Hello everyone!  It is Sunday afternoon and we just returned from our service project.  The group is getting cleaned up for supper and for our evening activities so I am taking this chance to update. 

First Word began an hour today earlier at 8am to the chagrin of the kids.  The theme for today was service.  We talked about service and then participated in a service project this afternoon(more on that later).  After first word we went to the convention center for worship.  We had some great praise and worship and I finally found some decent coffee (whoo hoo!).  After our large group time we broke into our smaller groups for more discussion on missional youth ministry.  Our leader read Exodus 3 where Moses encounters the burning bush.  Here we learned about some common excuses used to avoid leadership.  Some of us say things like:  I am not good enough, I am not smart enough, I don’t know enough about God, what if people do not listen, etc.  But through all these excuses (all excuses Moses uses) God is with us; no one is good enough, no one knows enough about God.  What a powerful message.  I hope the kids took something home from this.  They had better because I am going to be asking them to be leaders in Wednesday Night Live (our Sunday school program on Wednesdays).  Just try to use an excuse with me now 🙂

After lunch we loaded our bus for a 20 minute ride to one of the parks in Nashville.  We were told it is the second biggest park in the country.  We split up and picked up garbage for about 1 hour and 45 minutes.  We loaded the bus and came back.  Right now we are waiting to meet for supper.  There is a small cafe across the street that has burgers and pizza.  That wins for tonight.  Tomorrow night the kids want to go the Hard Rock Cafe so I guess that is the plan.

Tonight we head to this place called Rocket Town for a concert by Bethany Dillon.  This will be a fun time and I am sure the kids will enjoy this.  Following the concert there will be some house bands from churches around the country.  We should be back at a reasonable time so hopefully I can update later on. 

Take care and I will be back later.  God bless! -EDH-