Spread your wings...

Youth ministry is our way of life. For the most part, relationship building comes naturally to both Aaron and myself. That's not to say its easy, by any stretch of the imagination, but it does make things easi-er. There are several hard things about youth ministry, but one of the hardest for me is letting go. One of our priorities of our ministry is that when our students leave (and by leave, I mean just move on from) our ministry, they are daily persuing a relationship with Christ, know how to share their faith, and are equipped to GO! and make disciples.
Granted, I have yet to send one of my own children even off to Mother's Day out or preschool, but I've sent dozens out from under our ministry into the great unknown. The hardest thing? allowing them to do what we have hopefully assisted their parents to teach them. How do you let go of someone that you have poured your life into? Several, for some strange reason, have allowed us to speak into their lives. Some of them have spent countless hours in our home and seeking us out as mentors. What a blessing it has been to have them as part of our lives!

Its August. Its a new school year and some of those who just graduated under our ministry are leaving home for the first time or are returning to college. That's hard for me. Its hard to be in our LifeGroups and not see the familiar faces I am used to. I'm sure their parents feel the same way (even more so, obviously), but its hard for me, too.
The good news? We, too, have a whole new set of students to pour into. I'm so thankful for the opportunity the Lord has given our family to invest in our students and their families. It is a true honor and privelege for us. Hopefully, there will be many many more students that give us the opportunity to speak into their lives as well.

Busy Bees

Once again, I'm playing catch-up. So much has happened since my last post, I'll try to keep everything brief.
- We had several more house guests including Aaron's two youngest brothers and his mom.
- We had a great week at Super Summer Bible School where Aaron and I were crew leaders for the upcoming 7th graders (who are now in the youth group). It was a great week and a wonderful time for them to start to get to know us and vice versa.
- We celebrated July 4th with our best friends and had a wonderful evening.

- Two of our good friends were united in marriage on July 9. Aaron had the privelege of performing the ceremony and Desmond and our niece, Kiersten, were the ring bearer and flower girl. It was a wonderful celebration of Tonya and Carter and Kiersten and Desmond did a wonderful job walking down the aisle.

Aren't they A-DOR-A-BLE?

Desmond with his candy!

The Pontious Family

As soon as Desmond turned the corner and saw me, he yelled "Hey mom, where's my candy?" He was rewarded BIG time!
- We went to the National Association of Free Will Baptists in Charlotte, North Carolina. We saw our TDF kids compete, our brother-in-law speak at the National Youth Conference, lots of friends from high school and college. At the awards assembly, we were caught off-guard when they announced the "youth leaders of the year" award. They began the list of things "they" do (as described in the application letter from teens/parents/churches,etc.) and my honest to goodness thought was "I'm so glad someone's doing those things!" As they proceeded to describe these people with phrases like "they are always there when we need them," "they are always available to counsel," "they invest their lives in their students," "their home is just an extension of their ministry," "they have taken the opportunity to feed a high school football team nearby," and "they even have a student living with them." I was finally clued in to the fact that someone had nominated Aaron and myself. I could not believe it! It was an AMAZING HONOR and we were so grateful to receive such an award. That's not why we do what we do, but it was nice to know that we are appreciated. It meant a lot, but come to find out, our students are the ones who nominated us. That meant SO MUCH MORE!

- We went to meet our new niece, Rachel, on the way home from Charlotte and dropped Desmond off with Aaron's mom in Bristol.

- Desmond stayed with Aaron's mom for a couple of weeks while we were at camp in Panama City, Florida. They all had a blast and Desmond was spoiled to pieces.

- Meanwhile at camp, one of our young boys gave his heart to the Lord! Several other students made life-changing decisions. It was an incredible week of camp!

Lincoln thoroughly enjoyed the beach and being spoiled by 75 people!

- We got back from camp and all other travels and finally settled day for a little bit. Clifford is still living with us and we are loving having him as part of our family. He's such a huge help. He will be going to Tennessee State University studying Agriculture Science in a couple of weeks.

- Lincoln is now 7 months and is CRAWLING and pulling up already! WOWSERS! That flew by. He's getting so big and is such a people-person. He LOVES to be the center of attention, and is not lacking in the love department.

- Desmond is 2 1/2 and potty trained. He's doing really really well....with the exception of #2 sometimes. He is conversational like never before and picks up on so much that we don't even realize. His new love is bowling. He loves it!

We had quite a busy summer, so I just covered a FEW of the highlights. I'll honestly try to take more time this fall to catch you up on other things. We are so blessed!!! Thanks for reading...