"Let no one despise your youth" or "Let no one look down on you because you are young" or how about this one, "Don't let anyone put you done because you're young". These are all the same verse said a little bit differently in various versions. They're all take from 1 Timothy 4:12. If you grew up in church, then you heard this verse over and over. Paul, writing to his "own son in the faith", giving him instructions as a young pastor says these words. Many times, when I heard this verse, I focused on the part that I just quoted. I would have thoughts like, "Yeah, I need to show the old people what's up!" and "The adults don't respect us/me and they don't serve and witness the way we do, so we need to show them up and light a fire under them to get on board!" I know, I know. I was a punk.

But here's the thing that missed. In verse 10, it says "For it is this we labor and strive, because we have fixed our hope on the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of believers." Notice the first part there says "we labor and strive". You know what word doesn't come to mind when I hear the words "labor and strive?" EASY. This verse is saying that this thing of following Jesus is a big deal. It's such a big deal that it's going to take alot of work. We're going to have to fight. We're going to have to push ourselves to the limit and then some! We're going to have to STRIVE!

And how do we do that? Well, after Paul told Timothy to not let anyone look down on him because of his young age, he tells him, "but rather in speech, conduct, love, faith, and purity, show yourself an example to those who believe." I think many times we miss the point of the first part of the verse and take the not allowing anyone to look down on us part and have it say that now I'm going to take the back seat anymore! I'm going to lead all these old people and if they don't like it, they can find someone else! Instead we need to take it as, "If I want to make a difference, if I want to be heard, then I need to show myself as a true follower of Jesus."

I need to be an example with the words that I say (to others and about others), the things that I do (and that includes my attitude), in love (putting others first), and purity (of thought, mind, and actions). You might be sitting here thinking, well, I'm just not there yet. This may or not be true for you, but we should all be striving toward this. It's not about what others expect of us; it's what God desires for us, and He tells us that you and I are now a child of the King! Let's begin acting like it! You can do this! It's what God has made you for! Not just to be young and accepted, but set the standard of following Christ in your church! Have a great day!

Ron Foster
Mariners' Church

"I'm proud of you." If you've never heard those words before, then I know that you are longing for someone to say it to you. If someone has said that to you, then you know what I'm talking about when I relate the feelings that come along with hearing that phrase.

We set out on Friday morning with similar purpose as the days before. This was the smallest group we would be bringing. On Wednesday and Thursday we had nine people and this day we had only 5. Ryan had been the first two days with myself, and Amy (one of our newest leaders) had come on Thursday, and the other two guys Brian and Chris were new.

We arrived and almost immediately it was different. It was different because we were greeted by my friend Keith (who I'll blog about tomorrow). He asked if we would want Carlton to share his story with us. I didn't know Carlton, but I'm always game for hearing someone's story. We sat in a private room and heard an amazing story from Carlton and his life journey from being picked on and rejected as a kid to seeking acceptance as a teenager and college student to eventually becoming an addict to cocaine, and then his amazing recovery.

We then went downstairs to serve lunch to the residents and then to the public. With only having five people, some of us had double duty on serving, but everyone was fed, so it was all good! After lunch we helped stock their shelves that people are allowed to take 2 or 3 items from. When this was over we had Emily (the public relations coordinator) give our group a tour of the house since we didn't get to do it the day before.

After the tour we headed over the warehouse and once again bagged clothes, sorted shoes, and separated belts and bags! There was a large pile already being worked on by three of the residents of the mission and they looked relieved when we walked in. Just as we were making a dent, another truck arrived and the dumped alot more clothes into the pile! Some of our students were clearly getting tired so I just said "Ask God for some extra strength". I guess I kind of said that because I just wanted to take away any excuses to work, but a few of them did ask God for some extra help, and they told me that God did give them energy to finish! And we finished all of the clothes that were set before us!

