Recap of SummerJam
The week started to snowball and it was sun-up to sundown and beyond so I wasn’t able to keep up with updates so I thought I would capture some of the moments while they are still fresh in my heart and mind.
Wednesday morning found us hitting the streets of the Westside early as we met the Mayor for one his weekly “Clean-Sweeps.” This happens every Wednesday morning somewhere in our city. There will be 21 of these during the year… it is incredible to see all of the city agencies coming together in a concentrated place to “clean-sweep” the area.
We started at 15th and New Hampshire pulling out all trash and various items to the curb or in bags… the entire SJ team worked with great enthusiasm mixed with hard earned sweat! We swept all the way up to 19th street then over to Massuchssetts up about 6 blocks then back to where we started. 4 hours of hard, dirty, nasty, smelly work that most of us adults would never out our hand toward… it was inspiring to see!
We then took them to LaSalle Park on the water and had lunch… great spot.
We headed back to Renovation… took a quick break and then got ready for SJ.
It started raining about 4.30… would anybody come?
We had 68 new people come that night – in the rain… teenagers walking in the rain to come to SJ!
We ended up having a great night even though our numbers were down the energy was up… we had at total of 270!
Thursday morning was a beautiful and after we gathered for our morning devos the crew got after it in a ridiculous way!
I have never seen a group work as hard this group did… especially on the final day! We finished painting all over the campus… we put some beautiful flowers and plants in out front… trees were taken down… stumps grounded down… things fixed… new tolliets installed… then everybody made a last dash effort to clean everything up to get ready for the final night of SJ.
It was very cool to have Pastor Phil fly in from NC… the pastor of Scottshill Baptist Church to celebrate the last night with all of the students… the kids loved it when he walked in during their afternoon Prep/Pep Talk!
We then got ready to rumble and rumble we did… we had 150 NEW people register on the final night!
The energy and excitement were off the hook! Crazy to see kids, teenagers yelling and screaming, running into the auditorium excited to be in a “church building” for crying out loud!
We had over 430 the last night.
Had over 600 different people register for SJ during the week.
I gave a simple Gospel presentation… I led them in a simple prayer to God if they wanted to begin a personal relationship with Him and if they wanted to receive the gift that His Son has offered to every man, woman and child…
It was pretty cool (awesome) to hear hundreds in unison pray out loud with me… only God knows what was started in the hearts and minds of men, women, boys, girls… that is His business…
I do know that we over 600 decisions this week… over 600 people decided to walk onto our campus (that God has so graciously given to us) to eat, laugh, talk, watch, think, listen, sing… what a week!
I told Jon (one of the greatest leaders I know… not just because he is my bro but because of what has done and is doing with some 400 students) and his students from Scottshill last night before they went to bed in order to get up at 4.30 AM to drive back to NC… how much I and all of us at Renovation appreciated their incredible investment in us. They got a years worth of work done in a year… they did it everyday – all day with out a complaint but with great passion and attention to detail… we will not ever be the same because of them – not so much of what they did with their hands but what they did with their hearts!
On top of all they did physically… they also invested over $10,000 to put on SummerJam… bought us a new industrial strength ice-maker and so much more…
Renovation we have much to be thankful for!
What will we do with the investment… keep it for ourselves… my hope and prayer will be to receive, be grateful and then get ready to do the same for others as it has been done for us…
Can’t wait to go to Renovation in the morning to see who shows up… I know God will meet all of us there… I am praying that some of our new friends will meet us there also!
