We had a pretty awesome day today. First of all, it was good to worship at home again. I have been gone way too much from Vernon. My travels have taken me far and wide, seeing some amazing things, yet my bed has been awesome to be in for these last few nights. It is also good to see my church family. I can't believe that I missed them as much as I did. Maybe these ol' Vernon folk are getting to me after all! Anyways, I had a bunch of my high school guys over at my house all afternoon to do a Fantasy Football draft. For those of you who don't know about fantasy football, tough luck cause I am not going to describe it here. It would take 15 years to describe it. Just ask your local sports junkie and I am sure they will be glad to help you out. Anywho, I had 8 guys over at my house to do the draft. We had a blast, even though we had some snags with the draft. We played a bunch of ping-pong, video games, and guitar. Good times at Casa de Robey.
We had a devo over here tonight, which was really cool. Devos tend to be a family affair around here, so I am thankful for that. Not only do the kiddos come, but they bring their folks. So, I had around 40 people going in and out of my house tonight. We had burgers and hot dogs and good times. Our devo time was blessed as well. We had four visitors tonight and I think they were really blessed to be here.
We had one girl show up this morning as a friend of another girl in the church. She comes from a very poor family (so I am told) and has a ton of health problems. She came in this morning and just took our group by suprise(in a really good way). She just talked and talked and fell in love with our kids. Then she came forward during the invitation (remember, it was her first time to be at our church) to ask for prayers for her and her family. That took a ton of courage to do, I think. I really admired that. Then she came tonight to our devo. She couldn't stop talking about how much she appreciated the love that she was shown from our group.
This might happen in everyone's youth group, but for me it was a reminder about how much people really need Jesus. It really reminds me about how much I need him. She came seeking the Father this morning and found him. I pray for follow through with this girl. I want her to become a part of who we are. She was a huge encouragement to us. If you can think about it. Pray for her. Email me if you want specifics.

Needing Jesus more than ever......

Chris

Tonight during our youth time we discussed Jer 29 and 31. We are about to go into a season of reflection and planning in regards to our youth ministry. I have an amazing group of kids, especially for a town this small (about 11,000). I truly believe that I have some future leaders of the church (guys and girls). When I took over this youth ministry a year and a half ago, there were no visible leaders. Now that the kids are a little older and more mature, I want them to take the reigns and be more responsible for the ministry that they are a part of. I feel like I teach them too much and don't let them serve or lead anything themselves. So, next Wednesday night, we are going to go through our strengths and weaknesses as a group and lay it all on the table. We will proccess who we are right now and try to see if that lines up where God wants us to be. We saw in Jeremiah that God has definite plans for His people. Now we want to see what he has in store for us. After we see who we are, we will then set some goals for ourselves for the next year. We want to have some kind of direction, not wandering aimlessly. Hopefully they will see some areas that they will take a hold of and own for themselves. The truth is, I am incapable of serving all of them the way they need to. We need to be a youth ministry, not a youth group. There is a huge difference between the two. I believe that our brotherhood is full of youth groups that don't know how to minister to those around them. I believe that a youth ministry should positively affect anyone it comes in contact with, not only other youth. I want my group to be in the buisiness of ministry, not just being a group. If they want a group they can join one at school. It is a hard thing to sell and even harder to implement, but if we stick to it, I think that our local church will be changed. We will have to see and be patient.

That is my rant for the day. Hope you enjoyed! Have a blessed one.

Chris

I'm finally back from my world travels. I have been gone all summer on youth trips and what do I do when I finally get back? I leave again! I have been in South Carolina for the last week on my vacation. I didn't take a vacation last year after my summer and I almost burned myself out. I am thankful that I did now. I spent the week with my two best friends and their wives. It was exactly what I needed. We spent our time doing a whole lot of nothing. That was what I needed to begin with! We spent some time on the beach, hung out at their house and ate a ton of food. That is the good stuff right there! Now, I am back in west Texas ready to start up again. I am really ready for this fall and all that it will offer. I have some cool stuff on the horizion:

1. I am looking to start grad school at Oklahoma Christian this fall. This is really a last minuite deal that came up out of nowhere, but that tends to be how God works. I will probably only take 3 hrs to start with, but I need to start either way. Pray about that. I am not sure if God has it in store.

2. I am looking to do some changes with our youth program. The only problem is, I don't know what yet. I know my kids have grown to the point where I can push them a bit. I want to add some new elements to the ministry and become more focused. The thing is, I will have to be more focused as well. God has more to reveal about that.

3. I am looking to buy a Jeep. Ok, that might not sound big to you, but I am lookning to buy it as a second car, just one to play around with. If I can find the right deal, I am definitly gonna do it. I just have to keep looking. It has always been a dream of mine to have one and I can finally aford it. Let's just see what happens.

Anywho, the fall has a lot of things in store. I have more to write about it, but I have been traveling all day and I am tired.

Before I go, mad props to Benny and Niki for hanging in there and letting God work to get their financial suppourt raised. Praise Him! I am proud of you guys!

Chris

I am pretty tired right now. I wrote yesterday about the greatness of my "freedom week" yet that didn't last very long. It seems that in ministry, you had better enjoy your good times, cause they won't last very long. I was on my way out to the lake with some of my kids yesterday when I got a call from a mom in Vernon concerning one of my kids who has gotten into a ton of trouble. I really can't go into detail because of confidentiality, but just know that this is really serious stuff. So I had to drop the kids off (and my dog.....apparently he had a great day swimming) and head back to Vernon to deal with the situation. It took about six hours to really get a grasp on things and to formulate a game-plan as to what I was going to do. Tonight, I have to go to my elders for some advice concerning what to do. So, be praying for my youth kid and my elders as we are figuring out how to deal with this.

It is amazing how something like this completly drains you when you are not expecting it. Hopefully I will get some rest tonight. I am supposed to go golfing tomorrow and if I am pulled away from that, I might just quit youth ministry all together. Just kidding. Have a good one.

Chris

Well, I created a blog about two weeks ago thinking it would be cool to post things daily and to let everyone know what is going on in my life. Well, guess what? I left town for two weeks! I am really gonna try to get going with this whole "Blog" thing. But, today it will be a short first post. I am in the middle of my "freedom week" right now. That means that I am working really hard at relaxing really hard. Yesterday, I went out to one of my families lake house and went swimming. This afternoon I am going back there to go water skiing. Then, on Thursday morning I am going golfing with a couple of my kiddos at the country club. Later on in the week I am going fishing with one of my buddies here in Vernon. As if that isn't enough, next week I am flying out to South Carolina to hang out with a buddy of mine for a week. Isn't that awesome? I have been doing nothing but traveling this summer (It has been awesome, don't get me wrong) but I am really tired and worn out. If you are in youth ministry (or have been) you will understand this feeling. So, I am really happy about being able to spend time doing these things.
I guess that what this time reminds me of is that my life should be about doing these things more often. When I go golfing or skiing or playing sports with some of my youth I am investing myself in their lives. I know that some of you reading this probably think that I live a life to have fun on the churches dime. But I ask this question: will a teenager remember some bible lesson that I taught on a random Sunday morning or will they remember the time that I got really mad and threw my golf clubs into the pond(I really didn't do that, but I can see it happening some day). I believe that Jesus was about the lives of his followers. I need to do the same. If I am held up in my office 24\7 I cannot truly know what my kids are going through. For example, last night I had a great converstation about relationships with two of my guys while we were swimming in the middle of the lake. How cool is that? I hope to be about the buisness of these things more and more in my life.

Ok, that wasn't short at all! Maybe I AM built for this blog thing. God help me! Peace out.

Chris