We made our way back to the Mission, ate with the residents, said our goodbye's and came home. What a great experience we all had. It was different each day, and God moved in our students differently each day. Thanks to all of you who were praying and keeping us on the forefront of your minds! Have a great day!

Ron Foster

We set out once again for the Frederick Rescue Mission on Thursday morning. From the beginning, it just seemed different than Wednesday. For one, it was all new people except one that we would be bringing. Then when we got in our cars, one of them wouldn't start right away. We waited for about 10 minutes to be able to leave.

The first thing we did upon arrival was serve the meals. Our students jumped right in there with smiles, talking with everyone coming through and good attitudes all around! After serving the meals, and then eating ourselves, we stocked the shelves of the pantry. That went pretty quick. We headed from there over to the warehouse to bag clothes (just like yesterday). We had a little more time than the day before, but it seemed like there weren't as many clothes to bag. We were done within an hour (with 2 more hours we could have been there). Just as we finish a truckload of more clothes arrives. We were actually excited to see all the clothes so we would have some more work to do! We mowed through the clothes and bagged up everything that came in, with a half hour to spare!

We headed from there back to the mission to serve dinner to the residents. We got there and the cook (Scott) told us that there was only 2 items really to serve and that they were all impressed with how we worked in the warehouse, so they wanted us to just eat with them, and we did. It was a hard working day followed by a good meal with the residents of the mission.

This has been a great experience for our students as they get out of their comfort zone a little bit, and put others needs before their own. Continue to pray for us as we head out again on Friday with a different group! Have a great day!

Ron Foster

This morning a handful of us set out from the church to Frederick, Maryland. It seemed like an unlikely place to be heading to serve meals to the homeless and recovering addicts, but away we went. After getting oriented with the facility (the former Frederick County Prison dating back to the late 1800's), we began stocking the pantry shelves with lots of baked items such as cakes, loaves of bread, pies, potato chips, and cookies. Almost every shelf was filled. There was so much food! This was going to be food that as those receiving meals would come in, they would be allowed to pick several items from the shelves to take with them as they left. I couldn't imagine that much of it would get taken, but we stocked them full just the same.

We began serving meals to the approximately 25 residents of the mission, and then we opened the doors to feed the homeless. The numbers were staggering. They kept coming and coming. They told us that there were between 150 to 200 people that came through! When it was all over, we walked down the pantry aisle that we had stocked so full and to our shock, discovered that it was vacant of most of the food we had just put on these shelves. I mean, they were bare!

We headed to the Mission's warehouse after lunch to help bag and sort clothes. We made our way through piles of clothes and were able to finish up all of the clothes that were there for that day. It gave our students a real sense of accomplishment to be able to finish out all of the clothes in there. To close the day we headed back to the mission and served dinner to the residents. Needless to say, our students were wiped out on the way home, but the experiences and conversations they had today were priceless. I can't wait to bring the new crew of students in the morning to allow them to experience it all over again! Keep praying for us this week!

Ron Foster

So we had a full day on Thursday! After our morning game times, devotions with each other, morning service, and lunch we started getting ready for the day. Some of the group headed out for some paintball (the whole group originally was going to go, but then got scared when they realized they might get shot) and the rest of the group started prepping for our flour fight! That's right, I said flour fight. In case you don't know, a flour fight is when everyone gets soaked, then gets their own bag of flour. We say go, and it's every man for himself reaching in the bag pulling out heaps of flour and throwing it at everyone else. Don't worry, I captured alot of this on tape, so you'll get to see some of it.

After dinner we got ready for the evening service which was very powerful and went an incredible 4 hours! Our students were ready to keep singing at the end even! It just goes to show you that teenagers will listen and participate! We had a great time as a church sharing decisions and burdens. For some of these students, they were able to get some stuff off of their chest that had been burdening them for years and hadn't spoken out loud. What a great thing to share the load of your burdens with Jesus and with other Christians!

