Smoke

Just wanted to give everyone a quick update from this past weekends DNOW. We had a great weekend! Our theme was "SMOKE". The idea was that in scripture, where you find smoke, you find fire and where there is fire there is God. And the speakers talked about 'The Power of God', 'The Presence of God', 'The Provision of God', and 'The Priority of God'. The messages were powerful and I am confident that each student experienced some level of encouragement and conviction throughout the weekend. I know I certainly did. I encourage you parents to ask them about those sessions and what they learned and what the experienced from God.

I also wanted to let you all know about some ministry opportunities that the students were involved in. As a planning team we wanted to use this gathering of 25 churches and over 1500 students in our county to do more than just receive something from God. We wanted to leverage those numbers for ministry to our community and to the world, and we chose to do that by partnering with two organizations that are ministering in our world today. One partner was the Real Life Center in Tyrone. We collected hundreds of canned goods to be distributed by The Real Life Center to families in need in Fayette County. The other organization that we partnered with was charity:water which is an organization that is building wells in parts of the world where people have no access to clean drinking water. The students had the opportunity to learn that more than 1 billion people in the world today do not have access to clean drinking water. One of the cool things about this organization is that 100% of the money that is given to them goes towards building wells. Not one cent is set aside for administrative needs or other purposes. The students at DNOW gave $5796 to go to charity water thus far. It takes $5000 to build one well that will supply water for 400 people for the next 20 years. You all can still give towards this event and cause by going to charitywater.org/dnow. You can also go here to get updates and see where the money is being used.
I of course have to thank the many people who were involved in making this weekend possible for our students. Thanks to our host homes...Rick and Valerie Ellis, Sonya Moste, and Tracy Davidson. Thank you to those who provided meals...Connie Huddleston, Joyce Kendrick, Elizabeth Highsmith, Melissa Nelms, Audrey Warr, Michelle Goergen and probably some others that I have forgotten (I am very sorry). And a special thanks to those who helped to lead small groups... Brittany Rampy, Matt Herget, Lindy Woodruff, and Kelli Bailey. These guys all did a great job with our students!