arrival

On our way here today we stopped at the 45th parallel (halfway between the equator and North Pole) then again at Custer’s last stand. It was cool to see a part of our history like that where the event really took place. It was a short stop and completely worth it.

Let me back up for a second. Last night was one of the craziest nights I have ever experienced. None of us got much sleep because the Wyoming wind decided to have a heyday at about 2:00 am. It brought with it some things that a few of us are allergic to as well. So the tents went flapping. The noses started running. And we were all fairly miserable. Mike counted and figured that I said, “This is ridiculous” about ten times. It was a tough night.

We went through a couple of team builders before we left and I have saved a couple for later that I think will be very interesting to watch. We finally arrived in Roundup at about 3:30 and got the vans unpacked at the Catholic church across the street from Emmanuel where we are helping for the week. We gave the students a tour and had some down time. Our kids are in “mission mode”! While Mike and I slept most of our students went outside and played frisbee. While they did they watched and tried to engage a few people in conversation. They were sorely disappointed because the people they tried to engage had no desire to talk with them. It’s a hard thing to be turned down, but they learned from it and handled it well.

After dinner we went over to the youth center and had a great time. Our trip has officially started but it has started very differently from anything I have done before. Roundup has something in place that allowed us to engaged a huge number of the students in the town. They were there playing basketball, skating, playing video games, pool, ping pong, using the computers, eating, or just hanging out. I spent much of my time playing basketball (no sprained ankle yet, praise God!) and talking to as many kids as I could.

When we returned to the Catholic church we sat down and wrote out all the names we could think of. Most of our students have between 10 and 20 names that they wrote down that they are going to start praying for right now. They began building friendships with others tonight and we have a whole week to listen, share, and serve these students.

Prayer Requests
-Attitude: sometimes it’s easy to be jaded or have an attitude that comes naturally. We all need supernatural attitudes to share the love of Jesus with teenagers who don’t yet see a need for God.
-Boldness: from the conversations that have already started we all need boldness to ask questions and say what needs to be said.
-Leader Training: I watched carefully tonight and am more convinced than ever that our leader training on Monday night needs to e well attended (I’m going to buy them dinner...nothing like bribery) and well presented. The adults in Roundup need to take on a “Missional” mindset when it comes to their teens. Please pray that I am effective in my final preparations and that they hear the heart of God.
-Rest: many of our students didn’t want to have to be ready by 8:00 this morning. Pray that we get good rest when we can so that we can be ready in the morning at a reasonable time.

Thanks for your love and support.

- Jared