front porch living

A world on fire. From the looks of this picture you might think the world is on fire. This brilliant experience was rather quite simple. It came while I was standing on my front porch. I find that quite often incredible experiences can take place on the front porch. Would that work for a book title " The Amazing Life While Living on the Front Porch. " Actually my porch is about a 3X3 piece of concrete. If it was up to me every house would come equipped with the most massive porch.
Here's the reason. Cuz people wouldn't be in such a dang rush to get away from their house if they had a huge front porch. I mean, back in the day when I wore one of those full length pajama outfits I remember the porch is where the center of life took place. People actually sat down to talk to others. Every second I'd hear a holler from someone on the street and soon enough you know where theywould end up ...talking on the front porch. If I was a door to door salesman I'd push the government to install porches on all houses cuz people are a lot more prone to talk to ya out on their porch than they are to invite you in. Front porch livin' takes time to deal with the most important things in life - notably relationships. I bet nearly 50% of all marriages in the South probably got their start on a front porch. Think about what really means the most. Is it a what or is it a who? Does it require money or sacrifice? I'm finding out why so many people loved hanging out with Jesus.
He was a front porch kind of guy. He knew what was most important - Having compassion for people and spending time with them. He probably was the one who thought up the porch idea cuz He knew that if we all had porches we would take more time to speak with those who are around us. Jesus was just so dang good at being a best friend. And talk about loving strangers. The guy never met one. Cuz He saw everyone with love. And that my friend, is what changes people's hearts. I can show all the tricks in the world and have all the goodies this world offers, but if I have not love then its useless. Maybe I need to find more porches to hang out on...

Simply Amazing

September 23-25 I was invited to speak at Campus Crusade's fall retreat for all the Colorado Colleges. There were nearly 600 students who came. My role was to come share with the staff/students my story of how God brought me to serve with Student Venture and invite the college students to serve as Student Venture leaders while in college. On saturday I spoke briefly to everyone and that afternoon held a seminar for those who wanted to hear in detail how Student Venture works to share Christ with teenagers. It was amazing!! Nearly 50 students came to the seminar. We begin by watching a video about a girl named Stacy whose love for others changed an entire high school campus. Then for nearly 20 minutes the college students opened up their hearts about what they went through in high school and why teenagers are such an important group to invest in. So what has come of this? Just last week Student Venture opened up on the campus of CSU in Fort Collins, CO. They have 12 college students who want to serve as volunteer leaders. The staff person who is leading these volunteers is Bobby, who is pictured next to me in the picture above. Please pray for him and the college students.

in 21 years.....

I took this picture 2 weeks ago with some of high school teenagers that I have gotten to lead over the last year. I put the picture up cuz I thought it looked neat. I just returned from 10 days being in GA and TX. In Texas the student venture staff brought in Craig Scott, brother or Rachael Scott who died in Columbine declaring her love for Christ. Craig travels sharing the message of compassion. In 2 days over 2000 middle schoolers heard him.
On Saturday he shared at two Student Venture outreaches and included in his talk how his sisters faith in Christ lived out by way the she loved other people has brought to life the reality of having a God whose desire is that we would know Him personally. Exactly 200 young people personally indicated their desire to know this God, one who gave up His own life. All 200 are now beginning what it means to walk by faith. To ensure that these students have others around them to encourage them, teach them, and explain to them what it means to live a life by faith, Student Venture has staff, parents, and volunteers whose time is committed to the lives of these young people.
I had a student venture staff person tell me that in 21 years he has never seen something like this. I believe that is due to the committed prayer and sharing the Gospel. This is the power of God to move in the hearts of people. His love is for real.

ignore

I'm simply trying to figure out how to post the picture on the About Me side of the page...not in the message board side...ignore the repeats of this picture....

Stepping up in the world

I hope you enjoy adventuring around this blog. I created it to give others the ability to catch up on the day to day of my life and to give others a peek into the window of my life. Hope you enjoy yourself.