Ministry and Life... or Life of Ministry.

It has been a while since I have taken time to write to you all on here. I never realized just how much a baby would change our lives. Its a blessing to watch Raylee grow bigger and stronger every day. It has given me a new perspective on life in general. Over the last month I have had a lot of opportunities to talk to people about what I have been up to in ministry, and in life. It got me thinking quite a bit about why we do what we do, and how we ended up where we are. One of the goals that Chelsea and I had when we got married was to serve God wherever he wanted us to serve. At first I saw this as a job that I did which was seperate from my free time. Since I have learned that there is no difference. Part of this includes the fact that my work at camp and at church never really have a start and stop time, but I have also seen that if God's not in our actions and thoughts then I can be serving him completely.

Life at camp has changed... a lot. Victory Bible Camps is a much different place than it was 2 years ago, and I am excited to see God work through every person that is here at camp. We are currently in the middle of a retreat that is an answer to years of prayers. We have had a desire to unite with other groups to put on great winter camps. Tuesday morning we started our retreat titled, "United '11" We are partnering with Anchorage Youth United and Anchorage Youth for Christ for a 4 day 3 night retreat. We have almost 90 campers here with somewhere around 40 staff to help run the retreat. It is so refreshing to see youth workers working together to put together a great retreat for these students.

One example of how great it is to see Victory staff working together happened on Tuesday. We are providing the transportation for this retreat in the effect of 2 of our 3 busses. Matt was driving one of the busses in on Tuesday morning when it broke down right when he arrived in Palmer. Knowing that he was expected to be in town within about an hour he called up to camp to find a solution. Both Ryan, and Jarod jumped on the third bus and hauled it into town allowing Matt to get back on the road. With all the delay and quick responce to the problam Matt was able to arrive to camp only 1 hour late. Later that same day one of the session leaders was on his way up to the retreat and got stuck about 15 miles down the road. He then got a passer-by to pick him up and take him to "Victory". Well the driver ended up going the wrong way eventually dropping him off in Sutton (about 30 miles from camp). It was after everyone had gone home for the day, but Joel and Ryan jumped in a vehicle, drove to Sutton to pick up the leader, drove back to his vehicle, pulled it out, and got the leader and his vehicle back up to camp. This is just a little example of the many ways the staff at Victory are seeing their life in ministry instead of the seperation of ministry (job) and life. It is very reassuring to see this staff growing together.