Wedding Pictures!!!

I wanted to post these so you could take a look! We haven’t gotten the full meal deal yet but these are some good ones.

She looks so happy…

Lovely Bride

Bliss

Dave Mckee ladies and gentlemen

Belle of the Ball

Danna!

All that new…

I was cautioned that being in transition would be chaotic.  Challenging at the minimum.  I moved from Killeen and into a families house down in Cedar Park.  They were amazing to me, gave me my own room bathroom and television.  Some may say better amenities than what I had in Killeen, some would be correct.  I prepared for the summer as the new Area Director of an up and coming Younglife area, Leander ISD Younglife.  When the month of June had come and gone I was ready to burst with excitement of my impending marriage coming later in the summer.  Weddings and honeymoons were never closer to my mind but further from now!  I left Cedar Park to go to Huntsville TX to lead program at a Wyldlife camp with my dear friend Billy.  We played and laughed and cried as middle school kids from all over the southern states came to camp and heard the life changing message of Jesus.  It never fails to impress me what God in His infinate wisdom and power can surprise me.  It shouldn’t really, I should expect that close to 100 kids would turn to Him every week of camp, but who expects that when only 400 are there.  God sat me down a couple of times this summer and showed me His majesty.

I love that God allowed me to be a ‘front row joe’ this summer of the most amazing show on earth.

Being in transition couldn’t be more fun at this point.  Going all over Texas, seeing things like lives changing for the best, wounds being healed by The Father.

Anna and I drove out of camp to migrate back to Austin, the wedding was weeks away andwe had yet to find a place to live.  The search party was out and the flashlights had fresh batteries in them.  

We knew what we wanted but couldn’t find it where we were looking.  Finally we broadened our search and found the perfect house nestled sweetly in a cul-de-sac.

We are finally all moved in an we love it.  Tomorrow evening we are having some of the Younglife Leaders over for a little bar-b-que before the Cedar Park football game.

Well then we had a house but who was going to live in it for the time being?  Anna had more friends in Austin so I got the house.  Living in the house with her is so much different than alone, and by different I mean way way better!

We got married, it was incredible, went on our honeymoon, also muy incredible and moved together finally to Cedar Park.

Carolina Creek Update

Thank you so much for praying for us this last week!  I want you to know that your prayers were felt and appreciated! It was an incredible week of proclaiming the Gospel to kids and giving them the best week of their lives.  Our Work Crew and Work Crew Bosses worked long, hard hours, the Head Leaders kept everyone informed and in the right places, our Program Team helped everyone to laugh and have fun and I had the wonderful privilege of verbally sharing the Gospel to 200 middle school friends. In between 55-60 kids went on the New Christian Walk at the end of the week where we give them a Bible and get them started with some basic truths about their new life in Christ!  It was quite a sight and proof positive that God is still calling his kids home!

Ministry Highlight There were many God-sightings and great stories from our first week.  I wish I could relay them all to you.  I pray as you read on you are touched and moved by what our great God is doing in our midst. Michael – pictured to the right - was one of the littlest boys in camp and enjoys fishing.  On night two he had nothing to offer in cabin time on the subject of hurt and pain in our lives. Carlos – pictured below on the left – is a student leader who loves to play basketball, approached him after Cabin Time to ask if there was really nothing painful he had experienced in life. Michael shook his head no and proceeded to gush about how CPS had come and taken him from his mother when he was eight years old. As Michael started to cry he reached out and hugged Carlos. Carlos hugged him back…for an extended period of time. Carlos said he had never hugged anyone like that, not even in his family – which Carlos had just returned to a few weeks before camp.  His Mom had sent him away for fear of Carlos’ safety because he stepped into a physical altercation between her and his Dad three months ago. It was a fabulous week for both young men and little Michael came on the New Christian Walk with us at the close of the week. The contrasts of this story are striking – a little white boy and a black teenager…embracing, one who had been taken from his earthly home was given a heavenly home, a young man with a volatile dad was thoughtful and tender with his camper.  Both of them are walking away from camp with abundant life but soon to enter tough circumstances that will challenge them. Please join me in praying for Michael and Carlos and all of the other kids they represent from camp last week.

