AUGUST NEWS AND UPDATES
What a whirlwind of a month! I can’t believe that August is already gone and we are into September 2 days now. Let me take a few minutes and catch you up on what the end of the summer has been like.
The German Team at Fernbank Museum
It wasn’t long after George Camp in Miami ended that we traveled back to meet the German team traveling back from Montgomery, AL. Vision 2 Hear and New Vision Church were hosting the team of 13 from Germany for about 9 days. In that time with the mission team, we attended a Braves game, the Aquarium, Coco-Cola Factory, Fernbank Museum, among many other adventures. It was an awesome experience to host these students from Germany, develop some new relationships and hopefully open a door for a future trip there in the next year or two. For more information on the German Team and all they did, read this link: German Team
Saying good-bye to Jan-Niklas
It was with much sadness that as the German Team left, so did our German Intern, Jan-Niklas Schmidt. Jan-Niklas served as an intern for close to 6 months, traveling with me and working with our church in the band and youth ministry. He did a great job I must say! He was a great worker and huge asset, helping drive sometimes, performing in sign at different venues and just being a friend to kids and students wherever we went. Jan-Niklas was a blessing to have with us for the season and now he is back in Germany, preparing for his schooling which begins soon. To read more about Jan-Niklas and his time with V2H, check out his blog here: Becoming Jan-Niklas
Within a couple of days of Jan leaving, I traveled with three others to Dallas, Texas for a wedding ceremony. A former Intern, Nick Poole, got married on August 10. Nick had spent a year in Germany (which is how we got hooked up with the German team and Jan-Niklas in the first place) putting together baseball camps. He has done several camps now there.
Nick used to live in Snellville, GA and was among the first to be traveling with me as an intern. He started signing through his church ministry called Power Signs and went on to do a lot of work with George Camps, the Nigeria mission project and other performances throughout the US. Nick left V2H and graduated from Liberty University with a degree in Youth Ministry. He’s always been a good friend of the ministry and like a brother to me and I am very happy for and proud of him. We had a great time at the wedding for he and Maribeth Gillis and I wish them the very best for their new lives together. For more pics and info on their wedding, check out this page: Nick’s wedding
It was a week later that another former intern, Shane Vicry of TN got married. As many of you may know, Shane traveled with George for about a year and was the one that we officially started the intern program with. Nick had been doing all of these things previous to Shane but Shane was the first “outsider” that stepped into the program. As with all of my interns, we had lots of fun, too many stories to share, and meaningful times together.
Since leaving V2H, Shane graduated from Bryan College and worked as a car salesman in TN. He and his new wife were married on August 17th. I wish them both the very best as they relocate to Washington DC for Maddie to go to law school…are they crazy??? I’m sure they will do just fine! For more on their wedding check out this page: Shane’s Wedding
A few days after the Shane’s wedding, I left for NC. My mom was in the process of purchasing a new home. For the last few months, we have been house hunting as she is ready to make a move into a newer, more stable home. With all my travels, I have only been able to look online, so it was imperative that I go look at this place before the closing on August 25.
The Korean church and WAVE Team
While in town, I met with the youth group at the Korean church, worked on a couple of new songs with them, prepared them for the Parkview performance and spoke at Sunday service for the Korean congregation. As I already noted in another post, we launched a new WAVE team and had a great time of ministry at the Parkview choir worship night.
Upon reviewing all the info, seeing the house firsthand and of course praying, with great gratitude, Mom closed on the house on August 25 at 10am with no issues. Now she has a great place to live, host her small group Bible study and fix tons of Korean food! Over the next few months she will move out of the old home and we will make decisions around the first of the year as to what to do with that place. Thanks for your prayers for her and us as we continue to transition her to a new life and new home.
Upcoming Events
With school back in session, life takes on new and different work. I am still serving at New Vision Church but no longer as youth pastor. I resigned that position back in May so as to allow the church to have a regular person that could meet with students regularly. I am now serving as the creative arts/mission pastor. I am grateful to my pastor, Alan Parker and the church for their continued support of me and the work I do with Vision 2 Hear.
I am leaving this Sunday for a two week stay in Miami, where I’ll be the worship leader and key speaker for three schools as they host their Spiritual Emphasis weeks. The first week will be with Christ Fellowship Academy in Palmetto Bay and the second week, I’ll be speaking and leading at King’s Christian school in the morning and Miami Christian in the afternoon. On the weekend in between, I’ll be at my good friend, Phil Underwood’s church in the Keys. Trevor and I will be performing in their evening service.
Jorge Serves in Iceland
Regrettably, we are canceling the 14-4-14 effort. There has been so much going on with V2H in the states and with Jorge in Iceland, Romania, and El Salvador, that we have not been able to get things together to bring a group of this size together to get them here in December. Jorge has been traveling abroad for 6 months and most recently interviewed for a job here in the states in Woodstock, GA. It’s very possible that he may get the job and of course, that has also given us reason to not push to try and make 14-4-14 happen; just so much change going on.
But with that, Trevor Jenkins (the newest intern) and I, along with a couple people from my church are heading to Nicaragua on October 18-the 27th. Jorge will meet us there to lead some leadership workshops and work on helping in the village of Padre Ramos. Then Jorge, Trevor and I will take the bus back to El Salvador and be there from the 27-November 4. In ES, we will do some of the same leadership training for our WAVE Team there and work with my friend Mario and help him with his church plant.
Then just after Thanksgiving, it looks like I will be joining a couple of guys from my church to lead a team to India. We will possibly be gone from November 29- December 11. While there we will be working with an orphanage that my church sponsors, traveling to several churches planted by our friend Pastor Rajendra, and speaking numerous times in those churches.
Please keep me in your prayers as I seek to stay connected to all of our teams, coordinate these trips and minister in the various ways God is opening up for me. If you would like to help contribute toward the expenses of these mission projects and make a donation, anything you can give will be a huge help! Costs for NICA/ES will be about $1000 more to cover me and Trevor and India will be about $2000. If you’d like to make a donation, you can do so online by following this link: donate
Thanks so much! I’ll keep you posted as things move along with V2H!
New Vision Church will host the V2H WAVE Conference this year October 3-5. Cost is $25.
We just performed a week ago at Parkview again for the annual worship night. The team performed Lay Me Down and Jesus Paid It All. The response was even better this year than last year! Seeing that the kids were interested in really learning more and being willing to work, I approached Noah Tucker, a sophomore at Croatan High School to see if he would be willing to lead the team for weekly practices. He jumped at the opportunity.