After our car ride home, we made it safe. This camp proved to be what we hoped it would...a catalyst for our students to begin taking their relationship with God for real! Now they're ready to put it into practice! Let's make sure as a church to come alongside of them and help them along with their journey! Thanks for praying! Thanks for supporting!

Ron Foster

Did I forget to mention that our group is HILARIOUS? So, at camp we have different teams for spirit points. They are simply broken up by color. Churches will typically come with lots of clothes and things to go along with their color for spirit. Our kids? Oh no. They have to take that one step further. A couple of days before camp, most of them gathered at my house to come up with some special themes that they would dress like during camp. Monday night they had a black out night because we had made shirts that were black so they just said let's make all of our clothes, black. Ok, I get that. But then Tuesday night they decided to make that "Formal" night. Yeah, formal night. Like I'm going to a sweet 16 party or prom! So we had our kids decked out on Tuesday night. Everyone thought it was great! But then last night, we topped it. Our kids had decided to make it Cowboys and Indians night! Yeah. So we had a whole lot of cowboys and cowgirls and one Indian (Maureen). The rest of camp was basically saying, "why didn't we think of that?" Our kids are awesome!

Last night was a very challenging, but needed message. Our speaker spoke that if we are saturating ourselves with God and His Word and in communication with Him in prayer, then we won't need any gimicks or motivation to go and tell people about Jesus. Telling people about Jesus will just start coming out of us because we've been filled up with Him, and now it is overflowing. Our students were really challenged with this as was I, and plan on coming back and challenging the rest of our church with this. What a great night! I hope you'll tune in with us at 10am and 7pm today at www.liftstudentministries.com to watch us live!

Ron Foster

Last night the service was amazing! I got some texts from some of our church members telling me they were watching online! That's pretty cool! The topic was RUN using Jonah as an example. We looked at it from a different perspective than normal, not focusing on the great fish, but rather on Jonah himself and how he was running from God, but could never outrun God. We had two from our group that prayed to receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior and stop running from God!

When the service was over, we went to do some serious roller skating. All I gotta say is that a 32 year old youth pastor, a 31 year old intern, and a (we don't know the age and we're not asking) southern belle outlasted ALL of our teenagers out on the rink! I mean, seriously, come on. How are these teenagers gonna let us show them up like that?

It's been a great Wednesday so far. Service and our group times were good. We've had kind of a lazy afternoon, hitting up some swimming and then relaxation with the rain and thunderstorms on us. I can't wait to see what God wants to do tonight! It's gonna be great! Make sure to watch us online at www.liftstudentministries.com at 7pm tonight!

Ron Foster

So far we've had an adventure filled day! Let's see, we got up bright and early to head to breakfast followed immediately by what we call "Morning Fun" time. For this, the camp gathers in the auditorium to scream and shout for their teams, and win points for their teams by doing stupid, funny games. What's great about that is that I get to run the games! We had students squirting alka-seltzer tablets that were taped to each other's foreheads, scream to see who could get the loudest decibals, peel a banana with their feet and then eat the banana, eat a blowpop as fast as they can and blow a bubble, blow up a balloon until it pops with their nose, and some fun racing games around the auditorium!

Devon was our balloon guy and almost had it blown up, but then he dropped it and lost the lead. Kenneth ended up eating the banana.

Our speaker, Aaron Cavin is doing a great job. You know, it's funny. Aaron and I were in college together, and I never thought he was really going to make it in ministry, but he has been doing an incredible job, and God is using him so much to make an impact on our students!

We hit lunch, then had a team for volleyball. They fought a good fight, but fell in defeat in the end. It was all good though, because there was makeshirft waterslide on campus. We got muddy and wet. It was great! Maureen, Hailey, Eric, Devon, Will and I sure were a mess when leaving that place! In the mean time, the rest of the group made use of the movie room eating popcorn and having fun. We're now relaxing a little bit before dinner, then service, and some roller skating tonight! Make sure to watch us online at www.liftstudentministries.com at 7pm tonight! We're having a great time! Talk to you later!

Ron Foster