Prayer Requests Please pray for: our Work Crew to continue to bond and grow deeper in Jesus and for energy to work at their tasks with excellence and enthusiasm. our Work Crew Bosses to shepherd, exhort, disciple and lead our team of 12 Work crew kids. our Head Leaders to love and encourage the next group of leaders and to keep our camp running smoothly by handling detail after detail. our Program Team to have favor with the kids and for their humor and activities to break down the walls in the campers lives. our YL Property Staff to continue to provide the backdrop for camp to run smoothly and excellently. Camp Speaker/Director to clearly proclaim the Gospel and to lead our team in growing deeper in Jesus and to ensure our campers have the greatest week of their lives. Thank you for partnering with us by praying!!!

All in a weekend…

This weekend Central Texas Young Life met all the YL leaders in our region for an all-region YL leaders retreat. It was such a great opportunity to meet other leaders who have the similar jobs. I was so excited to be heading down to New Braunfels to TbarM sports camp so I popped in a CD that I had made just for the trip and with the sun shining and a newly washed truck made my way south! There is nothing like an open road, a good oldies CD and some great friends to ride with you…

The retreat was great! Kristy one of our Harker Heights leaders got to bring Ella, her newborn girl, Kristy’s husband Jon is a leader as well but he deployed to Iraq for a second tour a few months ago. The camp provided child care for her so that Kristy could relax a little! We had a sports tournament on Saturday afternoon which was really good for Dustin and Will, two of our leaders who are very competitive… We had four ‘clubs’ where Marty who is the director of Younglife in the Southern Hemisphere spoke to us. He told amazing stories about how the ideas of YoungLife are breaking down walls in peoples hearts in third world countries It really helped me understand the importance of what we do here in Killeen.

We have been called, one way or another to grow disciples!

Marty told us that if we could picture and know this statement in our hearts then our lives would be forever changed: Behold God, Beholding You, and smiling! If we can understand that God, the master of all things, beholds us, seemingly insignificant beings, and SMILES! We can Change the world with that kind of empowerment!

All that I ask is that you think about that…God has a purpose for us, he smiles when he thinks of us, the master and creator of all that we know looks at me…smiling!

May we be empowered by Christ today.

What are we singing about?

So last night I had a more intimate group over for campaigners. I text message the kids during the day every time we have club or campaigners…I have unlimited text messages! It is always a great way to remind kids what we are doing, so thats what I do. I send them out to probably 65 kids and usually get 5-10 return messages saying how excited they are or how they are grounded or how they have lacrosse practice tonight so they can or cannot come. Last night I got nothing but messages saying ‘I can’t come.’ I was concerned because the kids that said that are my regulars so I pursued it a little and i think they just couldn’t come for whatever reason. So at 8pm one guy had showed up and we were hanging out for a while until 8:15 came around and 4 guys showed up, the regulars. I was so excited!

We watched the second to last NOOMA video ‘Breathe’, and had a really cool discussion. The video was pretty in depth so we didn’t talk about it too long. We moved on to talking about us. It was a more intimate setting having 5 guys there (instead of the usual 10-15) and I wanted to take advantage of that. We talked about church and why they don’t go, we talked about family and why they dislike living in their homes. We talked about Younglife and why they keep coming back. Life is tough for some of them, broken families, atheistic fathers, a couple of them feel like they are the black sheep amongst their families. It was really hard to hear all of that but I was thanking God rapidly for our conversation. One thing that the guys brought up about church was particularly interesting. They were talking about why they don’t go anymore and Dimitri said, “All I remember about church is walking out into the parking lot thinking I don’t even know what they are singing about.” What an honest comment.

How many people fill the pews of church each week and still cant answer that question?

Family and friends…What are you singing about, do you know? Do you proclaim it? Do you let other people know what you are singing about? Will you claim it today?

As I go into the schools in Killeen I am thankful that I am waking into those schools with you all behind me. Thank you for supporting me in this..

