It’s August?
You have got to be kidding… I can’t believe it is August!
The last 3 weeks have screamed by so fast but yet so much has happened in those 3 weeks… here is a quick look back while I can still remember it all!
Sunday July 24 was a great day. We had our new friend Charlie Mitchell speak at all 3 gatherings as we officially kicked off our Summer Jam week. Charlie and his wife Erin came u to Buffalo to hang out with us for a few days. They live in the Harlem Heights area of Ft Myers. He is a returner into that neighborhood where he grew up and now knows that God has called him to launch a new Community of Faith in area that has been under resourced and under served and under loved for to long. I know God is going to use them and work through them in an awesome way!
We had the crew from Scottshill Baptist Church roll in Saturday evening and then worshiped with us on Sunday… there worship team hooked up with Nick and led us in great worship! It was really hot in the aud that day but the worship was part of the reason!
We had 3 other churches join us for Summer Jam as we went multi-campus for the fist time. We worked with Prince of Peace and Ephesus Ministries all week long doing SJ programming on their campus each day. It was awesome to see the growth each day!
While all of that was happening my grandmother Viola Burrow passed away which was my mom’s mom. She lived in Commerce OK. So Jonathan (my brother) and I flew out on Sunday evening in order to get to the funeral on Monday. It was quite the ordeal but we finally made it to Commerce/Miami OK around 4.00 am caught a couple of hour of sleep and then went to the lunch and then the funeral service. I was so glad we went… it was definitely worth it. My grandmother was an awesome lady, very nurturing and loving. She was one to always have a good word about everybody… if you can’t say something nice then no need to say anything was her motto to all of us grandkids. She was a special lady and I have great memories of her and my grandfather who passed away when I was in HS.
Jon and I flew back and landed in Buffalo about 1:00 am so we were a little tired but ready for Sumer Jam.
We missed the first day of SJ but it went off great without us!
Summer Jam this year was the best yet in so many ways.
We served 500 dinners on Monday and then served over 600 each night after that…
When you add another 200 volunteers to that number you can imagine how packed the Aud was each night for our SJ program!
It was packed to the back and I must say hotter the you know what! I don’t know if I have ever been in a place that hot, smelly and packed all at once (we do not have AC in the aud yet) but it was awesome for sure!
The breakouts at every age were incredible to see… from babies to adults we had some great times learning about DETERMINATION!
We wrapped up SJ with a great Thursday where Joshua did a great job of presenting the good news of Jesus Christ to a packed (and sweaty) room. We pray that the Gospel planted that week will grow over the weeks and months to come.
Everybody headed back to NC and we got ready for Bless Back Sunday.
And what a great day it was. Nearly 300 people showed up to apply their hearts and their hands in loving our city through 12 different projects! From street clean-ups to helping the Delaware YMCA to helping the QUEEN CIty Farm to Jericho Road to planting on our campus and other projects it was a great day! We all came back and had a great picnic together.
Then on Monday some of us packed up the trailer and set up camp at Kingdom Bound for our students. We had a great time (though a little wet) hanging with students and leaders for a couple of days… though I must admit I went home and slept in my bed Tuesday night! A guy can only handle so much fun! We packed everything up after a 2 hour down-pour which soaked everything from food to clothes…
So there you go… looking forward to August as we celebrate together under a 700 seat tent each Sunday in August at 10.00 am. It will be great to gather everybody at one time for four weeks as we finish up the summer!
