch of High Schoolers we needed a couple of days to re-settle with our family.

Young Life ALWAYS puts on a great camp. It is really solid from the speaking to the entertainment. Everything that Young Life does is top-shelf. This approach goes back to 1941 when Jim Rayburn founded Young Life. Young Life is the organization that led my wife back to Jesus and the organization that we have been a part of for the last 14 years.

It is always amazing to me what can happen in the lives of teenagers when adults engage and show interest.

There was a moment that I will remember forever. There was a student there that I so enjoyed getting to know. We spent a lot of time together, skating, hanging out, drinking coffee. After one of the life signs, the students wanted to go for a walk. We ended up walking to the bridge where the student said, with tears in his eyes that he wanted change in his life. So there we were on the bridge, the bridge that seperates the camp from the location where students symbolically leave their old life behind. So there we were on the bridge and I heard some of the sweetest words uttered by a high school student as he prayed for change in his life. At that moment, I, at twice his age, I felt so lucky to be there in that moment experiencing life with this student.

Every year there are a lot of kids who meet Christ at Young Life camp and we had our share. I am always cautious to release the number as I believe that God is active regardless of how many kids come to an eternal relationship with their creator. With that said, please pray for these new fragile relationships as they venture into a new life.

Thanks.

Yesterday we talked about SIN. It isn’t a fun topic, nor is it a topic that we should just skip over lightly. It is going to to create tension in camp. Yesterday in the leaders meeting the group was talking about the pranks that are happening, which are in response to students confused about how to handle their emotions. The thing in 600 kids confused is different than 700 kids and that additional 100 kids could be the difference between the ability to monitor the pranks the chance that one could slip by.

Our leaders are tired, they are starting to take little naps here and there to keep up with kids, which is a great thing, but it becomes a bad thing when the nap is not enough. So continue to pray for the leaders for renewed energy.

Last night was probably the greatest night in the history of the lives of some of our young campers as activity after activity was piled on culminating in a midnight pool party. Please pray for our campers that Jesus would continue to stir in their hearts and do mighty things. We can visually see a change in our campers.  I don’t know how to explain it other than saying, What was once NORMAL for a kid, has been broken down, and been replaced with a level of comfort, and that is pretty spectacular.

God is good, please keep praying for our group.

We just finished Day 3 of Wasington Family Ranch, I haven’t written yet, because there just hasn’t been a moment to sit down and string together enough thoughts to do it.  The camp is the largest that Washington Family Ranch has ever experienced with 723 campers, we have 40 campers and that is the highest number of kids that we have ever brought.  It worked out that we are staying in condos ½ mile away from the main part of camp.

Our kids are connecting with kids from other areas, but it is to a much smaller degree. Instead, a lot more community is being established WITHIN our group, which in my case has had a great impact on cabin time.

A couple of the kids who are here, who have no church background came to club on the first night and said “THAT IS THE COOLEST THING THAT I HAVE EVER BEEN A PART OF.” Over time I have come to take for granted the power of club, but last night as I am sitting there with one of my HS friends and I am watching him reach places of Joy, I don’t think he has been for a long time, it brought to tears.  It hit me, “God is using this place, this moment to reach this kid with a picture of the gospel.” Because at club, there are a lot of funny moments and there is a lot of energy, BUT there is also some of the best teaching about Jesus that I have ever sat under.

Yesterday we talked about NEED, our need for Christ, our need for each other, our need that can only be filled through Jesus Christ. In my cabin time that brought up a lot of emotions as it did for everyone around camp.   Emotions aren’t good or bad, they are just emotions.  It is our job as Young Life leaders to receive those emotions and help kids learn to process them. So we are going to start having 1-on-1s begin today.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS – My cabin has really gotten into skate boarding, and so a couple of us figured out how to drop in on a 8 foot half pipe, “Dropping in” means taking the front of the skate board, hanging it off the edge and the stepping down on it until it is pointing straight down and you skate down an 8 foot half pipe. This was a huge moment for me and this was a huge moment for those that accomplished the feet. For others it was just amazing that they were able to skate down a decline. It was really cool.  When the guys dropped in, we erupted cheering for the accomplishment. There are a lot of guys proud about what they were able to accomplish. The goal is to Drop in on the 12 foot ramp in order to fly into the foam pit.

Please continue to pray for our group. Our leaders are tired, crazy tired and figuring out ways to both be present with the campers that we have, while maintain enough of an energy backup that they can be present tomorrow/rest-of-week as well.

June 1^st, marked our sixth year in Port Townsend as Area Director of Young Life.

It all started with Jessica and me attempting to listen to, and heed the call of God on our lives. Our choice to move here didn’t make sense to some of our family, friends and coworkers.

Elijah turned 2, the day of our move, Noah was 3 months old. We were moving to a town we had only visited, AND to a studio apartment with no doors. This also defied logic.

6 years later we have had the opportunity to work with a lot of students, and adults.

Yesterday, I was driving across town, and I saw a student that I met when we first moved to town, he was a freshman six years ago and came to Club, our weekly outreach event.

A quick sidenote about this student, Jessica and I went out on a date for Valentines Day a couple of years back and this student was in charge of keeping people’s water glasses full. I keyed in on this, so I drank my water VERY QUICKLY, he came over and filled it back up.  I did it again, he filled it up again. Finally his manager noticed that my cup was always empty and he had a “talk” with the student. In total I drank 3 full pitchers of water that night. I am pretty sure that was the moment for this student that I earned the right to be heard.

So yesterday when this student was getting a ride from me, we started talking about future plans, and purpose. I explained that making a lot of money is not a purpose, it is an outcome. Purpose comes from WHY you do things. I shared that my purpose was set in pleasing the Creator of the Universe, God. And somewhere, somehow, the money would be a part of it and that until this student finds his purpose, he is going to feel empty and worthless, basically how he is feeling right now.

We get to speak truth into the lives of teenagers. God ordained truth. A truth so powerful that it represents the only true life changing force offered to these teenagers.

6 years of ministry. We have worked with thousands of kids. We have been faithful to our calling and seen lives changed eternally.  We have been changed through that process.

We are currently facing our most difficult time financially to date.  We NEED to find new MONTHLY givers. Please pray with us that God would be cultivating in the hearts of people the desire to partner with us for long term ministry.