See this as an encouragement for all of us to know what we proclaim!

Club 2/11/08

Club this week went really good as far as logistical stuff goes.  Chris and Dustin did a hilarious walk on and got kids into a farkle game(rock paper scissors).  Johnny came out as Buddy McPhereson one of his classic characters who is the proud owner of ‘Skippy’  the trick tilapia…  if you are thinking about this it is funny, trust me…  Skippy does tricks and through the tricks kids hear about camp, because skippy is going and loves to talk about it!  Johnny talked about the ‘amazingness’ of Christ and how awesome it is that prophetic books like Isaiah told of Jesus so many years before it happened.  So club was awesome, and kids got to hear about Christ and become interested in what He is doing in their own life even though they haven’t been realizing it…

Campaigners 2/6/08

Last night twelve kids came over, that is pretty average for campaigners. The point of it all is to take kids who are interested in the gospel of Christ a little deeper into the reality of the situation.

I love this time, I get to share my heart and speak truth into these kids without them always making a joke out of it. Last night we watched a Rob Bell video called ‘Luggage.’ It talks mainly about forgiveness, how much we need it and that we need to give it out. At the end of the video (15 mins) you get an ending that you don’t expect. The character who we watch while Rob narrates leaves the airport and drives out of the parking lot only to get hit my a dump truck. Its rather morbid but the point is driven home so well.

I turn the TV off and ask my friends what they think and they are bewildered. “What can you say,” one said. Another said, “you definitely cant wait forever…“. I wondered if they were kidding at first and then I saw their conviction, not everyones and not immediately but in a few. You definitely cant wait forever to apologize, to give an apology or to realize God potential. I tried to show them through a story of my own that God is ready to pull them up out of their stuff.  He doesn’t need to you clean up your act before He loves you. He is ready now! Don’t wait forever.

I recognize that its not because of me that the kids come to campaigners but I am joyful because God has used me and the other Younglife leaders in these kids lives. May we continue to be reminded that…

“you definitely cant wait forever…”

Younglife Club 2/4/08

Last night was awesome.  As we wait for kids to show up we hang out in the parking lot behind Texas Boat World.  We threw the frisbee around a little while and as I was looking for the frisbee in the back of the parking lot I realized that there was a car that was on but all the lights were off.  I was startled at first, usually the kids come out of their cars as soon as they get there.  I went up to the window and saw that two girls Emily and Ashley were inside.  I found the frisbee and threw it back to the group but thought I would stay and talk to the girls.  This was a very good decision.  We talked about school and what is going on there and their friends and why they do or don’t come to Younglife.  We had a really nice ten minute conversation and as we were getting ready to start club Emily said,

“I can’t wait to hear the rest of the Love story you started last week Danno.”

There are many reasons I do Younglife but every now and again I need to be reminded that we have an amazing opportunity to usher children to the feet of Jesus.  We get to show kids in many different ways that God is deeply in love with them and wants to wrap his God hands around them and whisper in His God whisper that he LOVES us.  Emily gets it, she is excited to come to club because she sees that Christ loves her, just the way she is.  Every week she brings a friend and loves to stand up front and sing songs at the top of her lungs, she loves to play the games so she can get money off of camp and she is altogether a fun person to be around.

There are many nights that I sit on my back porch after club and think, ‘did anyone get anything out of tonight?’  but I saw last night that the answer is YES!

The night went on and we had lots of fun.  Dustin gave the club talk introducing Jesus showing kids how similar we are with Christ but how different our actions are.  He does a great job of showing kids that he has been in their shoes and kids truly relate to him.  As Dustin told his stories kids were looking at each other in that ‘do you remember when we did that’ face.  So we continue to tell kids how much their God loves them.

Know that kids are hearing the gospel, some for the first time and some for a reminder but all are hearing how much God loves each one of us…

Are you for us?

Welcome!  May we, as Joshua, fall on our face in front of the messengers of the Lord.  Way we proclaim God’s name and continue to ask the question, “Are you for us or for the enemies?”