Happy 4th to you! For those of you who served in the military of our great country, THANK YOU for being willing to put your life in jeopardy so the rest of the country could pursue life, liberty, and happiness!

AN UPDATE to let you know we had a good week at Youth Camp in June 24-28, near Hillsdale, WY, which is about 30 miles east of Cheyenne, where coal trains crisscross the grassy plains every 20 minutes or so, blasting their brassy horns at the RR crossing which is about 200 yards from the conference center. It was surprising how accustomed we all grew to the noise of those iron beasts. I personally liked falling to sleep each night to their rumbling, creaking, and musical horns….

There were several kids that made professions for Christ, and other decisions as well. The preaching sessions had strong emphasis on Scripture–as opposed to “storytelling” to play on kids’ emotions. Pastor David Jones from the Atwood Baptist Church of Atwood, KS, challenged George and me as well with his morning and evening messages.

Besides doing the music, we also did some teaching. George presented the devotions each morning, and then we each taught “Break Out Sessions” on the requested topics of “Prayer” and “Dating.” I taught the girls and George the guys. Both topics were a unique challenge considering that many of the kids do not come from Christian homes and not all go to church on a regular basis.

On the dating issue George zeroed in on “purity”. I wish I could have cloned myself and listened in. He always comes up with good stuff, and manages to throw in some humor besides.

I challenged the girls to “Kiss dating goodbye” stating that the Bible doesn’t say a word about it. (Joshua Harris wrote a book several years ago with that title.) A gal said, but I’m already dating and I like the guy. That’s when the fun began.

I challenged the girls to focus INSTEAD on developing the abilities God has given them so they will have skills to enrich their marriage once “God gives them” a husband–I suppose that went over real
big–wait on God to give them a husband??!! Ah!! How absurd is that!!! (I said I thought it was pretty cool how God gave Eve to Adam, and Rebekah to Isaac!) Any chance He could bring a guy to you gals? Sounds like a pretty neat thing to PRAY about in my opinion.

I encouraged them to pursue medicine, teaching, business degrees, music, arts, homemaking skills based on Proverbs 31, etc., and also to consider going to the mission fields with those talents and help orphans, other missionaries, etc. Since each session was only a half hour, we really had to pack in the info fast, and still leave room for interaction. How I wish we had more time with those precious teens!!

Music wise, the kids sang really well by the second day. We taught them 2 Matt Redman songs: Blessed Be The Name and You Never Let Go. They also loved singing Hide Me Behind Your Cross (by our daughter Sarah Kelly), Psalm 19:14–”Let the words of my mouth” Psalm 40:16 “Let all those that seek Thee” (all 3 are on our Show Me The Way CD) and I Cor 10:31 “Whatsoever you do in word or deed…” and I John 1:5-7 “God is Light and in Him is no darkness at all…” (The latter 2 we hope to record soon.)

We grinned at how well they sang “Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise” and “I Sing The Mighty Power of God, ” “Nothing But The Blood of Jesus.” Musically, we put a fresh twist on these old hymns. We know the SUBSTANCE of this music will “sneak up” on these kids someday when they least expect it. God promises to bless His Word!

Today we received an encouraging email that kind of echoes the previous couple of sentences:
“You don’t know us. We saw you at Montrose Bible Conf, in Montrose PA a couple of years ago. Your music still touches us today. Quoting scripture in music is priceless and lasts a lifetime. Thank you for having a website and God bless you hugely.” JB & JG

We are still amazed that the LORD continues to use us in His service. What a great and mighty God we serve! HOW GREAT? Isaiah 40:12, 26 are just two of many examples:

“Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance?”

“Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number: He calleth them all by names by the greatness of His might, for that He is strong in power; not one faileth.” (I can’t imagine trying to give individual names to billions of stars.)

Yet, this great God commended His love to us while we were yet sinners and came and died for our sins. Now that is amazing grace…(my paraphrase of Romans 5:8)